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and a few of the pumped hydro facilities are only designed to consume power to use up extra baseload power when the supply is expected to outstrip demand. That
by caf 10y ago
and a few of the pumped hydro facilities are only designed to consume power to use up extra baseload power when the supply is expected to outstrip demand.
That doesn't seem right - if you want to temporarily curb the output of a thermal power station (eg. nuclear or coal) without actually shutting down units, you can just bypass some steam around the turbines.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- 0xffff2 10y agoWhy do that when you can store the energy cheaply though?
- caf 10y agoI may have misunderstood but I thought the parent was saying that some of the facilities weren't being used for storage but just for power dumping.
- Declanomous 10y agoOur "pumped hydro" is an old quarry that they let fill with water from a nearby river, and then pump the water back out. The pumps exist because the quarry is used for water retention, but they are also used to just waste energy. I don't know the specifics, but I know they do that when electricity prices go negative. I didn't know turbine bypass was a thing though. Why does the utility purchase load if they can bypass the turbines? Do transformers need a certain amount of load on them? The pumped hydro facility in Ludington, MI is kind of close by, but I suspect it might be a little too far away to provide peaking power for Chicago.
- jsight 10y agoI think his point is that those Hydro plants become less valuable if the baseload plant (nuclear) were to be phased out.