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I 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.
by caf 10y ago
I 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.