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This brings up a very important point. Electricity supply must be carefully balanced with demand and so that's why most regions have ISO (independent system ope
by stygiansonic 10y ago
This brings up a very important point. Electricity supply must be carefully balanced with demand and so that's why most regions have ISO (independent system operators) to facilitate the coordination needed to maintain system balance.
Typically coal and nuclear power plants are "base" load stations, providing always-on capacity. It's not always possible to vary their output to match demand, so typically (natural) gas power plants are used to match the remaining variable load. The start up/shut down cycle for these plants is far less costly.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ciaranm 10y agoThere's live stats for the UK's national grid. There's a couple of sites that show it, e.g. http://gridwatch.co.uk/ http://gridwatch.co.uk/ Really interesting to see. Britain also has the interesting culture of tea drinking in the evenings - almost all using electric kettles. I believe the grid uses hydro stations to cover the load of this. Typically peaks during breaks and/or after popular TV shows in the evening.
- zigzigzag 10y agoThat used to be the case, yes. Since the arrival of many-channel TV and changed viewing habits (e.g. lots more internet use) the advert-break-effect has lessened considerably.