3 ms·

Pump water into a dam with water turbines. If later power is needed you can open up the turbines more. IIRC this has about 80% efficiency and a big dam can soak

by tscs37 9y ago

Pump water into a dam with water turbines. If later power is needed you can open up the turbines more. IIRC this has about 80% efficiency and a big dam can soak up a lot of this power without problem.

reacharavindh 9y ago
Yeah that's a relatively long term storage.. like seasonal. For short spikes, it'd be easier to have local dispensation.
- tscs37 9y ago
  "Pumpspeicherkraftwerke" (pump storage power plant) are a thing in germany and largely they are used on minute basis, not seasonal, going from 0 Watts to a Gigawatt in about 20 minutes and probably faster if really necessary. [0] Power can be stored and emited within a few minutes to the extend that they are used to compensate power spikes or drops in the grid already, for exactly the scenario described in the OP. 0: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Pumpspeicherkraftwerk.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Pumpspei...
  - reacharavindh 9y ago
    I stand corrected. It is really cool that we can use water storage that quickly and efficiently.
  - dragontamer 9y ago
    USA has these too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Sta... As far as I know, its used for "daily" fluctuations. Coal and Nuclear power plants in the region don't want to turn off at night: its more efficient for them to stay hot and keep the turbines going through the night (even when no power is being used). So the Bath County Pumped Storage dam stores energy at night, and provides it in the day, covering a region that contains 13 States. I don't know the response time of the system, but I'd expect it to be similar to the German system of "within minutes" or so.
- shagie 9y ago
  As described in the Wikipedia page, the power load balancing is done over the course of a day - not seasonal (those tend to be reservoirs for consumption / irrigation). > Along with energy management, pumped storage systems help control electrical network frequency and provide reserve generation. Thermal plants are much less able to respond to sudden changes in electrical demand, potentially causing frequency and voltage instability. Pumped storage plants, like other hydroelectric plants, can respond to load changes within seconds.

by tscs37 9y ago

reacharavindh 9y ago

Yeah that's a relatively long term storage.. like seasonal. For short spikes, it'd be easier to have local dispensation.

tscs37 9y ago
"Pumpspeicherkraftwerke" (pump storage power plant) are a thing in germany and largely they are used on minute basis, not seasonal, going from 0 Watts to a Gigawatt in about 20 minutes and probably faster if really necessary. [0] Power can be stored and emited within a few minutes to the extend that they are used to compensate power spikes or drops in the grid already, for exactly the scenario described in the OP. 0: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Pumpspeicherkraftwerk.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Pumpspei...
- reacharavindh 9y ago
  I stand corrected. It is really cool that we can use water storage that quickly and efficiently.
- dragontamer 9y ago
  USA has these too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_County_Pumped_Storage_Sta... As far as I know, its used for "daily" fluctuations. Coal and Nuclear power plants in the region don't want to turn off at night: its more efficient for them to stay hot and keep the turbines going through the night (even when no power is being used). So the Bath County Pumped Storage dam stores energy at night, and provides it in the day, covering a region that contains 13 States. I don't know the response time of the system, but I'd expect it to be similar to the German system of "within minutes" or so.
shagie 9y ago
As described in the Wikipedia page, the power load balancing is done over the course of a day - not seasonal (those tend to be reservoirs for consumption / irrigation). > Along with energy management, pumped storage systems help control electrical network frequency and provide reserve generation. Thermal plants are much less able to respond to sudden changes in electrical demand, potentially causing frequency and voltage instability. Pumped storage plants, like other hydroelectric plants, can respond to load changes within seconds.