4 ms·

Are you trying to make the point that consuming electricity is as difficult as storing uranium? I’m not making a general statement about negative prices. I’m m

by runeks 9y ago

Are you trying to make the point that consuming electricity is as difficult as storing uranium? I’m not making a general statement about negative prices. I’m making a statement about being paid to connect a resistor to the end of a power cord.

luispedrocoelho 9y ago
Not as difficult, but consuming large amounts of energy on short notice is also not trivial. "connect a resistor to the end of a power cord" is supposed to make it sound trivial, but operating the resistors needed for absorbing the extra power on the grid is a large scale operation with non-trivial safety concerns. Also, you need to own and maintain all that equipment, &c &c.
marcosdumay 9y ago
Of course it's much easier. If it was as difficult there would be big companies living just on properly getting rid of electricity. But it being easier does not make it free. The price is negative exactly because it costs the generating company something to put a resistor at their side. If you have a resistor around that is cheaper, you can get some nice payment out of using it.
- runeks 9y ago
  Why doesn’t the power producer just disconnect the generator from the grid? A turbine spinning isn’t a problem in and of itself. I don’t disagree with you in theory, but in practice I don’t believe that it’s cheaper to send out power over the grid, and pay people to consume it, than it is to just not produce it in the first place.
  - marcosdumay 9y ago
    The spinning energy MUST be consumed. Otherwise the turbine will accelerate until it breaks, what may take a block away from some city. Powering down generators take some time, and powering them back up costs quite a bit (both vary widely from one tech to another). For short durations it is just cheaper to pay somebody to take the energy.

4 ms·

Are you trying to make the point that consuming electricity is as difficult as storing uranium? I’m not making a general statement about negative prices. I’m m

by runeks 9y ago

luispedrocoelho 9y ago
Not as difficult, but consuming large amounts of energy on short notice is also not trivial. "connect a resistor to the end of a power cord" is supposed to make it sound trivial, but operating the resistors needed for absorbing the extra power on the grid is a large scale operation with non-trivial safety concerns. Also, you need to own and maintain all that equipment, &c &c.
marcosdumay 9y ago
Of course it's much easier. If it was as difficult there would be big companies living just on properly getting rid of electricity. But it being easier does not make it free. The price is negative exactly because it costs the generating company something to put a resistor at their side. If you have a resistor around that is cheaper, you can get some nice payment out of using it.
- runeks 9y ago
  Why doesn’t the power producer just disconnect the generator from the grid? A turbine spinning isn’t a problem in and of itself. I don’t disagree with you in theory, but in practice I don’t believe that it’s cheaper to send out power over the grid, and pay people to consume it, than it is to just not produce it in the first place.
  - marcosdumay 9y ago
    The spinning energy MUST be consumed. Otherwise the turbine will accelerate until it breaks, what may take a block away from some city. Powering down generators take some time, and powering them back up costs quite a bit (both vary widely from one tech to another). For short durations it is just cheaper to pay somebody to take the energy.