3 ms·

I made a comment with regards to this a while ago [1]. I'll repeat it here as I think it is relevant: --- I’ve heard on the grapevine that facilities are now

I made a comment with regards to this a while ago [1]. I'll repeat it here as I think it is relevant: --- I’ve heard on the grapevine that facilities are now being designed which work at under 100% capacity in order to soak up excess/cheap power. I believe this is coming about because: 1) the high cost of power and presence of sporadically cheap power makes it economically viable, and 2) designing equipment with lower duty cycles can actually provide substantial cost savings. Ie a facility which only runs 50% of the time is much cheaper to build & run than once which runs 100% of the time. Sorry I cannot cite sources right now. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18929542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18929542

lovemenot 7y ago
It'd be a boon for renewables if energy consuming plant costs were less dominated by investment in equipment. Imagine doing shift planning at such a site though. Eight days from now, there's a 60% chance of wind in excess of 5m/s between 22.00 and 06.00. But labour costs would be 130% higher than 06.00 to 14.00 on that day. On that morning shift there's a 50% chance of clear skies ...
- caf 7y ago
  If only there was some form of programmable electronic computation device that could be used to solve such complex sets of constraints modelled as equations :)
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    It's not the calculation part that's the problem, it's the investment part (and perhaps also labor part).
- pedantsamaritan 7y ago
  I would be sad to be the worker subject to that shift planning
- VBprogrammer 7y ago
  I think the savings in planning for low duty cycle probably result from reduced redundancy i.e. installing one pressure pump instead of two. Which naturally means when there is a low chance of excess energy is a good time to work on maintaining the systems rather than just taking one off line and working on the other. This means that you just staff it at a consistent level and plan the work around the energy levels.

lovemenot 7y ago

It'd be a boon for renewables if energy consuming plant costs were less dominated by investment in equipment. Imagine doing shift planning at such a site though. Eight days from now, there's a 60% chance of wind in excess of 5m/s between 22.00 and 06.00. But labour costs would be 130% higher than 06.00 to 14.00 on that day. On that morning shift there's a 50% chance of clear skies ...

caf 7y ago
If only there was some form of programmable electronic computation device that could be used to solve such complex sets of constraints modelled as equations :)
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  It's not the calculation part that's the problem, it's the investment part (and perhaps also labor part).
pedantsamaritan 7y ago
I would be sad to be the worker subject to that shift planning
VBprogrammer 7y ago
I think the savings in planning for low duty cycle probably result from reduced redundancy i.e. installing one pressure pump instead of two. Which naturally means when there is a low chance of excess energy is a good time to work on maintaining the systems rather than just taking one off line and working on the other. This means that you just staff it at a consistent level and plan the work around the energy levels.