4 ms·
> Essentially, something like a nuclear plant is hard to ramp/up down with changing grid demands, This is untrue, we regularly modulate nuclear plants from 10
by JustFinishedBSG 6y ago
> Essentially, something like a nuclear plant is hard to ramp/up down with changing grid demands,
This is untrue, we regularly modulate nuclear plants from 10 to 100% in a space of hours
- 7952 6y agoBut it isn't really financially optimal to do that. The marginal cost of an extra MWh is trivial. The staff and capital costs are going to be mostly the same regardless of output. So it makes sense to run it as much as possible. In that sense it is very similar to solar and wind. In comparison a gas plant is spending a lot of money on fuel and will shut down to save money as prices drop. Also, the grid needs much faster reaction than modulating demand over hours. If a large generator fails (which sometimes happens to nuclear plants) you need 1GW in a few seconds.