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Nuclear should be subsidized to keep them online for sure. All governments should want a backbone that can work under any circumstances (excerpt flooding I gues

Nuclear should be subsidized to keep them online for sure. All governments should want a backbone that can work under any circumstances (excerpt flooding I guess )

pfdietz 5y ago
A bigger subsidy issue is wind/solar being given credits for power produced. So, they keep pumping out and putting power onto the grid even when prices go negative. Only when the negative price is lower than -subsidy do they curtail. This is terrible for existing nuclear plants. What the grid really needs is transparency at the customer level of real time power costs.
- p_l 5y ago
  I'd like to see a system that prioritised power purchasing depending on predictability, not instant price. So first buy goes to power plants (including virtual power plants) that can provide stable power generation given a specific window of time - whether that that's nuclear, hydro, or solar+wind+battery+hydrogen - so long as it's close to zero emissions and will pump out required power no matter the weather over specified time. Let wind/solar fight over peak power, or consolidate into virtual power plants with storage operators (it should also incentivize buildout of storage, so win-win in my book)
  - pfdietz 5y ago
    I would like to see uncertainty and intermittency exposed to consumers, with contracts that allow power to be curtailed in various ways. The less you value consistency, the less you would pay (up to a point.) Or, if you contract for a certain level of reliability, you could stipulate the payment you'd get if that were violated.
    - p_l 5y ago
      This is already done for industrial consumers that have necessary infrastructure installed - there are also some projects to enable demand response for individual consumers. The problem is you can't just expose the prices without appropriate infrastructure support on the consumer side.
      - pfdietz 5y ago
        I was imagining consumers having contracts that stipulate how much the utility can turn their consumption on and off, and how often, and under what circumstances. This wouldn't necessarily require any real time decisions on the part of the consumers, although smart appliances that the utility could control would help. This is already available to a limited extent, with things like remotely controllable water heaters and AC compressors.

Nuclear should be subsidized to keep them online for sure. All governments should want a backbone that can work under any circumstances (excerpt flooding I guess )

pfdietz 5y ago

A bigger subsidy issue is wind/solar being given credits for power produced. So, they keep pumping out and putting power onto the grid even when prices go negative. Only when the negative price is lower than -subsidy do they curtail. This is terrible for existing nuclear plants. What the grid really needs is transparency at the customer level of real time power costs.

p_l 5y ago
I'd like to see a system that prioritised power purchasing depending on predictability, not instant price. So first buy goes to power plants (including virtual power plants) that can provide stable power generation given a specific window of time - whether that that's nuclear, hydro, or solar+wind+battery+hydrogen - so long as it's close to zero emissions and will pump out required power no matter the weather over specified time. Let wind/solar fight over peak power, or consolidate into virtual power plants with storage operators (it should also incentivize buildout of storage, so win-win in my book)
- pfdietz 5y ago
  I would like to see uncertainty and intermittency exposed to consumers, with contracts that allow power to be curtailed in various ways. The less you value consistency, the less you would pay (up to a point.) Or, if you contract for a certain level of reliability, you could stipulate the payment you'd get if that were violated.
  - p_l 5y ago
    This is already done for industrial consumers that have necessary infrastructure installed - there are also some projects to enable demand response for individual consumers. The problem is you can't just expose the prices without appropriate infrastructure support on the consumer side.
    - pfdietz 5y ago
      I was imagining consumers having contracts that stipulate how much the utility can turn their consumption on and off, and how often, and under what circumstances. This wouldn't necessarily require any real time decisions on the part of the consumers, although smart appliances that the utility could control would help. This is already available to a limited extent, with things like remotely controllable water heaters and AC compressors.