3 ms·
Power generation comes in two classes, baseline and peaker. Baseline units are on 24/7. They are typically very efficient, but can take days or weeks to start.
by obviouslynotme 3y ago
Power generation comes in two classes, baseline and peaker. Baseline units are on 24/7. They are typically very efficient, but can take days or weeks to start. Peakers can turn on in minutes of notice and are usually better at following demand.
Power demand follows daily sinusoidal cycles. By having an economical consumer of electricity that can choose operation times, you can have them use power at night in order to flatten your sinusoidal demand, thus allowing a higher percentage of efficient baseline units to run instead of peakers.
- rcme 3y agoWhy don't they just pump water up hill at night? That would be a much better use of the electricity.
- obviouslynotme 3y agoThere are already many energy storage systems in place and many more being installed even now. The problem is that energy storage and recovery is a hard problem. Anyone who solves it will be rich overnight.
- rurban 3y agoTexas is like Germany. No hills (unless you count the waste disposal hills, where you cannot pump up water)
- stormfather 3y agoI live in the hill country in Texas, so I would disagree there.
- lukevp 3y agoI’m from the hill country… but that’s just a small area near Austin. Houston, SA, DFW, etc. are all very flat.