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you're making a big assumption here - that the demand peak coincides with the distributed generation peak. This is generally not true.
by eldaisfish 1y ago
you're making a big assumption here - that the demand peak coincides with the distributed generation peak. This is generally not true.
- epistasis 1y agoIn California, the subject of my comment, it is true.
- eldaisfish 1y agoit generally isn't. Peak demand on most electricity systems, including California's, is during the evening hours, typically between 18:00 and 21:00. This does not coincide with peak solar generation. You can see this even as far back as 2018 via CalISO's own data. https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook
- epistasis 1y agoThat's because residential solar is eating up the daytime peak, thus the duck curve. Residential solar is already saving the state tons of money on T&D costs. (And becuase the Wikipedia for duck curve shows a day in October rather than a summer day where the peak is much higher, yes the annual peak does coincide with when solar is outputting a ton of power.)
- eldaisfish 1y agoCalISO's charts disagree with you. Gross peak demand is in the late evening, well after the solar peak. Solar noon in western California is around 13:00. https://www.caiso.com/documents/gross-and-net-load-peaks-fact-sheet.pdf https://www.caiso.com/documents/gross-and-net-load-peaks-fac...
- epistasis 1y agoYou misunderstand the charts, these do not take into account residential solar. The reason the peak is getting pushed into the evening is because residential solar doesn't even show up on the chart. Look at the difference between gross and net: this is utility scale shaving off the peak. This is what is happening with residential solar too, which is not shown.