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I think they have contract obligation to take some energy, so they just resell it. Anyway the biggest problem of German grid are not really peak hours, but tra

by qwerta 12y ago

I think they have contract obligation to take some energy, so they just resell it. Anyway the biggest problem of German grid are not really peak hours, but transporting energy from north where turbines are to industrial south.

ajuc 12y ago
I don't know how it works in Germany precisely, but in Poland there's a system where big energy users can publish "demand reduction offers" and network operator buys these offers as needed to balance the network. The basic rule is - those, who unbalances the network pays those that balances it back for the troubles, so there's huge incentive to predict your power requirements and transfer requirements precisely. I guess Germany with their solar cells and wind turbines have a lot of problems with that. There are a few whole markets set up with energy, transfer capacities, reduction (or increases) offers by both plants and users, and it works quite nicely. I worked on a system for bulk energy trading and it was very intersting to see how it works behind the scenes. BTW demand reduction is actually BETTER than storing and returning energy. Demand reduction of 100 MW frees more than 100 MW (heating loses), and lets other people use the wires in that time.
- twic 12y ago
  It's similar in the UK - large users can join the "frequency service", where they respond to demand-induced drops in frequency by disconnecting their loads, and get a discount for doing so: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_the_National_Grid_%28Great_Britain%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_the_National_Grid_%2... Another, unrelated, slightly bonkers UK power supply innovation is the ability for energy companies to remotely control their customers' supplies using secret signals embedded in Radio 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch
danmaz74 12y ago
Thanks, this clarifies what they actually meant.

by qwerta 12y ago

ajuc 12y ago

I don't know how it works in Germany precisely, but in Poland there's a system where big energy users can publish "demand reduction offers" and network operator buys these offers as needed to balance the network. The basic rule is - those, who unbalances the network pays those that balances it back for the troubles, so there's huge incentive to predict your power requirements and transfer requirements precisely. I guess Germany with their solar cells and wind turbines have a lot of problems with that. There are a few whole markets set up with energy, transfer capacities, reduction (or increases) offers by both plants and users, and it works quite nicely. I worked on a system for bulk energy trading and it was very intersting to see how it works behind the scenes. BTW demand reduction is actually BETTER than storing and returning energy. Demand reduction of 100 MW frees more than 100 MW (heating loses), and lets other people use the wires in that time.

twic 12y ago
It's similar in the UK - large users can join the "frequency service", where they respond to demand-induced drops in frequency by disconnecting their loads, and get a discount for doing so: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_the_National_Grid_%28Great_Britain%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_the_National_Grid_%2... Another, unrelated, slightly bonkers UK power supply innovation is the ability for energy companies to remotely control their customers' supplies using secret signals embedded in Radio 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch

danmaz74 12y ago

Thanks, this clarifies what they actually meant.