Re: A Bit of a quandry

The message <MPG.20cebd44be79e3e098d115@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
from Sena <"\"#\""@cymoeddorguk.privacy.net> contains these words:

If it uses more than it can produce, how can it be economically viable?

Because at some times of day electricity is cheap, and at other times of
day electricity is expensive. It charges up when it's cheap and
discharges when it's expensive. Simple.

As to /why/ it's like that....

Have a loot at this graph of electricity demand.

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200304/ldselect/ldsctech/999/4021104.gif

As you can see, the demand varies enormously. Unfortunately, generating
capacity is largely fixed, so you have all the generators going full
whack at peak times, and standing idle at others. While some generators
aren't too bad at that, many simply don't work properly if you expect
them to heat up and cool down on a daily cycle like that - it's
expensive and wasteful.
So - they keep running and Dinorwig takes the surplus and sits on it for
a few hours then shoves it back, flattening out the curve.

Electric storage heaters do the same - they draw their power while it's
cheap to help flatten out the demand curve.

The lowest part of the curve is called the base load. That's the level
that always has to be provided, and the goal of the industry, and for
environmental reasons, ideally all of us, is the close the gap between
base load and peak load so power stations can run efficiently and waste
least resources.

The gas industry uses the same trick. Gas comes down the pipe at a
steady rate, but demand goes up and down like a fiddler's elbow - hence
gas holders. Though the big visible ones are becoming less common now as
the industry moves to high pressure storage. I'm not sure why this is a
good thing - probably so they can sell the old land for housing at vast
profit.


As for it using more than it produces - doesn't your hoover consume more
electricity that it produce? It's just another machine - the motors that
pump the water up the hill get hot, which is wasted energy. The water
warms up - more waste. The water makes a rushing noise - more waste. The
generators when it comes back down hill - they get hot too, etc.
--
Skipweasel
We have always been at war with Iran. [George Orwell - almost]
.

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