As far as I know the electric power is produced „fresh“ and transported everywhere via wires. If I turn on a light in my house the demand goes slightly up. Does the power plant then automatically produce more electric power? Or are there huge batteries somewhere that deal with the different demands?
In: Technology
A light bulb moment for me was realising that the energy produced and the energy consumed match exactly at all time.
When you turn on your light bulb, the frequency of the grid drops (nearly imperceptible for something as small as a light bulb) so every other user gets slightly less energy than targeted (but electronics operate with a reasonable margin, so it’s generally fine).
Then the grid operators increase the generation to match the new demand.
When you turn of your light bulb, the frequency of the grid increases. So every other user gets slightly more energy than targeted (again not a huge deal for small differences).
The grid operators then drops the generation to match the new demand.
So the basic physics of the system keep supply and demand matched. Then the grid operators ensure the balancing happens at the correct energy level.
In Australia the generation is dispatched on 5 minutes intervals. Within the 5 minutes, some generators are paid additional for more fine grained frequency control.
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