eli5: how do electric companies deal with different demands of electric power?

644 viewsOtherTechnology

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

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You have different types of power plants. While coal or nuclear plants deliver the ‘base’, you have ones like hydro electrics which are used to cover peaks, as they can react within seconds.
And you can also cut or add e.g wind turbines from the grid easily.
You can really predict the demand quite precise (in the halftime of an important football match the demand rises in England due to many kettles turned on).

You are viewing 1 out of 12 answers, click here to view all answers.