Let’s say in an isolated area there are fifty homes and a power station capable of producing 1500kW per day. Each home consumes 30kW per day on average.
Now explain the following two situations to me like I’m 22.
1. A new home has joined the party. Will the power station be able to supply power to the new house or does it need to be extended its capability? Or an existing home decided to purchase a refrigerator, graphic card or whatever and increased their demand. How will the increased demand be fulfilled?
2. Twenty homes went on a vacation. So, 900kW per day is enough to full fill thirty homes’ needs. But the power station will continue to produce 15000kw as usual. Where will the remaining 600kw go?
I’ve given an analogy of fifty homes with 1500kW but compare the situation with a country. Not every house consumes the same amount of electricity every day. How do the government produce and distribute electricity in an efficient manner? Does electricity get wasted? Where does the extra electricity go? It is obvious that there is no big battery to store em! 🤷🏻♂️
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It has been answered really well how the energy producer react to larger loads.
I want to point out that it works the other way around aswell.
There are many power plants which can’t regulate down their power output fast or without massive damage or danger, think of nuclear power plants.
Any grid frequency below OR above the targeted 50/60hz can massively damage turbines and generator. Imagine a turbine wheel with all it weight (hundreds of tons) going from 60 rpm to 0 in a short time or spinning way faster than it should wreaks havoc in a turbine.
So when the load drops and power producers can’t regulate down fast enough they can ask large power consumers (chemical and petro companies, steel plants etc) to increase their load to avoid damage on power plants.
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