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! 🤷🏻♂️
In: 2
So first off, a couple of misconceptions to dispel. The first is that the government doesn’t dictate energy production, it’s private businesses (in the US at least). The second is that there is no place where there is one power plant, we’re connected by multiple very large grids spanning multiple states (except Texas) with many power plants. The last is that power plants don’t generate a constant amount of power, they have a max they can deliver and can ramp up or down depending on demand, and if demand exceeds the capabilities then the distributer buys power from other plants on the same grid to make up the gap. If there isn’t enough capacity we experience “rolling black outs” where the distributors switch off power to different areas to keep the grid on at other places, but not all at once and forever – just where it is most needed.
The way plants generate power depends on the source. Gas, coal and nuclear are really easy to ramp up and down – burn more fuel or move control rods to spin turbines more. For renewables we do actually need energy storage because peak demand rarely overlaps peak production, but the “batteries” usually use water pumped uphill – to generate on demand they let it flow back downhill to spin hydro electric generators.
The way that more demand manifests in power plans is actually pretty simple. When the demand outpaces production the turbines slow down and the generated frequency dips. To keep in sync with the grid they need to spin up more power. Power plant operators are in constant communication with distributors controlling the grid to make sure production meets demand, 24/7.
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