Why is energy “cheaper” at night? Doesn’t nuclear, coal, hydro, etc all cost the same to produce no matter what time of day? Demand shouldn’t factor into cost.
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When you build a power grid, you don’t build enough capacity for the average amount of load. You build enough for what you expect peak load is going to be which is going to be significantly higher than the average load. Load throughout the day predictably spikes at certain parts like at 6 AM when everyone wakes up when it begins to heat up and everyone’s AC starts to turn on. Power companies want to incentivize heavy users to shift their usage to night time when most people are asleep and when demand is low. Turning on a power plant isn’t like flipping on a light switch; it doesn’t turn on immediately, you need to heat up thousands of gallons of water and wait for it to turn into steam, while it’s heating up, you’re not generating any power. Power companies want to leave a minimum amount of load to justify keeping auxiliary turbines running to keep from having to turn them on and off which does cost extra money.
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