I have heard that electricity comes directly from powerplants to our homes. No storage or battery of any kind. If I turn on an extra light, how does the powerplant adjust for such a small change in the demand? Does that mean every other device that is turned on and getting electricity from this powerplant gets a little less energy to compensate for my light?
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One method of balancing the hour to hour energy needs is **Pumped Storage Hydropower**. When power plants are producing more than is otherwise being consumed the extra electricity is feed to Hydro power schemes which are set up to pump water from downriver back up to the top dam. This pumping up of water is effectively storing energy which can be turned back into electricity again by opening the sluice gates and powering the hydro power turbines. This can be done during hours of peak demand to boost total electricity production.
>Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is one of the most-common and well-established types of energy storage technologies and currently accounts for 95% of all utility-scale energy storage capacity in the United States. PSH facilities store and generate electricity by moving water between two reservoirs at different elevations. Vital to grid reliability, today, the U.S. pumped storage hydropower fleet includes about 22 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity and 550 gigawatt-hours of energy storage with facilities in every region of the country.
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>[https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/how-pumped-storage-hydropower-works](https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/how-pumped-storage-hydropower-works)
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