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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Well, first of all, power consumption is a well researched topic, and power plants do have [charts](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291904798/figure/fig1/AS:627449960349696@1526607136129/Typical-Weekly-Load-Profiles-by-Season-for-New-York-FERC-Federal-Energy-Regulatory.png) with the expected hourly usage, so that they can ramp up more or fewer generators ahead of time, as necessary.
If they miscalculate, then yeah there will be possible power outages or brown-outs (not quite enough voltage) on the lines.
In terms of physics, the power that you consume translates to a “load” on the generator, i.e. harder or easier to spin that generator to create the electricity. So then it depends on the type of power plant; a hydro-electric plant for example may have to turn on more water flow to be able to still spin the generators as before, whereas coal or nuclear would have to “increase the heat” and steam pressures to spin the generators under more load (resistance to spinning).
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