How do we adapt the electrical output of a fossil powerplant according to the demand on the grid ?
In: Engineering
You can just turn up and down consumption of big coal power stations. However, it’s very slow and can be expensive because it can be inefficient. A large part of the electricity in the system comes from smaller, faster and more responsive electricity generators so usually they’re the ones that will increase or decrease generation to meet demand.
Things like batteries and hydro-electric plants can either draw electricity from the system or generate electricity to put into the system, so they tend to be used to regulate supply and demand on short time scales.
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