Since, and unless electricity has properties I’m not aware of, it’s not possible for electric power plants to produce only and EXACTLY the amount of electricity being drawn at an given time, and not having enough electricity for everyone is a VERY bad thing, I’m assuming the power plants produce enough electricity to meet a predicted average need plus a little extra margin. So, if this understanding is correct, where does that little extra margin go? And what kind of margin are we talking about?
In: Engineering
To add om top of others answers regarding synchronous generators, inertia and so on, I would add that there are kind of two types on power on the electricity grid; active power and reactive power.
Active power is the ‘usual’ power you already know of and is what is used by your light bulbs and what you pay for.
Reactive power on the other hand is a bit more weird. It is basically the power that is “left over” when voltage and current are out of phase in an AC grid. To give an ELI5 analogy: it’s kind of like stepping on the gas pedal in a car while the clutch is disengaged.
We need to have some reactive power in the grid, since induction motors use this reactive power to get started.
It’s also used to regulate the voltage and a few other things when doing transmission and distribution of electrical power.
It exactly the same as active power, in terms of voltage and current, but is just not useable for many electrical devices.
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