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
curtailment is a common practice where excess generation is simply switched off the grid and goes no where.
this practice is wasteful when fuel is used to generate the electricity (like natural gas or coal) but it is very helpful when renewable sources like wind or solar are used
a renewable power plant can switch on excess production when demand is high and switch it off when demand is low an in that way avoid the need for storage in batteries or other means.
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