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
Let’s simplify the grid down to a single power station which is just a spiny thing with magnets and one light switch. When the light switch is off no electricity happens the spiny thing spins with no resistance beyond friction. When you turn the light switch on the spiny thing feels extra resistance and slows down (we then burn coal to keep it spinning at the same speed under load) when you turn the switch off the extra resistance goes away. Electricity is just an intermediary between those two things and doesn’t exist when there is no load. So extra doesn’t go anywhere it was never there to begin with
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