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
If you hold a pencil in your left fist and twist it with your right hand you can get an idea of what’s happening in a generator. Tighten your fist and it’s harder to spin the pencil. We can increase the torque on the rotating shaft (3600 rpm) to produce more power. To increase or decrease torque we vary the strength of the magnetic field around generator. Increasing or decreasing steam flow to the turbine lines up with demands from the grid. Daytime is tight fist and night is loose fist. I won’t go into vars.
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