Timeline for What happens to excess energy fed into the power grid?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 6, 2014 at 23:32 | comment | added | John Meacham | For most industrial generators, it is actually impossible to throttle them down below a point without drastic consequences. Many require as much as 10% of their entire maximum output coming in to do the initial spin up and dropping below this point in output causes them to completely shut down. a dedicated extremely high power line (it needs to carry 10% of the entire capacity of a power plant!) to a hydro or other self-starting plant is needed to get a steam generator running. Throttling is not an option. | |
| Jul 2, 2014 at 18:01 | comment | added | Phil Perry | In an electrical generation and distribution system, you can't put more juice into the system than is being used at any one time, or it will go haywire (unstable, possibly damaged). When only big plants are supplying power, it's not too hard to throttle them down or up to match load, and wheel power around the country to where it's needed (up to a point). Still, watch what happens when a major line goes down and generators have to shut down in a hurry. The problem is worse with lots of small producers who are not easily centrally controlled. | |
| Jul 2, 2014 at 16:27 | comment | added | cluelesscoder | Thanks, but I think the way I brought up big-picture issues may have been a bit misleading. I'm not so interested in the best solution for society as I am in the technical aspect of what happens to the power, how can it be released, what damage can it cause, how that can be mitigated, etc. So for the purposes of this question I would rather assume that the power is produced. Published empirical evidence in particular would be helpful. | |
| Jul 2, 2014 at 15:23 | history | edited | placeholder | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 2, 2014 at 7:52 | history | answered | placeholder | CC BY-SA 3.0 |