henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (04/08/85)
> I'm curious what this practice does to the "peak versus average" > demand problem which the utilities claim is the ?real? culprit in > our utility bills. I'd think it would make matters worse. This is one of the reasons why utilities generally haven't been too thrilled about being required to pay going rates for customer-generated power. The power isn't necessarily there when they need it, so it's not as useful as power they can generate on demand. Solar power is particularly bad this way in cold climates, and wind power in warm climates: the conditions which tend to produce maximum power demand also tend to minimize contributions from these sources. Peak-vs-average is definitely a major headache for utilities. I saw an amusing example of this cited some years ago. Some of the happiest power-plant managements in the world are the ones around Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The isotope-separation plant there is enormous -- whole power plants were built because of it -- and it runs 24 hours a day. The load fluctuations from the town of Oak Ridge are negligible by comparison. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry