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
john@hp-pcd.UUCP (john) (04/09/85)
<<< There is a power plant in California that was designed to minimize the Peak/Average variations on the power grid. It consists of two mountain lakes at different altitudes and a generator/pump station in between them. During peak hours water flows to the lower lake and helps generate power. This water is then pumped back up to the upper lake during the off-peak hours. This lets them run the rest of the plants at a constant rate which nuke plants tend to like. John Eaton !hplabs!hp-pcd!john
wjhe@hlexa.UUCP (Bill Hery) (04/17/85)
> > There is a power plant in California that was designed to minimize the > Peak/Average variations on the power grid. It consists of two mountain > lakes at different altitudes and a generator/pump station in between them. > During peak hours water flows to the lower lake and helps generate power. > This water is then pumped back up to the upper lake during the off-peak > hours. This lets them run the rest of the plants at a constant rate which > nuke plants tend to like. > "Pumped Hydro Storage" is in use in a number of places, both in the US and around the world. New Yorkers might remember a major controversy over a Con Ed pumped hydro storage proposal 10-15 years ago. They proposed making an artificial lake atop Strom King Mountain (about 50 miles up the Hudson River from New York, near West Point), and pumping Hudson River water into the lake overnight, and releasing it during the day for hydro power. It was rejected because of the environmental impact of taking the top off of mountain and puting in a lake. Bill Hery