RadioBanter - View Single Post - BTW Stevie were watch the news lately about NASA

October 10th 05, 03:21 AM

Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:

If you're talking about electrical energy, any of it which is
produced
but not consumed, is wasted energy. I can turn off my
appliances and
lights, but if no one else uses the electricity I'm not using, it
is wasted.

Dave,

Electricity supply doesn't work like that.

The production adjusts itself to the load. If the load decreases, so
does production. There is no waste from reduced loading. In fact, if
the load goes down enough, utilities shut down their least-efficient
plants.

I accept your statements as fact, as far as they go. However, if
electricity is generated and not consumed, it is wasted. If I have a 25
KVA generator running and only use 12 KVA, the available balance is gone
forever. Admittedly, the generator will use less fuel under the smaller
load.

Jim is correct, especially because of the scale of the power
generation. The emergency gas generator is pretty much uncontrolled,
save for gas savings/expenditures due to load. The Power grid has a lot
of controls on it regarding generation. That is one of the reasons that
utilities are not all that wild about people who "co-generate". It makes
their job a bit more complex keeping track of it all.

- Mike KB3EIA -