I dont think whoever wrote this understands how power generation works. You don’t make more power than what is being consumed. On days when wind and solar a putting out good amounts of power, they idle down the gas a coal plants to a lower load.
They can’t make excess power, so none of it goes to waste.
Also, I work in the industry in plants around this area… They have been upgrading a lot of shit. And my base plant is actually part of a pilot program to fix a lot of the winter issues they had.
One of the plants I worked in down in that area is relatively new, and it was only engineered for temps at 15 degrees F. It got down to -15 and was fine, thankfully.
One of the first things they mention is the need for large battery banks to store the generated power in for later when you need it.
And of course you can make “excess” power in the context of power being generated more than is being consumed and/or lost due to inefficiencies in your system.
It’s neat you “work in the industry”, though, explains a lot.
Did you read more than the headline? The problem is explained in a very straightforward quote, below. The grid isn’t always capable of transmitting as much energy as the wind and solar generators can produce at peak, so there have been times when they have not been able to deliver power to meet demand despite having the generation capacity to produce it. So no, electrical current isn’t being yeeted into deep space but generation capacity that’s already been invested in is sitting idle even as demand goes unmet, and that is a waste.
Our analysis shows that on days with more wind and solar generation and strong system electricity demand, limited transmission line capacity restricted wind and solar generation flows, and curtailments occurred. These types of curtailments account for 36% of the projected curtailments in 2035, which could be reduced by upgrading the transmission system.
Oh. Also, the company I work for has estimated that demand will grow 50% over the next 10 years, some of it due to demand from electric vehicles. They’re building new plants and wind farms non-stop, and also upgrading transmissions because they make a lot of easy money by letting other companies use their lines
I dont think whoever wrote this understands how power generation works. You don’t make more power than what is being consumed. On days when wind and solar a putting out good amounts of power, they idle down the gas a coal plants to a lower load.
They can’t make excess power, so none of it goes to waste.
Also, I work in the industry in plants around this area… They have been upgrading a lot of shit. And my base plant is actually part of a pilot program to fix a lot of the winter issues they had.
One of the plants I worked in down in that area is relatively new, and it was only engineered for temps at 15 degrees F. It got down to -15 and was fine, thankfully.
Bro did you read the article?
One of the first things they mention is the need for large battery banks to store the generated power in for later when you need it.
And of course you can make “excess” power in the context of power being generated more than is being consumed and/or lost due to inefficiencies in your system.
It’s neat you “work in the industry”, though, explains a lot.
Did you read more than the headline? The problem is explained in a very straightforward quote, below. The grid isn’t always capable of transmitting as much energy as the wind and solar generators can produce at peak, so there have been times when they have not been able to deliver power to meet demand despite having the generation capacity to produce it. So no, electrical current isn’t being yeeted into deep space but generation capacity that’s already been invested in is sitting idle even as demand goes unmet, and that is a waste.
The author of the article doesn’t say anything about “surplus generation”, that’s a quote from the report.
You don’t think the US Energy Information Administration knows what it’s talking about? Bold stance.
You absolutely always make more power than what is being consumed. You need to have overage.
Oh. Also, the company I work for has estimated that demand will grow 50% over the next 10 years, some of it due to demand from electric vehicles. They’re building new plants and wind farms non-stop, and also upgrading transmissions because they make a lot of easy money by letting other companies use their lines