It looks like a cross between a NASA mission control center and the villain’s lair from 'GoldenEye.'
Despite all that, in many cases managing the grid remains a surprisingly manual, white-knuckled affair. That’s because, despite all its high-tech bells and whistles, California’s grid has very little ability to store energy for future use.
“For all practical purposes, when power is generated, it can instantaneously be used in a consumer's home,” even if it’s from a “power plant in a completely different part of the state,” Carrie Bentley of Gridwell Consulting, an energy consultancy, told SFGATE.Since electricity is usually consumed the instant it’s generated, California’s grid operators have to perform a complex, never-ending dance, matching up electricity supply and demand in real time.
Much of the work of keeping the grid in balance takes place a day ahead, with a competitive market forecasting power needs and lining up companies ready to meet them. Still, the market isn’t perfect, and demand can change unpredictably. In some cases, CAISO works with participants to shut off noncritical machines at industrial facilities or appliances in homes to reduce power usage during spikes, a process called demand response.
Unless something goes horribly wrong, it’s unlikely that such a power plant will suddenly go offline. The physicality of giant spinning machines also acts as a kind of; like giant metronomes, rotating turbines smooth out little disruptions and keep the grid’s power flowing at a constant frequency of 60 hertz .
日本 最新ニュース, 日本 見出し
Similar News:他のニュース ソースから収集した、これに似たニュース記事を読むこともできます。
Smashing success: NASA asteroid strike results in big nudgeNASA says a spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away last month succeeded in shifting its orbit.
続きを読む »
Smashing success: NASA asteroid strike results in big nudge'We've been imagining this for years and to have it finally be real is really quite a thrill,' said NASA program scientist Tom Statler.
続きを読む »
NASA says its space tech could cut electric car charging times to 5 minutes or lessExperimental technology used to cool equipment in space might soon be able to cut the charging times of electric vehicles to five minutes or less, American space agency NASA said this week.
続きを読む »
NASA Rocket Knocked Space Rock Off RockerThe orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos was successfully altered after a spacecraft purposely crashed into it a couple of weeks ago.
続きを読む »
NASA Says Shallow Lakes in the Icy Crust of Jupiter’s Moon Europa Could EruptNew scientific research makes hypotheses that NASA’s Europa Clipper can test: Any plumes or volcanic activity at the Jovian moon’s surface are caused by shallow lakes in its icy crust. Subsurface bodies of water in our outer solar system are some of the most important targets in the search for li
続きを読む »