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Re:Power Prices Go Negative in Germany by runeks on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @03:09PM (#16010671)
> If they have any significant power storage capacity, maybe they could store power and sell it back to the grid when prices go positive, or maybe turn on their mining rig while prices are negative, if they go negative frequently.

There’s no reason to get so sophisticated: just plug in an electrical heater placed outside, and get paid. A negative price is a perverse incentive — unless we want to get rid of whatever thing is priced in the negative.

Re:Power Prices Go Negative in Germany by Filligree on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @07:35PM (#16011984)
Which is precisely what we want to do. As mentioned elsewhere, negative prices happen when load is too low and artificially creating load is cheaper than making generators shut down.

It's an uncommon situation, because if it keeps happening then the power plant will indeed invest in giant heaters.

Re:Power Prices Go Negative in Germany by chii on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @07:59PM (#16012075)
> just plug in an electrical heater placed outside

while that's cheap, it feels like a large waste of energy that could've been used for something useful.

Re:Power Prices Go Negative in Germany by runeks on Wednesday December 27, 2017 @03:26AM (#16013597)
I agree with you, but this is the incentive you create when pricing stuff in the negative.