Re:$22B project to provide 8% of UK energy via undersea cabl...
by Dylan16807 on Friday March 10, 2023 @03:36PM
(#35100623)
> Are any of them in commercial operation?
"French utility EDF began making its nuclear plants more “maneuverable” in the 1980s, and today it says a 1,300-MW reactor can increase or decrease its output by 900 MW within about 30 minutes."
> The capex is so high and fuel cost so low it just also doesn’t make economic sense to ever turn down your reactor. Or you have to be overproducing to the extent that there is a significant negative price for electricity for quite a while before the cost makes sense.
Sure, the price of power has to temporarily go negative to be worth it in a market-based system. I don't know about "significant" though. That's not a problem for grid stability, it just means your cost/benefit calculation gets more complicated.
"French utility EDF began making its nuclear plants more “maneuverable” in the 1980s, and today it says a 1,300-MW reactor can increase or decrease its output by 900 MW within about 30 minutes."
> The capex is so high and fuel cost so low it just also doesn’t make economic sense to ever turn down your reactor. Or you have to be overproducing to the extent that there is a significant negative price for electricity for quite a while before the cost makes sense.
Sure, the price of power has to temporarily go negative to be worth it in a market-based system. I don't know about "significant" though. That's not a problem for grid stability, it just means your cost/benefit calculation gets more complicated.