Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change
by mikro2nd on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @11:11AM
(#9765129)
Except that nuclear plants do not serve peak demand in any way, unless by "peak" you mean something other than the electrical supply industry means by that term; nukes are by nature very much baseload generation, taking days and weeks to spin up and synchronise. Pumped storage, gas turbine, large-scale hydro,... those are peak supply generation that can be brought onstream in minutes to hours to meet peak demand.
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Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change
by hyperion2010 on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @11:48AM
(#9765427)
And don't forget the good old diesel generators that are the last line of defence when all other capacity is maxed out.
Re:The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change
by mikro2nd on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @01:08PM
(#9766013)
As we currently experience to great cost here in South Africa currently, where, due to a decade of neglected maintenance and capacity building brought about by a short-sighted government, rolling blackouts (euphemistically called "load shedding") are the norm, and diesel generation is brought to bear as a poor substitute for baseload capacity, at - as you may imagine - ruinous financial cost. Something in the region of USD400million a month for diesel fuel. Boy, are we in for some price hikes coming up!