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POWER Supplies when the wind is not blowing.

CliveS

Power stations are struggling to keep the grid on when the wind drops. See www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

Looking at gridwatch I can see that they are encouraging waste disposal plants to burn more rubbish to help fill the gap.

There was a scare report last week about possible problems at peak hours 4 till 8 in evenings which hopefully resulted in hospitals and Data centres who have generators being encouraged to run them just in case.

There was also some talk of offering special high peak rates for smart meter owners with lower normal off peak rates.

A more satisfactory way would be to install electronic switching on water heaters via the smart meter. What do you think??

CliveS

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  • That would require smart meters to actually be more than a dumb meter with a radio transmitter attached, to send in meter readings.  And there would be even more push back against them if people were told that their new smart meters could turn their appliances off and on at the whim of someone in a remote data centre.

  • in reply to Simon Barker

    I've often thought that as the grid itself is stabilized using frequency as a proxy for over/under-load, this is the easiest thing to sense in a smart appliance - no need for power hungry internet, no data privacy concern, just the device decides when to take itself off. The exact frequency threshold can be integrated with the urgency of the task and a record the last 24 hours worth of frequency readings, so if the water is cold, then whatever the frequency is, turn heating on, but if it is part warm then knock off early if the frequency is low and come back and top up when it recovers. It is also less 'bang-bang' control than telemeter switching of many MVA all at the same instant.

    no profit or complex electronics needed, so not commercially attractive.
    Mike

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  • in reply to Simon Barker

    I've often thought that as the grid itself is stabilized using frequency as a proxy for over/under-load, this is the easiest thing to sense in a smart appliance - no need for power hungry internet, no data privacy concern, just the device decides when to take itself off. The exact frequency threshold can be integrated with the urgency of the task and a record the last 24 hours worth of frequency readings, so if the water is cold, then whatever the frequency is, turn heating on, but if it is part warm then knock off early if the frequency is low and come back and top up when it recovers. It is also less 'bang-bang' control than telemeter switching of many MVA all at the same instant.

    no profit or complex electronics needed, so not commercially attractive.
    Mike

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