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Originally Posted by Dadhawk
I'm not an electrical engineer, but I've read that there is a certain amount of power required to keep the grid active.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0
I don’t know if this is done with green/renewable energy only like wind, nuclear, solar and geothermal. All plants are designed to stop, so I don’t think there is a minimum.
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Capacity (amount of electricity a grid can generate) vs supply are two different things.
Plants can run continuously but whether they generate power or not is a different story, depending on how they generate power.
Wind is pretty much based on forecast and location, so it is variable. Hydroelectric usually are at dams, so they can turn it on/off as long as the dam is not at capacity. etc etc...
Other plants like coal/oil/gas/nuclear usually are always "on", so the only variable is whether they are running at 25% or 100% based on demand.
This real time graph shows the overall US electrical grid at any time with info on supply and demand. The only real concern is what the forecast electrical need is vs what is actually available, and whether or not excess capacity can be provided in case of spikes.
https://www.eia.gov/realtime_grid/#/...nd=20210211T12