RE: Can Anyone Enlighten Me?11 Jan 2019 17:15
Hi Jane, there is no external processing on energy involved in any form of electricity generation. Electricity is generated and passes into the grid system. The press release bigs up the flexible capabilities of Shoreham. It is able to start-up, shutdown and change load to order. A fully interconnected grid system needs flexible plant to allow the grid operator to balance the system. Output from wind and solar increases and decreases as the wind blows or the sun shines, although they can be controlled to a certain extent, turning them down is foregoing "free" power. Nuclear output in this country is never reduced - these units will always generate at the max capability. Prior to the introduction of wind and solar, nukes were the only inflexible units on the system and there was always plenty of flexible plant (coal, oil, gas) for the system operator to call on to balance the system. These days flexibility is a premium "product"