Quote:
Originally Posted by jenchris
Hi Julian,
The switching state of the systems means that most brownouts occur because when a load goes over a certain level, some areas have to be switched off completely - meaning an instant spinning reserve is produced that is as big as the smallest generator on the line.
That 6% may be enough to obviate switching off at all under some situations.
It would be better if load shedding were anticipated by smaller sections so that hi end usage like water heaters and ovens were switched on a separate supply so that they only were usable on a less than peak demand period.
Traditionally Monday morning at 7am was the peak load for the week. That is all the small businesses starting up and all the workers having showers and breakfasts.
Staggering part of that would be easy to do - a timer switch that stopped all water heaters in the country (obviously locally - as in in your switchbox)from going on would drop the peak demand by a huge margin.
For hi temperature periods, HVAC should be set to a rational level - not 16c as you find it in some supermarkets and hotels.
Set to 24, everyone would have a chance at a comfort level.
If households were paying for a max demand tariff, you can bet the system would change and we'd have spinning reserve coming out of our ears.
Batteries should be installed in homes that already have solar systems or at least in areas that have a high incidence of solar/wind generation - that way they can collect local power which is easier to rechannel area by area and won't affect the power factor as badly.
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What you are talking about is IMO one of the great missed opportunities of the smart meter rollout in Victoria.
With control down to the individual meter level, how much smarter would it have been to have load control on separate outputs for electric hot water and air conditioning circuits. Far better to be able to stop 50,000 air conditioners for half an hour, then fire them back up and stop another 50,000 elsewhere, leaving simple fans and more important, refrigerators and the like humming away happily than the brute force approach of rolling blackout load shedding of half a suburb at a time.
I wonder how many people in SA came home after a few days away to find a freezer full of spoiled food as a circuit breaker tripped on reconnection (Which does sometimes happen) and they were not there to rectify it.
Agree on the aircon setting though, It has taken me some years but I have managed to talk my wife up from 21 degrees to 24 and I am working on 26. I have not quite gotten my point across that the point where that 24 degrees is measured is up at the roof and the hottest part of the room yet. We seem to be the opposite of normal households where I want the temp warmer than my wife does.