[ocnorb]

Originally Posted by thingstodo

The interconnected grid is complex and a PITA to control.


There is a reason that the power company gives you so little for excess generation onto the grid, besides the fact that they are *EVIL* ... the power generation is only part of the cost. And it is not even the largest cost.

Not really a PITA to control. The more interconnections, the more resilient it is. Deciding what the most cost effective operations strategy is; what units to run, what to ramp down, etc is all in a days work for power companies.

As far as excess generation; there is no such thing. Electricity is made/consumed at the same time. Units are designed to follow the loads as they ramp up each day.

Canada exports over 100,000 megawatt hours a week to the US. Hydro is cleaner and cheaper so we will buy as much as makes sense to.

See: https://www.eia.gov/beta/realtime_gr...start=20170324

Another great site to see the grid in action and how solar, wind and geothermal play a role is California ISO - Todays Outlook

CAISO even has an app you can download to monitor it on your phone. Yes, I'm a power/energy nerd.
My background is in power.