Green Timing is the Smart Grid Technology We Need

AUSTIN, Texas - April 17, 2023 - PRLog -- Green Timing Poses An Opportunity – And A Major Challenge – For Manufacturing Companies

Cheap renewable energy from solar and wind sources offers a great opportunity for manufacturing companies that are urgently seeking ways to significantly reduce their expenditures on expensive energy supplies.

But getting there will require some significant changes in the way we consume energy.

In this Formaspace report, we look at the opportunities and challenges of Green Timing, the practice of optimizing energy use to synchronize it with green energy production.

What's All The Fuss About? Why The Need To Change?

The traditional role of electricity grid operators is to carefully match the production of electricity with the rate of demand. But if demand ever exceeds supply, the grid operators will need to initiate sudden blackouts to protect the grid from damage.

The traditional approach grid operators have used for decades is to produce daily "energy use" forecasts and place power generation sources (whether coal, gas, nuclear, or hydroelectric) on standby reserve, ready to fire up as demand rises.

Electricity demand typically surges in the morning as people rise to prepare for work and school. It peaks again in the late afternoon as workers come home and switch on air conditioners to cool buildings or use appliances for cooking or cleaning. Demand then drops significantly overnight.

To smooth out the demand curve, utilities have long offered variable rates to industrial customers (and residential customers with smart meters), encouraging them to use more electricity at night and less during the day – which reduces the need for capital investments in new power generation facilities to meet peak demand during the day.

Renewable Energy Sources Are Significantly Cheaper But Far Less Predictable

Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, have thrown a monkey wrench into the careful planning matching production with demand.

Wind and solar energy production can provide significant amounts of very cheap electricity during the day – with far less capital investment compared to building a new fossil fuel or nuclear power plant (assuming there are sufficient transmission lines to connect them to the major power grids).

However, as soon as the sun goes down (which also tends to cause the winds to decrease), utility operators need to turn to other energy sources to keep the lights on. (Cloudy or windless days also curtail solar and wind energy significantly, adding to the unpredictability issue.)

Read more...https://formaspace.com/articles/tech-lab/is-green-timing-...