Will power wastage occur if people suddenly use less electricity on a certain day

[klrvn]

I've currently learning about balancing mechanism of power stations, knowing that demand and supply of electricity is balanced in (almost) real time. 

However, as there are sometimes "Energy saving day" type of campaigns, demand for electricity may suddenly fall on a certain day. Would power stations be able to adjust to the fall in demand swiftly to avoid overproduction of electricity?

[Moontanman]

On 10/30/2024 at 9:04 AM, klrvn said:

I've currently learning about balancing mechanism of power stations, knowing that demand and supply of electricity is balanced in (almost) real time. 

However, as there are sometimes "Energy saving day" type of campaigns, demand for electricity may suddenly fall on a certain day. Would power stations be able to adjust to the fall in demand swiftly to avoid overproduction of electricity?

I am not sure, I hope someone knows for sure but I would have to assume the power stations can adjust. 

 

[OceanBreeze]

On 10/30/2024 at 8:04 PM, klrvn said:

I've currently learning about balancing mechanism of power stations, knowing that demand and supply of electricity is balanced in (almost) real time. 

However, as there are sometimes "Energy saving day" type of campaigns, demand for electricity may suddenly fall on a certain day. Would power stations be able to adjust to the fall in demand swiftly to avoid overproduction of electricity?

The power grid adjusts very quickly (within a few minutes) to changes in demand by the use of electronic governors which control the power output of the generators.

The first engine governors date back to the 17^th century and were centrifugal “fly-ball” governors. While some variation of these are still in use today, (I once owned a snowmobile with a centrifugal governor) most engine governors today are electronic.

But the basic operating principle is the same: If the load increases, the generator tends to slow down, the governor senses this decrease in frequency and opens a valve to feed more fuel, speeding the generator back up. The reverse operation happens if the load decreases.

To answer your specific question about power wastage during a drop in load; if the governors work properly, there will be very little power wasted. What would happen is the generators would tend to speed up with less load, but the increase in frequency will be very slight because of the inertia of many generators operating in sync on the power grid. This slight increase in frequency will act to store the excess power production until the governors bring the frequency back down to normal.The stored excess power is slowly added back to the grid as the generators slow back down.

You may find the pdf of interest.