Where does the extra electricity in the grid go ?

The power generation is greater than the consumption, which is not only a waste problem, but also causes the current to increase, which will lead to the damage of the downstream electrical equipment due to the strong current, and the equipment of the power plant will also be damaged due to the accumulation of energy, even threatening the safety of the power plant.

Theoretically, the electricity generated by electricity generation cannot be stored. But electrical energy can be converted into other forms of energy and stored, such as potential energy, chemical energy.

At present, there are three main energy storage methods in the world.

1.  convert electrical energy into mechanical energy for storage.

The most common one is the pumped-storage power station, which uses the excess power generation to pump the low-level water to the high-level reservoir for storage. Perfectly closed loop to electrical energy conversion. It can store excess electricity when the grid is under low load, and transmit it through power generation when the grid is overloaded.

there is also a storage method that converts electrical energy into air pressure potential energy. When the grid is under low load, the compressor is driven by an electric motor to compress the air into a specific underground space for storage. Converts unstorable electrical energy into storable compressed air pressure potential energy.

2. Convert electrical energy into chemical energy for storage

There are mainly three ways of super capacitor energy storage, battery energy storage and hydrogen energy storage.

3. Convert electrical energy into electromagnetic field energy for storage

The basic scheme is to input excess electricity into the superconducting coil when the grid load is low, and the current circulates in the superconducting coil to form a magnetic field, thereby storing electrical energy in the form of magnetic energy. And because superconductivity has no resistance, when electricity is needed, it can quickly output electricity.

To sum up, in view of the non-storability of AC power, the power dispatching center plays a major role in it, ensuring that the power production and power consumption maintain a basic balance at all times. It will cause waste of energy due to excessive power production.

In addition to the careful calculation of the power dispatching center, even if the production capacity is slightly higher, the inexhaustible power can be consumed by backflow consumption or remote transmission to other regions and countries.