The Supply and Demand of electricity.
I don't think some of the jobs involved in bringing you electricity aren't given the thanks needed! It takes so much preparation to predict how much electricity is going to be used on any one day. Luckily though, we naturally go through peaks of the electricity use so that gives these people a fighting chance to keep up with the ever growing population of Britain. Imagine what preparation your family goes through for the famous Christmas Dinner, put that into a national scale and it's mind boggling!
If you think about this, it all makes perfect sense and fits into place. When we need electricity they are expecting it so they give it to us, but are you forgetting how long it takes to get the electricity from the powers station to your home. Yet again it take a load more of planning and expectations.
There are variations on how long the electricity takes to generate. Natural gas being the shortest time from leaving the power station to getting to your homes and nuclear taking the longest. |
Demand CurveThis chart is the only way in which electricity companies can save any money. It shows when the most and least amounts of energy is used within the UK. As you can see there are 3 main feature to the demand curve, the red area, the mid-peak and the yellow area.
The red area is during the times 00:00 to 09:00, these are times which most people are sleeping so less energy is being used. All the energy that isn't used, is stored and used at a later date. The mid-peak is the times when people begin to get up, so start making breakfast etc. so the electricity amount rise, but then they begin to get occupied again to it dips again. The yellow area is the huge peak time in the evening when everyone begins to cook dinner and relaxes. This is where the electricity companies have to be prepared. |
Carbon Neutral fuels
Carbon-neutral- The carbon it takes in from the atmosphere as carbon dioxide can balance the amount released when it is burnt.