On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:27:55 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 23:50:09 GMT, dennis@home wrote:

"Doctor Drivel" wrote in message
eenews.net...

The electricity it uses is overnight which normally would be wasted, that
is
why they offer economy 7 and 19 and 34, etc, when using overnight
electricity.


The electricity isn't wasted at night.

Actually it is.

The power stations are essentially idling at the great traffic lights of
consumer demand. Since they take a LOT of hours to come on line, they have
to be left at idle.

Overnight charging of cars wold make a LOT of difference in sommothing out
demand curves for electricity,and utilse the existing infratsructure to far
greater overall cost benefit.

It is just capacity that is not earning revenue at night.

Its better to reduce the daytime demand and use more of the capacity at
night.
This is why storage heaters were invented.

Yes. biut not because its capacity thats is not earning revenue, its
becasue it is capacity that is costing money and fuel to keep running.

Is two shifting of steam turbine power stations not practiced anymore?
Gas turbine machines run up and load very quickly and are not normally
operated at part load.

There is a cost attached to two shifting but the cost is much less
than maintaining a machine on 'spinning reserve'. Nuclear plants are
base load and cannot be 'two shifted'.