On 12/18/2013 12:47 PM, EXT wrote:

Did you know that during Earth Hour, when everyone is encouraged to turn
off the lights for one hour, the electric companies pay industry to use
up the power. This is because you cannot shut down a nuclear plant for
one hour, nor stop a hydro dam or even shut down a coal powered
generator plant. Instead of saving money it costs us all extra to not
use the lights for one hour.


This is not true. Power plants can throttle down the output, directly,
and bring offline necessary units in running standby, or stopped
standby, mode.

Look up "droop mode vs isochronous" via search engine.

Depending on what is going on, and how the plant is operated, switching
all units (maybe minus one) into droop will have the power plant
reacting to load conditions. Many power plants have automatic controls
for such circumstances. Others might have operators that will make
the decision. Shutting the plant down is not necessary.