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Originally Posted by KoeN
power stations are designed to deliver energy at peaks in demand. at my uni many people believe that power stations on the scale they are used now, won't be necessery in the future anymore, because most energy shall be produced on local level; in structures. there will be agents on small-(buildings) and big (neighbourhoods, citys, regions) scale to regulate supply and demand of energy. this is kind of a hot item in the world of sustainable energy, as there's still much to gain on this field. there is for instance a rather interesting project set up now where they try to connect 'peaks in demand' to 'low energyprizes' in time. you can imagine that when, for example, we get more energy out of windpower, prizes will be more expensive when there's lack of wind. in structures itself there's much to gain aswell. you can think of heating up water for your coffeedevice by re-using water that's been used in the shower, or controlsystems that give you options on when to do what; when doing the laundry would be 'the cheapest' option because there's much waste-energy available, or when energy is relatively cheap.about 40% of all energy is being consumed in the built environment. my prediction is that bringing this number back shall have a priority in the western world, the next 20 years or so. |
Used to be called Economy 7 in the UK. Midnight to 7am was 'cheap-rate' on your leccy if you'd signed up. People had storage heaters and these would use off-peak electricity.
I guess once the power companies went private the scheme was scrapped.