ByDavis Swan | EnergyBiz
For more than 100 years electricity generation and distribution systems have evolved to become one of the most reliable services imaginable – one which has been the foundation of the industrial expansion and prosperity of the developed world. Our society is totally dependent upon this and even relatively short and localized interruptions in the power supply (for example during the Sandy superstorm) cause major disruptions to everyday life.
The reliability of the system depends upon a rather delicate balance of supply and demand that varies throughout the day and throughout the year.
Huge thermal base-load steam turbine generation plants that can reliably provide the same power output 7x24x365 are the foundation of the system in most parts of the world. Historically these have been fueled by coal which generates “dirty” (in some cases toxic) ash and a lot of CO2. More recently single cycle and combined cycle natural gas plants have played an increasingly important role. These plants are cleaner and much more efficient than coal plants in that they transform more of the energy generated by combustion into electricity. The disadvantage of these plants is that natural gas has historically been much more expensive than coal.
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