What does a duck have to do with the electricity efficiency?
Did you hear about the duck curve? Not yet? In the text below, we explain what they have in common.
The Duck Curve illustrates the temporal imbalance between peak demand and renewable energy production. The problem is that during the midday hours, which is when the PV installation produces the highest amount of energy, demand is significantly lower than in the morning, afternoon, and evening. This is mainly because at midday most people are at work or school and therefore do not use electricity at home. On the other hand, electricity consumption rises sharply in the afternoon when everyone goes home. At this time of day, however, the efficiency of the PV system drops, as it can produce much less electricity than at midday due to the altitude of the sun.
What are the risks of Duck Curve? Too much energy produced at midday hours and not collected from the power grid can lead to:
- it's overloading as a result of recording too much voltage,
- damage to the electric grid's transmission equipment as well as consumer-side loads,
- temporary shutdown of parts of PV installations to limit the production of too much energy at a given time,
- waste of energy produced by solar panels that is not used in any way. As the sun sets, solar generation drops off but energy demand is high, which means that conventional power plants (such as coal, natural gas-fired, and nuclear) must quickly ramp up electricity production to meet consumer demand. However, this process is not straightforward and requires a certain amount of time. These extreme changes in demand can result in the energy system becoming unstable.
Solutions to Duck Curve? One way is battery storage, which allows surplus energy obtained from the sun to be stored during the day and then used in the morning or evening, that is when production is insufficient to meet current needs. This will also help reduce the need for energy from the grid in the morning or the evening. Another is to encourage energy consumers to optimize consumption by performing certain activities at midday hours or night, such as charging electric cars, and using household appliances (washing machines, dishwashers) when the demand for energy from the grid is low. With the Enetic system, you can manage your energy consumption wisely and help to deal with the Duck Curve issue.
Quack to us and let's see what we can do together for better energy efficiency.
