When you flick a switch, light appears instantly. How does this happen?
The act of flicking a switch lights up the room. Simple, right?
In fact, it’s not as simple as it appears. There is a lot more going on behind the scenes of this everyday action than you might think.
Consider this: Australia’s electricity system has almost no storage capability. So while we might think there is just electricity there for the taking whenever we need it, a balance of energy flowing into the system (generation) and energy flowing out of the system (load) is necessary to keep the system stable. If that balance is disrupted, the system fails and that’s when you get blackouts.
Think of those incredibly hot or cold days when thousands of people turn on air conditioners, fans or heaters. The load increases drastically – and generation has to match it.
The increase in solar panel uptake, meanwhile, brings the opposite effect – households supply some of their own energy on sunny days, decreasing the energy supply required to meet their needs.
So our energy needs have more peaks and troughs than they previously did.
Because we can’t increase solar and wind generation whenever we want to, that increase in generation usually has to be met by fossil fuels.
