excess capcity, page-31

Eyeswideopen,

Re: "But would of thought Gas companies would be all over this opportunity to increase their sales"

I've been thinking this for quite a while.

What a perfect opportunity for someone like AGL, to sell a heap more gas plus reduce the cost of supplying electricity (as it does both these days), especially if it were to own the unit and lease it for the customer.

...

Also, a number of people have mentioned the possibility of the government buying / providing loans for / etc. for every home in Australia to have a BlueGen. In fact, we would only need a bit more than half that, as they generate around twice the energy required by the average home.

On that tack, there is of course there's the problem of peak usage spikes etc., which is why you would probably need more than just half the homes to have one. Which then leads me to wonder ... how do energy companies manage excess electricity? Where and how is it stored? Is it made on demand (to some extent), and even if it was, there would still need to be excess at all times, so what happens to the excess? Sorry, I obviously have little to no knowledge of the mechanisms whereby energy companies manage their electricity, so if those 'in the know' could fill me in on the details it would be much appreciated.

(sorry about the ramble, but one thing lead to another!)

Cheers.