On Wednesday, 16 April 2014 07:16:10 UTC+2, Stephen Sprunk  wrote:
> On 14-Apr-14 13:17, bob wrote:
> 
> > In a nuclear (or big steam) plant, the actual power output can be 
> > reduced by throttling steam and dumping it straight to the condenser 
> > rather than sending it through the turbine, but this is not really
> > an ideal way of running things.
> 
> ... because you're essentially throwing away free money.

You are throwing away electricity you have already paid for.  However there
have been situations in Germany in the last couple of years where, due to
government guarantees to buy all solar and wind power, and the time taken to
bring coal plant online (to 
meet the evening peak demand, when solar is not effective) that the market
price for wholesale electricity has actually hit zero.  Such events aren't
common enough for large scale storage projects to become economical, but as
the installed base of 
renewables increases, that will change.

Robin

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