[TML] [Merchant Shipping] Some ideas I came up with to make merchant shipping more interesing

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 4/12/08 11:01 PM, "shadow at shadowgard.com" <shadow at shadowgard.com> wrote:

> Heck, some power systems have built huge reserviors and use off peak
> power to pump water into them. Then at peak power times they use the
> water to generate power.
> 
> Not real practical in Kansas, but any place that has sufficent water
> and decent hills or mountins can make good use of it.
> 
> If the real world ever gets decent, relatively cheap high capacity
> batteries that can handle a lot of charge/discharge cycles, we'll
> likely see power demand leveling off because businesses will be able
> to switch to the cheaper rates avilable if you pay extra for drawing
> during peak times and les at off-peak. They can use the batteries as
> a load leveler.
> 
> Heck, it'd probably be worth it to the utilities to give breaks to
> folks who install them in their homes.
> 
> A nice side benefit would be supplying backup power if there's an
> outage.

Not to mention a global power grid.  Averaging usage across all time zones
would level demand too.  Of course, you need damn *big* cables between
continents.  :)