Abstract
THE equalising of the normal daily load of an electricity works with its sudden ‘peaks’ and deep drop at night is one of the fundamental problems of electrical engineering economics. The suggestions recently made that many of the European power stations might be linked together so that the peak load might be distributed more evenly, shows how seriously engineers regard the problem. Where Nature makes it possible to collect large quantities of water by the building of dams across valleys and utilising the supplementary energy of hydraulic power stations for yearly storage, the peak demands may be economically covered for months. If the capacity is not sufficient, it can be augmented by using storage pumps to utilise the surplus energy available at night time. In many cases the initial costs of these methods are prohibitive. In the Escher-Wyss News for June, published by the Escher-Wyss Engineering Works, Ltd., of Zurich, Dr. Marguerre describes his thermal process for storing surplus energy. The principle may be explained by comparing it to that of a hydraulic pumping storage plant. In this plant, water is pumped from a low to a high level by utilising surplus energy. This energy is then recovered when required by allowing the water to fall to the lower level. In the thermo-dynamic method, heat is pumped from a low to a high temperature by means of the heat pump (turbo-compressor) and the energy recovered in a steam turbine by a similar temperature drop. The efficiency under average conditions is about 50 per cent. The costs are worked out for practical cases. The method can be used advantageously in connexion with town heating services
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Thermodynamic Storage of Energy. Nature 132, 925–926 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132925d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132925d0