Earth Hour can't save energy and turn off the lights for an hour. It's not a question of how much electricity can be saved, but that it can't be saved at all.
First of all, whether it is thermal power, hydropower, wind power or nuclear power, the start-stop process of generator sets is different.
The car engine is as simple as that-start it whenever you want, and turn it off when you pull out the car key. The start and stop of generator set is a very complicated and time-consuming process. It takes at least 12 hours for the unit and tower furnace in thermal power plant to complete a complete start-stop process. Secondly, thermal power plants account for almost 80% of China's power generation, and hydropower is second only to thermal power. The start-stop process of hydroelectric generating set is much more flexible than that of thermal generating set, and a complete start-stop cycle can be completed within one hour. Hydropower is mainly responsible for the frequency modulation of power grid load (that is, electricity)-when the load increases, hydropower units begin to operate in the power grid; When the load is reduced, the hydropower unit can automatically stop and disconnect the network. However, the end of March is still the dry season of hydropower, and more than 95% of the country's power generation comes from thermal power. For a power grid with a certain scale and only one hour of sudden load rise and fall, thermal power plants basically do not have the ability of load tuning response.
Third, from 8: 30 pm to 9: 30 pm, residential electricity consumption has surpassed industrial electricity consumption during the day and become the "main electricity consumption". Only one million people in the country responded to the activity and turned off the lights for one hour, which would not have any impact on the power grid; If 65.438+0.3 billion people respond to the call of "Earth Hour" and turn off the lights for one hour, it will lead to a sudden drop in the load cycle of the national power system, an abnormal distribution of power flow in the national power grid, and even irreversible damage to power equipment.
Based on the above three common sense, we can take a closer look at Earth Hour's pseudo-scientific nature. Turning off the lights for one hour does not mean that some thermal power units or nuclear power units in the country can also stop for one hour. Within an hour, the power plant can be shut down without stopping the furnace (coal-fired tower furnace or nuclear reactor), but it still consumes electric coal or nuclear fuel. This is equivalent to saying that within this hour, this minute hand is a waste of power generation for lighting.
Theoretically, turning off the lights for one night is far more energy-saving than one hour. However, we find that all countries in the world, including China, do not advocate this move. On the contrary, electricity is encouraged at night. The best way to encourage electricity consumption at night is to implement the time-of-use electricity price strategy. In China, users who use time-sharing meters can enjoy a half-price discount on electricity charges at night. Power companies in different provinces and regions have different definitions of half-price time period, which is basically located from 22: 00 pm to 8: 00 the next day. Why do we have to do that？ It's not that the power company wants to earn some electricity, but that the power plant is afraid to shut down-once the boiler is shut down, there is no guarantee that the generator set can start smoothly before the next day's peak power consumption comes. Therefore, the power generation department will take measures to reduce the coal consumption rate of the tower furnace at night, but the tower furnace and generator will not stop running. Therefore, although the power generation of the power generation department is reduced at night, the power generation load will never drop below 50%. Compared with the actual nighttime electricity consumption in society, the nighttime power generation in power generation sector is far from "supply exceeds demand". Even if we don't use any electricity at night, the power generation department should maintain the minimum power generation load needed to maintain normal operation. All power engineers know that most of the TV universities sent at night are wasted, although they don't want to, but it is inevitable.
In many European countries where electric vehicles are popular, the preferential rate of electricity consumption at night is even greater. Moreover, the product manual of electric vehicles also suggests in bold that "charging at night is more economical". This can be regarded as an effective intervention in the period of residents' electricity consumption, which can significantly reduce the daytime electricity consumption, thus reducing the overall power generation and improving the efficiency of electricity consumption. Such measures are truly low-carbon and environmentally friendly.
Some people think that the starting point of "Earth Hour" activity is good, perhaps because the organizers lack some basic knowledge of power system, which leads to such a well-intentioned misunderstanding. Is that so?
Since 2007, this activity has been widely questioned abroad until this year. This activity has been held for five times. If the organizers of the event don't know what the opponents are questioning for such a long time, I'm afraid it's meaningless. As a public welfare activity, "Earth Hour" uses its logo for participating enterprises in a paid way, which is clearly stipulated in the Regulations on the Use of Related Brands in Earth Hour in 20 1 1 year. For such a slogan activity with no clear implementation goal, it is unknown where the corporate sponsorship money will be used.
Find a fashionable and eye-catching topic, organize a seemingly beautiful activity, so as to create a moral hat that shows social responsibility, and then make use of all good people all over the world to publicize it for free, and make the stunt bigger and bigger ... At this time, enterprises will naturally pay the bill-slogans can also be sold. So far, China enterprises that have paid for this sponsorship include Jiumu Sanitary Ware, Makasini (a suit brand from Fujian), Mengniu Dairy,
Volvo trucks and Vanke.
The real energy-saving behavior must start with changing personal electricity habits and reducing the overall electricity load in the country. Stopping using tap water for an hour can save a lot of tap water, and stopping driving for an hour can also save a lot of gasoline. Only the "Earth Hour" that calls for turning off the lights can't save electricity-this can make the personal household electricity meter turn a few times less, but overall, it has no positive significance for saving electricity and low carbon. If we must achieve the goal of energy saving and low carbon by "turning off the lights", I personally suggest turning off the lights for at least one day, so as to be effective.
Move it.