[shakow]

True, but the market moves fast because renewables (or, more precisely, wind & solar) move fast.

There is not much fast trading to be done on a nuke/gas/coal/hydro powerplant ramping up or down, but there is a lot of instability (and thus market volatility) to be found in fast varying solar/wind conditions.

[stephen_g]

That's inaccurate on the whole though, because while those big generators can't move fast, demand can move fast! Which is a difficult problem to manage in baseload grids.

Renewables just change one set of challenges for another set, at the end of the day it's all manageable.

[mlyle]

> because while those big generators can't move fast, demand can move fast! Which is a difficult problem to manage in baseload grids.

Don't forget rotational inertia. This gives the system a high-frequency response mode: it can resist sudden demand changes through stored kinetic energy, effectively acting as a low-pass filter with a fast dominant pole.

As you get a smaller share of generation with rotational inertia, you need a lot more buffering on short to medium timescales.

And, of course, it doesn't help for longer timescales that in many places renewable production slopes off in the late afternoon right when demand slopes upwards for cooling.

[_aavaa_]

> in the late afternoon right when demand slopes upwards for cooling.

Demand rises because that's how people have their system set up. That cooling load can be shifted earlier in the day by using a slightly smarter thermostat to precook your house when the electricity is plentiful.

[mlyle]

> Demand rises because that's how people have their system set up. That cooling load can be shifted earlier in the day by using a slightly smarter thermostat to precook your house when the electricity is plentiful.

You can do this a bit, but the insides of houses don't have that much thermal mass and the best insulated houses add a pretty large phase delay that makes the quickest rise in internal temperatures during the late afternoon as framing in the attic heats up.

I don't have a lot of luck in accomplishing meaningful precooling in my house. My best plan is to suffer until the late afternoon, turning on the AC at the end of the peak demand period when at least outside temperatures are lower, my AC units are shaded, and the cooling is more efficient.

[shakow]

It is a problem in baseload grid, but this is a global issue is shared with wind/solar – unless we find a way to sync demand peaks with wind/Sun peaks, that is solved by other means of energy buffering.