Fig. 7. Load curve in the Federal Republic of Germany (March 1980). However, extremely problematic is the situation of a sudden unscheduled interruption. The loss of 5000 MW at a peak load of 40,000-50,000 MW can no longer be compensated! The normal spinning reserve for unscheduled losses today amounts to approximately 3%, i.e., for the Federal Republic of Germany approximately 1500 MW. If one considers a conceivable application time for an energy satellite in the year 2000 by that time the power consumption in the Federal Republic of Germany may possibly have doubled. Figure 8 shows the curve of the grid peak load and the power consumption of the electric power utilities (Federal Republic of Germany) in the last 30 years and an estimate for the next decade. This shows clearly that a system of this size can only be applied in connection with the European interconnected grid, where a sudden loss of the photovoltaic power could be bridged through a corresponding higher power reserve. Effects on the Transmission Network Besides the problems of power plant utilization described before there will exist problems for the transmission side from the high unit capacity of an energy satellite.
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