Sunday Dinner at REMVEC
REMVEC is the organization
responsible for power dispatch in Rhode Island, Eastern Massachusetts
and VErmont. We were out there once and got to watch electrons being
pumped hither and yon about New England. Needless to say, this can be
pretty dull, even when one of the harbor power plants goes off line
without warning. After all, these are professionals and are used to
handling that sort of thing.
One of the more senior power dispatchers was our tour guide, and he got
to reminiscing. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, he said, power demand was
much more predictable than it was in the 1990s, and in the present day.
People woke up at the same time, they got into work at 8 or 9, and the
quitting time whistle blew at 5. You could tell if it was a weekend by
just glancing at the aggregate demand, and every Sunday, you could tell
when people got home from church. Sure enough, all those electric ovens
went on to preheat around 11, and the aggregate demand would show the
spike.
Even a power dispatcher, one of the few people at work on a Sunday,
knew what was cooking for early Sunday dinner. New England was having
roast chicken.
