Natural gas – understanding the massive variations in demand:
Gas is getting a lot of flak in today’s energy crisis—and for good reason. This is a genuine gas crisis. But the criticism can also miss a deeper truth: gas has a really tough assignment. The hardest, in fact. Let’s talk about *seasonal* balancing.
— Nikos Tsafos (@ntsafos) October 6, 2021
– “We often think of gas as balancing intermittent renewables, and sure it can do that. But its chief function in many modern economies is to manage seasonal variations in demand. And these can be huge.”
In this thread, note the graph comparing UK demand for natural gas, which varies by a factor of 4, against demand for electricity, varying by less than a factor of 2.