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Energy & Renewables vocabulary · Power Generation and Power Plants

Dispatchable

Meaning in energy & renewables, with examples

/dɪˈspætʃəbəl/adjectiveAdvanced term

In energy & renewables, dispatchable means: Describing a power source whose output can be started, raised or lowered on request, such as gas, reservoir hydro or batteries, unlike weather-dependent solar and wind.

In Turkish: kontrol edilebilir, talimatla devreye alınabilir, esnek

How it is used

Used in system planning and market design: dispatchable generation, dispatchable capacity. The verb dispatch means to instruct a plant to run at a certain level; grid operators usually dispatch plants in merit order, cheapest first.

Example sentences

  1. As coal plants close, we need new dispatchable capacity for windless winter evenings.

  2. Batteries and reservoir hydro are both dispatchable, but only for a limited time or volume.

Common collocations

  • dispatchable generation
  • dispatchable capacity
  • dispatch a plant
  • merit order
  • baseloadThe minimum level of electricity demand that continues day and night, and the power plants that run almost all the time to supply it.
  • intermittencyThe way the output of solar and wind changes with the weather and the time of day, so it cannot be fully controlled or guaranteed at every moment.
  • gas turbineAn engine that burns gas, usually natural gas, and uses the hot expanding gases to spin a turbine connected to a generator. It can start and change output quickly.
  • hydropowerElectricity produced by water flowing through turbines, usually from a river or from a reservoir behind a dam. It is the oldest large-scale renewable power source.
  • ramp upTo increase the output of a power plant, or the level of an activity, steadily over a short time. The opposite is ramp down.

More terms: Power Generation and Power Plants

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