"Wayne R. Boyer"  said
> Also the press has done a poor job of explaining that saving electicity at
> for example, 3AM does nothing because the peak power demand is in the
middle
> of the day.  Do other states have meters that track power usage at
different
> time periods in a day and consequently paying a lower rate at night?  CA
> doesn't do that.  Not allowing such meters is just another dumb thing that
CA
> government has done.

Interesting application of this is with the Steenbras power project, near
Cape Town, South Africa, where the water from a dam in the mountains powers
hydro-electric generators on its way to a reservoir lower down. In off-peak
periods, the generators run in reverse to pump the water back to the higher
dam.

See http://www.earthlife.org.za/ghouse/gfiles/energy/ss3.htm

The world's biggest batteries?

/Hans