Power plants: cold starts and ramp rates?

The purpose of this data-file is to aggregate the ramp-up rates of conventional power generation sources: both as they start up from “cold”, and then as they ramp up (in percent per minute, or MW per minute).

Hydro power and simple cycle gas turbines offer the best short-term performance, ramping immediately and rapidly. Next come combined cycle gas plants, then coal, then nuclear.

Nuclear is nuanced. It might take a day to cold-start up a nuclear plant. But the average facility is 1.1GW. So even a 1% ramp rate is equivalent to adding 10MW per minute, similar in size to the average utility-scale solar plant.

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