Hot standby may have a slightly different connotation of being active but not productive to hot spare, that is it is a state rather than object. For example, in a national power grid, the supply of power needs to be balanced to demand over a short term. It can take many hours to bring a coal-fired power station up to productive temperatures. To allow for load balancing, generator turbines may be kept running with the generators switched off so as peaks of demand occur, the generators can rapidly be switched on to balance the load. Being in the state of being ready to run is known as hot standby. Though it is not a modern phenomenon, steam train operators might hold a spare steam engine at a terminus fired up, as starting an engine cold would take a significant amount of time.