FabSwingers.com > Forums > Politics > National Grid - Creaking
National Grid - Creaking
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"As I'm sure you are aware, there is a group of people dedicated to checking the UK's electricity supply, second by second, to make sure that we have a plan in place to supply all the electricity that the country needs right now, and for as far in the future as we can see. They're called the Electricity System Operator, and they issue notices well in advance if they see any possibility of a shortfall in capacity. They will have already worked out what is needed for today, and found suppliers for all of it. Number of capacity notices issued this month: 0 You can read up on them and their work at nationalgrideso.com." Are you seriously suggesting the experts that get paid to manage the electrical network know more than those on a swingers forum ? That's stretching it ...  | |||
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"Always comes down to the guy on the Swingers Forum.." It usually comes down to 'the guy in the swingers forum that sells home generating equipment, and therefore has a good reason to spread panic'. "Time will tell, I believe there us a big football match on Saturday?" So there is. Let's all come back here on Sunday and share stories of our power outages. | |||
"Always comes down to the guy on the Swingers Forum.. It usually comes down to 'the guy in the swingers forum that sells home generating equipment, and therefore has a good reason to spread panic'. Time will tell, I believe there us a big football match on Saturday? So there is. Let's all come back here on Sunday and share stories of our power outages." And the spouting of conspiracies. | |||
"I was also making the valid point - that this country is severely lacking in its own generation." I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. We have plenty of generating capacity in this country. The only problem we have is the introduction of wind power. Because it is unpredictable, we often have to start up, or close down, other stations so that we can meet, and not exceed, demand. We do often buy in power from other countries, and that's the most sensible thing to do if they are offering cheaper power than the local generators. That doesn't mean that we couldn't generate all of our own if we had to. | |||
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"* Turns up thermostat* "Turns thermostat down and puts another log in the burner..  | |||
"* Turns up thermostat*
Turns thermostat down and puts another log in the burner.. "Oh yes.. Toasty warm | |||
"* Turns up thermostat*
Turns thermostat down and puts another log in the burner.. " | |||
"Seems at 45GWh, the UK is now generating just 97%-98% of its Electricty demand. No doubt demand will grow later although Industry will offload some to close down. Nuclear is almost at max and not even 12% of our demand, Gas is at max so our reliance is on Wind holding up - again, apart from 2GWh still available from Coal and a little more from other sources. Export to France has fallen off, Imports are increasing as we've little spare. Wind is tailing off as forecasted to just under 8GWh, was 11GWh this morning. Time 1:25pm 8th Dec Price £383.14/MWh Emissions 239g/kWh Demand 43.9GW Generation 42.7GW Transfers 1.2GW . Generation 97.3% . 54.9% fossil fuels Coal 1.30 3.0% Gas 22.75 52.0% . 24.6% renewables Solar 3.31 7.6% Wind 7.21 16.5% Hydro 0.24 0.5% . 17.8% other sources Nuclear 5.26 12.0% Biomass 2.11 4.8% Other 0.44 1.0% . 2.7% transfers Imports and exports are - Belgium -0.22 -0.5% France -0.36 -0.8% Ireland 0.01 0.0% Netherlands 0.62 1.4% Norway 0.86 2.0% . Storage Pumped storage 0.26 0.6% Bailed put by Europe again by the looks of things. Let's hope they have enough to spare for our Happy Hour at 6pm and the Wind keeps blowing.. " Is this a new thing just specific to this year. Is it because some power stations are no longer used or something like that which us causing this creaking of the system | |||
"Seems at 45GWh, the UK is now generating just 97%-98% of its Electricty demand. No doubt demand will grow later although Industry will offload some to close down. Nuclear is almost at max and not even 12% of our demand, Gas is at max so our reliance is on Wind holding up - again, apart from 2GWh still available from Coal and a little more from other sources. Export to France has fallen off, Imports are increasing as we've little spare. Wind is tailing off as forecasted to just under 8GWh, was 11GWh this morning. Time 1:25pm 8th Dec Price £383.14/MWh Emissions 239g/kWh Demand 43.9GW Generation 42.7GW Transfers 1.2GW . Generation 97.3% . 54.9% fossil fuels Coal 1.30 3.0% Gas 22.75 52.0% . 24.6% renewables Solar 3.31 7.6% Wind 7.21 16.5% Hydro 0.24 0.5% . 17.8% other sources Nuclear 5.26 12.0% Biomass 2.11 4.8% Other 0.44 1.0% . 2.7% transfers Imports and exports are - Belgium -0.22 -0.5% France -0.36 -0.8% Ireland 0.01 0.0% Netherlands 0.62 1.4% Norway 0.86 2.0% . Storage Pumped storage 0.26 0.6% Bailed put by Europe again by the looks of things. Let's hope they have enough to spare for our Happy Hour at 6pm and the Wind keeps blowing.. Is this a new thing just specific to this year. Is it because some power stations are no longer used or something like that which us causing this creaking of the system" It's been going on since 2004 when the UK became a net importer of energy, it does seem like around this time every year the sensational reporting of impending doom due to lack of generating capacity kicks in. In fact heres an example from 2015. www.itv.com/news/2015-11-04/as-national-grid-calls-for-more-energy-is-britains-old-creaking-system-failing So far so good although the government has already clearly stated that short power rationing may be necessary.. no secret and no conspiracy just a war in Ukraine that we are all supporting by refusing to bow to and fund Putin. | |||
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"Not new, but the government has spent the last 5 to 10 years telling us to electrify our lives more. 500,000 EVs registered this year 280,000 Heat Pumps - with the intention of targeting 600,000 by 2028. These draw heavy on power in cold weather due to Auxiliary electric heaters built in. With more electrification, how many new Generator plants, whether Gas Nuclear, Wind and we know about tidal have recently been built? There is an imbalance that's been growing for years and mainly put on the back of more cheaper Wind Turbines. But, without significant alternatives for when the Wind stops blowing, how are all these things going to be powered. Tonight, UK peaked at 43GWh, but of this gas was at maximum capacity giving 23GWh, which was only 50% (half) the capacity of our full demand. It's not enough, yes, for years there's been talk of dark Winters but we seem to be putting more and more load on the Grid with no additional generation other than Wind and falling in deaf ears there isn't enough. Great if the Wind is blowing but when it isn't, there is significant drop of availability of power, 'a tight' event.. We've been close to 'super tight' and beyond these, rationing before complete failure if supply doesn't match demand." can I ask what is the obsession with you constantly reminding? I am pretty sure people are aware of the situation over there . Why is it a necessary point you constantly have to make. People not as stupid as you make them perceive. People do have the ability to adjust and survive but you make them want to feel vulnerable why is that ? | |||
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"Not new, but the government has spent the last 5 to 10 years telling us to electrify our lives more. 500,000 EVs registered this year 280,000 Heat Pumps - with the intention of targeting 600,000 by 2028. These draw heavy on power in cold weather due to Auxiliary electric heaters built in. With more electrification, how many new Generator plants, whether Gas Nuclear, Wind and we know about tidal have recently been built? There is an imbalance that's been growing for years and mainly put on the back of more cheaper Wind Turbines. But, without significant alternatives for when the Wind stops blowing, how are all these things going to be powered." Here's something I can agree with. For years now the government and other groups have been pushing us all to move away from fossil fuels, and shift to electricity, but absolutely nothing has been done to increase our generating capacity, or upgrade the infrastructure that supplies the power to us. Given that nuclear power is the only option available at the moment, we should be building several new plants. Sadly, the green lobby have made that almost impossible. | |||
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"Not new, but the government has spent the last 5 to 10 years telling us to electrify our lives more. 500,000 EVs registered this year 280,000 Heat Pumps - with the intention of targeting 600,000 by 2028. These draw heavy on power in cold weather due to Auxiliary electric heaters built in. With more electrification, how many new Generator plants, whether Gas Nuclear, Wind and we know about tidal have recently been built? There is an imbalance that's been growing for years and mainly put on the back of more cheaper Wind Turbines. But, without significant alternatives for when the Wind stops blowing, how are all these things going to be powered. Here's something I can agree with. For years now the government and other groups have been pushing us all to move away from fossil fuels, and shift to electricity, but absolutely nothing has been done to increase our generating capacity, or upgrade the infrastructure that supplies the power to us. Given that nuclear power is the only option available at the moment, we should be building several new plants. Sadly, the green lobby have made that almost impossible." Yet how expensive is it to build? And how long does it take? I don’t mind nuclear energy, but there are better nuclear reactor types which are less impactful than the ones we decide to build. | |||
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"Government has had 12 years to insulate and increase renewables etc. Massive fail. " The has been a massive increase in 'renewables' over the past 12 years, but it's of no use if the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. We don't need more 'renewables', we need more reliable and dependable sources. Right now, that means nuclear. | |||
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"The best type of renewable would be tidal. Yet everyone of these schemes runs into opposition. I see that the Swansea Bay tidal project has now been abandoned, and that was first mooted in 2014!" Tidal might be possible, but even the best tidal schemes only produce power for 20 hours in a day. We still need something else to generate power when the tide isn't moving. | |||
"The best type of renewable would be tidal. Yet everyone of these schemes runs into opposition. I see that the Swansea Bay tidal project has now been abandoned, and that was first mooted in 2014! Tidal might be possible, but even the best tidal schemes only produce power for 20 hours in a day. We still need something else to generate power when the tide isn't moving." The tide only stops moving for a brief moment at low and high tide. | |||
"Tidal might be possible, but even the best tidal schemes only produce power for 20 hours in a day. We still need something else to generate power when the tide isn't moving." "The tide only stops moving for a brief moment at low and high tide. " Technically, yes. But either side of the high and low points, the water is moving so slowly that it's barely noticeable. It varies according to local conditions, but generally speaking slack water is considered to be one hour either side of high or low tide. | |||
"Tidal might be possible, but even the best tidal schemes only produce power for 20 hours in a day. We still need something else to generate power when the tide isn't moving. The tide only stops moving for a brief moment at low and high tide. Technically, yes. But either side of the high and low points, the water is moving so slowly that it's barely noticeable. It varies according to local conditions, but generally speaking slack water is considered to be one hour either side of high or low tide." Its possible using restrictive flow into a tidal Lagoon rather than simply height of tide. Of course there will always be a delay but the tide times vary around the UK as you'll see if you look on the BBC tide times for various ports. So a little of the slack water can be accounted for, and the lagoon could be pump assisted using excess power at non peak times. It's a lot more predictable than wind or sun in the UK | |||
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"The best type of renewable would be tidal. Yet everyone of these schemes runs into opposition. I see that the Swansea Bay tidal project has now been abandoned, and that was first mooted in 2014! Tidal might be possible, but even the best tidal schemes only produce power for 20 hours in a day. We still need something else to generate power when the tide isn't moving." Do we? Store it!! | |||
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"The last land cables for the Viking Connector went in this week. Just need to connect the land cables to the sea cables, and then we can import electricity from Denmark. The 765km cable connects Bicker Fen windfall near Boston to Jutland, Denmark." Does Denmark have Electricity to Export, why again, rely on 3rd parties with underwater cables that can be damaged or sabotaged. Again, we rely on others for our shortfall in government. People moan that EDF are stuffing their pockets from the UK already. Is this not stuffing pockets of the Danes as well? | |||
" With regard to other derogatory comments earlier, I'm also involved with Video Doorbells and Security systems- shall I stand accused of trying to 'whip up' trade by talking about the high numbers of burglaries happening in this country? Oh, and before anyone asks - as it's against rules to buy / sell here. So you're wasting your time asking as it's a NO. Just to be clear." Perhaps you could mention your other business by stealth.. Oh you did lol Not that anyone cares either and is it against forum rules anyway ? Oh ... And when did we actually start importing energy including electric from the EU ? Is it a new thing that should worry us or is it something that's been going on for decades ? | |||
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"I don't break rules.." Nobody said you did as far as I can see reading the posts ? | |||
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" Light paper, sit back andvwait two minutes!! " You don't seem to understand how a forum works Someone posts something Others discuss, it's not personal and it's not about nastiness. Sometimes people agree and sometimes they don't. It's not really for singling out particular people and whining about their posts. Perhaps if you don't like my contribution it might be better to scroll past ? I frequently do on things. Anyway back on topic You have posted several cut and paste of momentary figures related to power generation seemingly to illustrate impending doom. These figures don't really mean much without the overall context of total available Vs total in use. For example, how many generation units are not currently running to full capacity and what's in reserve. Maybe you can find those figures if you like and we can discuss ? Is it cheaper to import electricity from France and Belgium than to ramp up or bring online additional capacity especially if wind is forecast for later ? Is it more efficient to export some excess power to another country than to start shutting down units if there is an unexpected wind ? Things are rarely black and white. | |||
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"I see plenty of discussion on my post until you start trashing with silly, abrupt, sometimes uninformed responses. Try debating not trashing. You seem to get very triggered, what is it, are you jealous: My cheap 4p/kwh Gas My cheap 19.9p/kwh electricity My 9kwh Solar My 45kwh batteries My 6kwh generator My gas heater (very toasty as on now) My fully Air Conditioned house My cheap mortgage My EV and FREE charging My making profit on others charging What is it, what triggers you? As a Forum Mod suggested to you on another post you tried to trash the other day, if you don't like what you read, move off. I put posts to make people think and realise how fickle our energy supply is, how polluting it is, but everytime I do, you come along like a Bull to a Red Flag throwing discussion off kilter and probably put people off who must think "here we go, them two again". Last night you suggested no-one was interested, then you spent time to write a lecture!! Seriously, join the debate, you're spoiling the fun. Don't like - don't read, don't agree - debate it with references than your usual telling me it's BS. That's how forums work!! I could come throw water on your posts, but respectfully refrain instead so why trash mine?" Maybe you could answer the question related to the post then ? | |||
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"As I'm sure you are aware, there is a group of people dedicated to checking the UK's electricity supply, second by second, to make sure that we have a plan in place to supply all the electricity that the country needs right now, and for as far in the future as we can see. They're called the Electricity System Operator, and they issue notices well in advance if they see any possibility of a shortfall in capacity. They will have already worked out what is needed for today, and found suppliers for all of it. Number of capacity notices issued this month: 0 You can read up on them and their work at nationalgrideso.com. Are you seriously suggesting the experts that get paid to manage the electrical network know more than those on a swingers forum ? That's stretching it ... "A reasonable point, but don’t ignore the fact that there could be National Grid experts who are swingers and they could be members of this site.  | |||
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"A quick google says UK generation capacity was 75.8GW at the time of the article Consumption has been falling for the last few years. Your post says demand was 43.9GW Why is the grid "creaking"" Erm.. your actually quite right. BUT.. that includes Wind which right now is maximum at 1.5GWh - as the fricking wind isn't blowing!! And that at 24GWh Wind is equivalent to of our 50% of generation under high load. One day you'll understand. Then there is Solar egich doesn't work in the dark, many Swingers struggle to grasp this. What's left if your 76GWh? Don't fall for 'Diverse and Robust Energy System' government Bull Shit they are spinning - its misleading and false. If we are so comfortable at twice the generation to demand, why the hell is National Grid shitting itself in announcing there is potential for power cuts on a very cold night with very low wind and other countries can't spare us??? A 'quick Google' is a dangerous thing, dig deeper and you'll find the truth. There is also documentation showing 36GWh Gas generation- why does it peak at 24GWh? Oh yeah, it appears inefficient Open Cycle Gas plants have been shut down. Further to this, then some countries have no surplus as its cold there in middle of winter as its not a windy. If you actully paid attention to any of my posts, you'll, see the UK has a big problem on a night of high demand when the damned wind ain't blowing. We go through last night OK as demand was 5GWh down at 39.7GWh during the game. Its rising to 45GWh nominally but being a Saturday, enough industry was offline as it will be over Christmas. By 'calling' Swingers on a Swingers try in an attempt to belittle me, you're actually also insulting every other user of this forum's intelligence including yourself. I have met and know extremely knowledgeable, very highly educated, skilled people as Swingers and would never write them off as 'Swingers'. Kettle calling the pot? A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. | |||
"A quick google says UK generation capacity was 75.8GW at the time of the article Consumption has been falling for the last few years. Your post says demand was 43.9GW Why is the grid "creaking" Erm.. your actually quite right. BUT.. that includes Wind which right now is maximum at 1.5GWh - as the fricking wind isn't blowing!! And that at 24GWh Wind is equivalent to of our 50% of generation under high load. One day you'll understand. Then there is Solar egich doesn't work in the dark, many Swingers struggle to grasp this. What's left if your 76GWh? Don't fall for 'Diverse and Robust Energy System' government Bull Shit they are spinning - its misleading and false. If we are so comfortable at twice the generation to demand, why the hell is National Grid shitting itself in announcing there is potential for power cuts on a very cold night with very low wind and other countries can't spare us??? A 'quick Google' is a dangerous thing, dig deeper and you'll find the truth. There is also documentation showing 36GWh Gas generation- why does it peak at 24GWh? Oh yeah, it appears inefficient Open Cycle Gas plants have been shut down. Further to this, then some countries have no surplus as its cold there in middle of winter as its not a windy. If you actully paid attention to any of my posts, you'll, see the UK has a big problem on a night of high demand when the damned wind ain't blowing. We go through last night OK as demand was 5GWh down at 39.7GWh during the game. Its rising to 45GWh nominally but being a Saturday, enough industry was offline as it will be over Christmas. By 'calling' Swingers on a Swingers try in an attempt to belittle me, you're actually also insulting every other user of this forum's intelligence including yourself. I have met and know extremely knowledgeable, very highly educated, skilled people as Swingers and would never write them off as 'Swingers'. Kettle calling the pot? A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing." I really don't know where you get the notion that anyone is trying to belittle you, don't take everything personally. You act like I'm the only person to comment on your posts and I only question your posts and nobody else. If you get time use the green arrow on your posts and ours. You'll find we both comment on a wide range of subjects, we try to be informative and helpful and we try to engage with others on an equal level, we're no better than you or anyone else on here no matter what they are in real life. We don't post long angry posts directed at people that we don't know. Anyway I'm finished apologising for your misinterpretation. And if you check the green arrow you'll see it's been a very common thing. You're 100% right, a quick google means I'm no expert but I question what I read and generally get a reasoned discussion. I respect your opinion even when your wrong, it might upset you when your opinions are questioned but sometimes we agree and sometimes we disagree and the green arrow will reveal that we have agreed with you on more than one occasion ! | |||
"Time will tell, I believe there us a big football match on Saturday?" "So there is. Let's all come back here on Sunday and share stories of our power outages." Well, it's Sunday, and it seems that that weren't any power outages last night that need discussing. In fact electricity demand dropped slightly during the match. It seems that this predicting lark is a bit more difficult than it appears. | |||
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"Same old - same old.." Something we can agree on | |||
" Sunday is unlikely a day of shortages as was Saturday as load from Industry, is off the Grid. . It might be Sunday and power is still on, " See there's lots of things we agree on, life is good and all is cool  | |||
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"I was going to spread load over the day, but seen though we have plenty capacity, I won't. I'll wait until Wholesale hits £700 later and run the Washer, Tumble Dryer, Oven, Hobs and charge the car and House batteries at the same time. I'll glee in the satisfaction of knowing the 105KWh consumed will cost me at 19.9p/kwh £21 - but for my Energy provider and ultimately government will pay £74 to provide it to me. A combined loss of £53 to taxpayers and my provider. Thanks Liz, as for France, up yours - you deserve to struggle after last night!!" You make it sound like you've invested in just about everything. A salesmans dream by the sounds of it. What I don't get though, you keep saying you've been warning people, councillors etc. Yet I've read at least 3 times in the last week that you're gleeful to be running electrical items at the most expensive times so as to cost the taxpayers money. Am I right in thinking that? | |||
"I was going to spread load over the day, but seen though we have plenty capacity, I won't. I'll wait until Wholesale hits £700 later and run the Washer, Tumble Dryer, Oven, Hobs and charge the car and House batteries at the same time. I'll glee in the satisfaction of knowing the 105KWh consumed will cost me at 19.9p/kwh £21 - but for my Energy provider and ultimately government will pay £74 to provide it to me. A combined loss of £53 to taxpayers and my provider. Thanks Liz, as for France, up yours - you deserve to struggle after last night!! You make it sound like you've invested in just about everything. A salesmans dream by the sounds of it. What I don't get though, you keep saying you've been warning people, councillors etc. Yet I've read at least 3 times in the last week that you're gleeful to be running electrical items at the most expensive times so as to cost the taxpayers money. Am I right in thinking that?" We love your advent calendar! | |||
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"I was going to spread load over the day, but seen though we have plenty capacity, I won't. I'll wait until Wholesale hits £700 later and run the Washer, Tumble Dryer, Oven, Hobs and charge the car and House batteries at the same time. I'll glee in the satisfaction of knowing the 105KWh consumed will cost me at 19.9p/kwh £21 - but for my Energy provider and ultimately government will pay £74 to provide it to me. A combined loss of £53 to taxpayers and my provider. Thanks Liz, as for France, up yours - you deserve to struggle after last night!! You make it sound like you've invested in just about everything. A salesmans dream by the sounds of it. What I don't get though, you keep saying you've been warning people, councillors etc. Yet I've read at least 3 times in the last week that you're gleeful to be running electrical items at the most expensive times so as to cost the taxpayers money. Am I right in thinking that?" Thing is, no one else seems to care, so the sooner power outages start - the sooner the awkward questions for government. We've 76GWh generation here apparently, shall we all go stand by the sea and try n blow the Windmills to get them turning as there is 22GWh sitting idle at the moment. EU Interconnectors are running 7.4GWh of their absolute max capacity of 8.4GWh, Gas is max, Pumped Storage running too. Let's hope one of those rusty old Gas, Coal or Nuclear stations doesn't pop a fuse tonight, else I just might be proved right!! If anyone remembers the August 9th 2019 incident of a coal station tripping, that then tripped a Windfarm causing unplanned Blackouts from the Midlands to Manchester.. A salesmans dream, DIY SOS more like! Self taught, self bought and self installed. "The Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (“the Authority”) opened an investigation into the power outage of Friday 9 August 2019, to establish the circumstances and causes of the outage and the lessons that can be learned to improve the resilience of Great Britain’s energy network, and to investigate the compliance of the key licensed parties involved with their licence and code obligations. A report on Ofgem’s findings can be found below. The investigation found that the combined loss of two large generators, as well as the smaller loss of generation at a local level, together triggered the subsequent disconnection, loss of power and disruption to more than one million consumers. Two large power stations, Hornsea One Ltd (co-owned by Orsted) and Little Barford (operated by RWE) did not remain connected after a lightning strike. They have agreed to make a voluntary payment of £4.5 million each into Ofgem’s redress fund." What did they learn to improve resilience? Hmm.. let me think. | |||
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" We've 76GWh generation here apparently, shall we all go stand by the sea and try n blow the Windmills to get them turning as there is 22GWh sitting idle at the moment." 76-22=54 54 is more than 34 All good Sleep well | |||
"I was going to spread load over the day, but seen though we have plenty capacity, I won't. I'll wait until Wholesale hits £700 later and run the Washer, Tumble Dryer, Oven, Hobs and charge the car and House batteries at the same time. I'll glee in the satisfaction of knowing the 105KWh consumed will cost me at 19.9p/kwh £21 - but for my Energy provider and ultimately government will pay £74 to provide it to me. A combined loss of £53 to taxpayers and my provider. Thanks Liz, as for France, up yours - you deserve to struggle after last night!! You make it sound like you've invested in just about everything. A salesmans dream by the sounds of it. What I don't get though, you keep saying you've been warning people, councillors etc. Yet I've read at least 3 times in the last week that you're gleeful to be running electrical items at the most expensive times so as to cost the taxpayers money. Am I right in thinking that? Thing is, no one else seems to care, so the sooner power outages start - the sooner the awkward questions for government. We've 76GWh generation here apparently, shall we all go stand by the sea and try n blow the Windmills to get them turning as there is 22GWh sitting idle at the moment. EU Interconnectors are running 7.4GWh of their absolute max capacity of 8.4GWh, Gas is max, Pumped Storage running too. Let's hope one of those rusty old Gas, Coal or Nuclear stations doesn't pop a fuse tonight, else I just might be proved right!! If anyone remembers the August 9th 2019 incident of a coal station tripping, that then tripped a Windfarm causing unplanned Blackouts from the Midlands to Manchester.. A salesmans dream, DIY SOS more like! Self taught, self bought and self installed. "The Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (“the Authority”) opened an investigation into the power outage of Friday 9 August 2019, to establish the circumstances and causes of the outage and the lessons that can be learned to improve the resilience of Great Britain’s energy network, and to investigate the compliance of the key licensed parties involved with their licence and code obligations. A report on Ofgem’s findings can be found below. The investigation found that the combined loss of two large generators, as well as the smaller loss of generation at a local level, together triggered the subsequent disconnection, loss of power and disruption to more than one million consumers. Two large power stations, Hornsea One Ltd (co-owned by Orsted) and Little Barford (operated by RWE) did not remain connected after a lightning strike. They have agreed to make a voluntary payment of £4.5 million each into Ofgem’s redress fund." What did they learn to improve resilience? Hmm.. let me think." I didn't ask who cares, I asked about you. Why are you so gleeful to be actively costing us all money, including yourself I assume? You taught yourself how to install solar, ASHP etc? That's quite impressive seeing as most electricians and plumbers that haven't done the necessary training won't even touch them. | |||
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"The last land cables for the Viking Connector went in this week. Just need to connect the land cables to the sea cables, and then we can import electricity from Denmark. The 765km cable connects Bicker Fen windfall near Boston to Jutland, Denmark. Does Denmark have Electricity to Export, why again, rely on 3rd parties with underwater cables that can be damaged or sabotaged. Again, we rely on others for our shortfall in government. People moan that EDF are stuffing their pockets from the UK already. Is this not stuffing pockets of the Danes as well?" Denmark has plenty of power to export. There will soon be an interconnector between Jutland and Southern Germany, so that cities such as Munich can access surplus Danish power. | |||
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"Another thing to throw into the mix is our refining capacity. We have 5 in this country. If one of them goes down or workers go on strike we are in deep shit" Electricity, gas and oil are not the only things we rely on to import, we aren't really self sufficient for very much, being part of the EU made that much less painful. Still .. plenty of electricity and more prepared to come online. And the suns out and plenty of wind forecast later in the week. Life's good | |||
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"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise?" Fortunately the army are fully trained to run and maintain any of the UK power stations. Next ... | |||
"Yes, National Grid has requested the two Coal units to be heated up for today's Happy Hour. BBC News - Coal plants put on standby to supply electricity https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63940390 " Stood down. | |||
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"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise?" We are mainly unite in our station Got 7% plus £1100 one off payment | |||
"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise? Fortunately the army are fully trained to run and maintain any of the UK power stations. Next ..." Having done 10 years in the British Army, and now working in a Power Station, best you get advice off funboy for being self sufficient if you think the armed forces can run power stations. Lol. | |||
"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise? Fortunately the army are fully trained to run and maintain any of the UK power stations. Next ... Having done 10 years in the British Army, and now working in a Power Station, best you get advice off funboy for being self sufficient if you think the armed forces can run power stations. Lol. " Ex Sapper and back in the day we did have guys in the Corps trained in case of such an eventuality, albeit not dozens but enough to supervise others.. | |||
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"Talk about emptying the barrel: 1.3GWh!! Drax power station is a large biomass power station in Drax, North Yorkshire, England, capable of co-firing petroleum . It has a 2.6 GW capacity for biomass and 1.29 GW capacity for coal. " So would you like a system like in Spain you pay a diferant rate depending on the size of the supply 40amp cheap 100amp very expensive and it steps up in between. You say you charge an ev car and run a Heat pump. So guess you have 100amp Now think if your house hold had his and her car's and 3 grown up children so 5 cars now to charge over night would you supply take it you might also have electric cooking, showers all hi loading. | |||
"85% - let's hope those experts didn't act too soon. EU Running almost flat out. By no means a comfortable margin and 6pm is looming.." So what happened at 6pm? Did the entire country black out again? | |||
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"85% - let's hope those experts didn't act too soon. EU Running almost flat out. By no means a comfortable margin and 6pm is looming.. So what happened at 6pm? Did the entire country black out again?" Ooops fat fingers pressed delete, must have been the panic setting in. Just back from the garage with 8AAs and a gallon of diesel for the tractor in case we needed the PTO generator but I think we scraped through again .. phew... | |||
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"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise? Fortunately the army are fully trained to run and maintain any of the UK power stations. Next ... Having done 10 years in the British Army, and now working in a Power Station, best you get advice off funboy for being self sufficient if you think the armed forces can run power stations. Lol. Ex Sapper and back in the day we did have guys in the Corps trained in case of such an eventuality, albeit not dozens but enough to supervise others.." Ex RE and rebadged to REME myself so hello brother. However I doubt the Army has staff qualified as HV SAPs ( for example ) and leading and directing others ( a British Army skill) is all well and good but rather pointless if there is no skilled power station workers around. | |||
"In the last 24 hours, government has subsidised my Energy by £100 at least.. as I didn't include house usage in previous figures." The government have paid EDF well over twice what I owed them. Can't be bad. percentage wise I'm probably doing better than you are as I haven't had to splash out on panels, batteries and electric driveways. Between the two of us we can probably discredit the government enough, for p  igacy, to ensure that they never get back in power. | |||
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"Not sure how the hell that smiley got in there. I never use the damned things" Ah, got it. It translated r o f l. Too clever by half. | |||
"Not sure how the hell that smiley got in there. I never use the damned things" r o f l gives smiley . | |||
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"Not sure how the hell that smiley got in there. I never use the damned things r o f l gives smiley . " If ever there was good cause to groan! | |||
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"And I had to use two of the AAs for the TV remote Bummer" Don’t forget to keep some AAs in reserve for the vibrators. Don’t trust the mains to supply your toy in case there is a power cut ! Lol | |||
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"And I had to use two of the AAs for the TV remote Bummer Don’t forget to keep some AAs in reserve for the vibrators. Don’t trust the mains to supply your toy in case there is a power cut ! Lol " Can you imagine the rage if the power to the wand dies just at the wrong moment, I would not want to be in the line of fire for that one | |||
"And I had to use two of the AAs for the TV remote Bummer Don’t forget to keep some AAs in reserve for the vibrators. Don’t trust the mains to supply your toy in case there is a power cut ! Lol " Don't worry, she made sure we got the inverter hooked up and the lithium packs are fully charged, last week's test they did seventeen orgasm's per pack | |||
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"Not wanting to jump on the negative bus but I have just read this. https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/11/uk-power-prices-hit-record-high-amid-cold-snap-and-lack-of-wind-power" Nothing negative there, its unfortunately, reality... | |||
"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise? Fortunately the army are fully trained to run and maintain any of the UK power stations. Next ... Having done 10 years in the British Army, and now working in a Power Station, best you get advice off funboy for being self sufficient if you think the armed forces can run power stations. Lol. Ex Sapper and back in the day we did have guys in the Corps trained in case of such an eventuality, albeit not dozens but enough to supervise others.. Ex RE and rebadged to REME myself so hello brother. However I doubt the Army has staff qualified as HV SAPs ( for example ) and leading and directing others ( a British Army skill) is all well and good but rather pointless if there is no skilled power station workers around. " Army Soldier- Be the best. Just like Rebecca Rabbit off Peppa Pig. British Army - they: Run Power Stations Drive Ambulances Drive Train Drivers Replace Nurses Replace Teachers Deliver Mail Did I miss any - Can't keep up!! Let's just sack the fricken lot of 'em and bring in the Army instead.. What - there's not enough staff, ahh yes I remember, the years of Military cuts!!! | |||
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"Meanwhile, National Grid has stood down two coal plants that it had on standby to generate electricity in case supplies were disrupted. The company had asked Drax, which owns Britain's biggest power station in North Yorkshire, to prepare two coal-fired units on Monday. But they have been cancelled due to high output from wind and nuclear, reducing the chance of energy shortages. It said households should "continue to use energy as normal". All good ... Sleep well "All well and good but the question should be: Why did they put them on stand by at all? It seems to me that they just about got away with it. Bullet dodged and all that. It doesn't bode well for the day when there are around 20 million electric cars all going on charge. Which with current policies will be sooner than you think. Squeaky bum time coming soon methinks. | |||
"Meanwhile, National Grid has stood down two coal plants that it had on standby to generate electricity in case supplies were disrupted. The company had asked Drax, which owns Britain's biggest power station in North Yorkshire, to prepare two coal-fired units on Monday. But they have been cancelled due to high output from wind and nuclear, reducing the chance of energy shortages. It said households should "continue to use energy as normal". All good ... Sleep well
All well and good but the question should be: Why did they put them on stand by at all?
It seems to me that they just about got away with it. Bullet dodged and all that.
It doesn't bode well for the day when there are around 20 million electric cars all going on charge. Which with current policies will be sooner than you think.
Squeaky bum time coming soon methinks.
"They have stuff on standby in case it's needed ! Anyway over the last 7 days we've averaged to use just 35.8GW and only imported a small amount Over the next few years your electric car will be the standby as the grid can suck them dry to keep the lights in your house on. Clever huh ? Keep smiling life's good and I've 6AAs left if you're caught short
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"£75,000,000 PER. 15x hours at todays figure is best part of £1 Billion. "That's right up there with Boris Johnson's old bar bill, we might be actually saving money now he's gone. It's a good job not everyone is a leech trying to suck the government dry of your taxes, just the select few. | |||
"Meanwhile, National Grid has stood down two coal plants that it had on standby to generate electricity in case supplies were disrupted. The company had asked Drax, which owns Britain's biggest power station in North Yorkshire, to prepare two coal-fired units on Monday. But they have been cancelled due to high output from wind and nuclear, reducing the chance of energy shortages. It said households should "continue to use energy as normal". All good ... Sleep well
All well and good but the question should be: Why did they put them on stand by at all?
It seems to me that they just about got away with it. Bullet dodged and all that.
It doesn't bode well for the day when there are around 20 million electric cars all going on charge. Which with current policies will be sooner than you think.
Squeaky bum time coming soon methinks.
They have stuff on standby in case it's needed !
Anyway over the last 7 days we've averaged to use just 35.8GW and only imported a small amount
Over the next few years your electric car will be the standby as the grid can suck them dry to keep the lights in your house on. Clever huh ?
Keep smiling life's good and I've 6AAs left if you're caught short
"So you pay 30 grand plus for an electric car then get up on a cold morning to drive to work. Only to find out that the grid has sucked it dry overnight. Clever? My arse. | |||
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"Meanwhile, National Grid has stood down two coal plants that it had on standby to generate electricity in case supplies were disrupted. The company had asked Drax, which owns Britain's biggest power station in North Yorkshire, to prepare two coal-fired units on Monday. But they have been cancelled due to high output from wind and nuclear, reducing the chance of energy shortages. It said households should "continue to use energy as normal". All good ... Sleep well
All well and good but the question should be: Why did they put them on stand by at all?
It seems to me that they just about got away with it. Bullet dodged and all that.
It doesn't bode well for the day when there are around 20 million electric cars all going on charge. Which with current policies will be sooner than you think.
Squeaky bum time coming soon methinks.
They have stuff on standby in case it's needed !
Anyway over the last 7 days we've averaged to use just 35.8GW and only imported a small amount
Over the next few years your electric car will be the standby as the grid can suck them dry to keep the lights in your house on. Clever huh ?
Keep smiling life's good and I've 6AAs left if you're caught short
So you pay 30 grand plus for an electric car then get up on a cold morning to drive to work. Only to find out that the grid has sucked it dry overnight.
Clever? My arse."Clever for "them" not for "you" | |||
"And I had to use two of the AAs for the TV remote Bummer Don’t forget to keep some AAs in reserve for the vibrators. Don’t trust the mains to supply your toy in case there is a power cut ! Lol Don't worry, she made sure we got the inverter hooked up and the lithium packs are fully charged, last week's test they did seventeen orgasm's per pack "Vibrators plugged into the mains sound dangerous to me. Imagine if there was a power surge | |||
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"And I had to use two of the AAs for the TV remote Bummer Don’t forget to keep some AAs in reserve for the vibrators. Don’t trust the mains to supply your toy in case there is a power cut ! Lol Don't worry, she made sure we got the inverter hooked up and the lithium packs are fully charged, last week's test they did seventeen orgasm's per pack
Vibrators plugged into the mains sound dangerous to me. Imagine if there was a power surge "The battery ones aren't Powerful enough bought apararently, she loves her Hitachi Just out of the jacuzzi, she does love the water jets lol She's not happy I turned it down to 39° though | |||
"An average is not "peak demand" which reach 47GWh yesterday. Wholesale right now is £630.. Over 3x the price I'm paying for the car parked on my drive.." And they didn't even need the backups life's good | |||
"Power workers - are they predominantly UNISON? Good time to ask for a pay rise? Fortunately the army are fully trained to run and maintain any of the UK power stations. Next ... Having done 10 years in the British Army, and now working in a Power Station, best you get advice off funboy for being self sufficient if you think the armed forces can run power stations. Lol. Ex Sapper and back in the day we did have guys in the Corps trained in case of such an eventuality, albeit not dozens but enough to supervise others.. Ex RE and rebadged to REME myself so hello brother. However I doubt the Army has staff qualified as HV SAPs ( for example ) and leading and directing others ( a British Army skill) is all well and good but rather pointless if there is no skilled power station workers around. " Hiya mate, I would tend to agree that it's unlikely they would have enough now especially given the slash and cut to the military.. | |||
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"So a guy turns up at my house late last night. In Summer he spent £17k on a new Heat Pump under government BUS and got £5k towards it. His house is cold, the Heat Pump alone drew 50KWh of 34p/KWh electricity at a cost of around £17 in a single day. As efficiency of the Heat Pump would be low, mostly of this heat energy would be from a resistance back up Auxiliary Heater - direct heating via electricity. This causes issues: 1) Cost, at 50KWh of heat at 34p/KWh compared to 10p/KWh his boiler would have provided would have been 3rd the price. 2) Loading, instead of burning gas at his property at 90% Boiler Efficiency, he put an additional 50KWh demand on the already stretched Grid. 3) Gas generation is around 48% Efficient, so his property used twice as much Gas by having it produced offsite than his Boiler would of burnt, putting further demand on Gas supply. What's government target for Heat Pumps over the next 10yrs? Rip my boiler out and expose myself to that, never!! "Think we need a bigger boat"" Another thing we agree on, heat pumps are shite unless you dig a massive hole in your garden or you are lucky enough to have a small lake and your house is better insulated than the space shuttle, ours uses the river to take the chill off the sheds but wouldn't even think of using it for the house. And still no rolling 3 hr power cuts, I'm truly amazed given the weather. | |||
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"So a guy turns up at my house late last night. In Summer he spent £17k on a new Heat Pump under government BUS and got £5k towards it. His house is cold, the Heat Pump alone drew 50KWh of 34p/KWh electricity at a cost of around £17 in a single day. As efficiency of the Heat Pump would be low, mostly of this heat energy would be from a resistance back up Auxiliary Heater - direct heating via electricity. This causes issues: 1) Cost, at 50KWh of heat at 34p/KWh compared to 10p/KWh his boiler would have provided would have been 3rd the price. 2) Loading, instead of burning gas at his property at 90% Boiler Efficiency, he put an additional 50KWh demand on the already stretched Grid. 3) Gas generation is around 48% Efficient, so his property used twice as much Gas by having it produced offsite than his Boiler would of burnt, putting further demand on Gas supply. What's government target for Heat Pumps over the next 10yrs? Rip my boiler out and expose myself to that, never!! "Think we need a bigger boat" Another thing we agree on, heat pumps are shite unless you dig a massive hole in your garden or you are lucky enough to have a small lake and your house is better insulated than the space shuttle, ours uses the river to take the chill off the sheds but wouldn't even think of using it for the house. And still no rolling 3 hr power cuts, I'm truly amazed given the weather." Not really amazing. While cold, the weather has been generally kind to the grid. There has been enough wind for the wind turbines to work quite well. The big problem at this time of year is if the country gets stuck under a static or very slow moving high pressure system. Lots of cold frosty weather but little or no wind. That is when the shit will hit the fan (or should I say wind turbine) | |||
"So a guy turns up at my house late last night. In Summer he spent £17k on a new Heat Pump under government BUS and got £5k towards it. His house is cold, the Heat Pump alone drew 50KWh of 34p/KWh electricity at a cost of around £17 in a single day. As efficiency of the Heat Pump would be low, mostly of this heat energy would be from a resistance back up Auxiliary Heater - direct heating via electricity. This causes issues: 1) Cost, at 50KWh of heat at 34p/KWh compared to 10p/KWh his boiler would have provided would have been 3rd the price. 2) Loading, instead of burning gas at his property at 90% Boiler Efficiency, he put an additional 50KWh demand on the already stretched Grid. 3) Gas generation is around 48% Efficient, so his property used twice as much Gas by having it produced offsite than his Boiler would of burnt, putting further demand on Gas supply. What's government target for Heat Pumps over the next 10yrs? Rip my boiler out and expose myself to that, never!! "Think we need a bigger boat" Another thing we agree on, heat pumps are shite unless you dig a massive hole in your garden or you are lucky enough to have a small lake and your house is better insulated than the space shuttle, ours uses the river to take the chill off the sheds but wouldn't even think of using it for the house. And still no rolling 3 hr power cuts, I'm truly amazed given the weather. Not really amazing. While cold, the weather has been generally kind to the grid. There has been enough wind for the wind turbines to work quite well. The big problem at this time of year is if the country gets stuck under a static or very slow moving high pressure system. Lots of cold frosty weather but little or no wind. That is when the shit will hit the fan (or should I say wind turbine) " Wind output has been around 10% so very low. | |||
"Currently 47GWh.. If Wind hadn't picked up, what would the situation have been later as we start racking up 50GWh. France on Monday asked that we reduce demand on their Interconnectors as they, themselves were struggling with demand. Predictions for failures are JANUARY/ FEBRUARY, not December! Although a few expensive close shaves already.." Demand predictions are weather dependent not how the month is spelled lol January and February are normally windier than December,and December has been unseasonally cold. The import from France was cut by 50% ... But guess what ? The lights didn't flicker ! | |||
"Currently 47GWh.. If Wind hadn't picked up, what would the situation have been later as we start racking up 50GWh. France on Monday asked that we reduce demand on their Interconnectors as they, themselves were struggling with demand. Predictions for failures are JANUARY/ FEBRUARY, not December! Although a few expensive close shaves already.. Demand predictions are weather dependent not how the month is spelled lol January and February are normally windier than December,and December has been unseasonally cold. The import from France was cut by 50% ... But guess what ? The lights didn't flicker ! " It’s not as simple as weather predicting demand sadly. Our gas is nominated months in advance. Station availability, outages, massive events where the public may be sat at home for a week watching telly, big power users such as industry having outages, all this data needs to go into a pot so some power stations need to know when they can have their outages. As a sideline 11 UK Power stations tripped on Friday night, including ours ( which was caused by a “ Grid fault”). | |||
"Currently 47GWh.. If Wind hadn't picked up, what would the situation have been later as we start racking up 50GWh. France on Monday asked that we reduce demand on their Interconnectors as they, themselves were struggling with demand. Predictions for failures are JANUARY/ FEBRUARY, not December! Although a few expensive close shaves already.. Demand predictions are weather dependent not how the month is spelled lol January and February are normally windier than December,and December has been unseasonally cold. The import from France was cut by 50% ... But guess what ? The lights didn't flicker ! It’s not as simple as weather predicting demand sadly. Our gas is nominated months in advance. Station availability, outages, massive events where the public may be sat at home for a week watching telly, big power users such as industry having outages, all this data needs to go into a pot so some power stations need to know when they can have their outages. As a sideline 11 UK Power stations tripped on Friday night, including ours ( which was caused by a “ Grid fault”). " That's unfortunate, especially with the cold dark nights. Hopefully you weren't off for too long. | |||
"Currently 47GWh.. If Wind hadn't picked up, what would the situation have been later as we start racking up 50GWh. France on Monday asked that we reduce demand on their Interconnectors as they, themselves were struggling with demand. Predictions for failures are JANUARY/ FEBRUARY, not December! Although a few expensive close shaves already.. Demand predictions are weather dependent not how the month is spelled lol January and February are normally windier than December,and December has been unseasonally cold. The import from France was cut by 50% ... But guess what ? The lights didn't flicker ! It’s not as simple as weather predicting demand sadly. Our gas is nominated months in advance. Station availability, outages, massive events where the public may be sat at home for a week watching telly, big power users such as industry having outages, all this data needs to go into a pot so some power stations need to know when they can have their outages. As a sideline 11 UK Power stations tripped on Friday night, including ours ( which was caused by a “ Grid fault”). That's unfortunate, especially with the cold dark nights. Hopefully you weren't off for too long." 30 hours lost generation at £1000 a MW/h. Plus buy in costs from Grid as we sell electricity privately ( 15MW ) to someone. Station manager won’t be getting his bonus this year lol. | |||
"So a guy turns up at my house late last night. In Summer he spent £17k on a new Heat Pump under government BUS and got £5k towards it. His house is cold, the Heat Pump alone drew 50KWh of 34p/KWh electricity at a cost of around £17 in a single day. As efficiency of the Heat Pump would be low, mostly of this heat energy would be from a resistance back up Auxiliary Heater - direct heating via electricity. This causes issues: 1) Cost, at 50KWh of heat at 34p/KWh compared to 10p/KWh his boiler would have provided would have been 3rd the price. 2) Loading, instead of burning gas at his property at 90% Boiler Efficiency, he put an additional 50KWh demand on the already stretched Grid. 3) Gas generation is around 48% Efficient, so his property used twice as much Gas by having it produced offsite than his Boiler would of burnt, putting further demand on Gas supply. What's government target for Heat Pumps over the next 10yrs? Rip my boiler out and expose myself to that, never!! "Think we need a bigger boat" Another thing we agree on, heat pumps are shite unless you dig a massive hole in your garden or you are lucky enough to have a small lake and your house is better insulated than the space shuttle, ours uses the river to take the chill off the sheds but wouldn't even think of using it for the house. And still no rolling 3 hr power cuts, I'm truly amazed given the weather. Not really amazing. While cold, the weather has been generally kind to the grid. There has been enough wind for the wind turbines to work quite well. The big problem at this time of year is if the country gets stuck under a static or very slow moving high pressure system. Lots of cold frosty weather but little or no wind. That is when the shit will hit the fan (or should I say wind turbine) Wind output has been around 10% so very low." !0% is better than 0%. | |||
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"Not really amazing. While cold, the weather has been generally kind to the grid. There has been enough wind for the wind turbines to work quite well. The big problem at this time of year is if the country gets stuck under a static or very slow moving high pressure system. Lots of cold frosty weather but little or no wind. That is when the shit will hit the fan (or should I say wind turbine) " Yes, too much reliance on Wind - the whole reason for the warnings. Very Cold Weather mixed with High Pressure reducing Wind output. Even worse if it traps moisture as it did for extended days last winter as Solar is impacted too. Though likely a shortage will happen on a dark, cold night anyway not during the day. Long-term Forecast this Winter is Cold Air, High Pressure dominance, hence if demand outstrips Gas, Nuclear, Hydro, Pumped, Coal and Interconnectors then there us a problem. Our biggest providers are Gas and Wind, combined the output of these alone can float the UK, but remove Wind, other supplies will struggle to fill the gap. We've come close although it seems National Grid has bought their way out up to now. Saling very close to the Wind - as they say. It's what happens if there is too little to buy in or produce here. Without Wind, the UK is incapable of holding its own and reliance on the EU is high. It seems Shetland have suffered complete outage due to the Weather, so if there is a repeat of the Storms last year, local, extended outages are possible. | |||
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"Dinorwic pumped storage may be fully offline next year depending on plans to replace one penstock valve can be achieved without taking the whole station off line. " What's a penstock valve? Sounds like a mechanical cure for prostate trouble. | |||
"No reported power cuts yet by the media, is the national grid actually creaking as the title suggests? " It certainly is, fascinating article in the Telegraph today about heavy manufacturing firms and high power usage companies have been told they might need to halt production with short notice | |||
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"It's right that there hasn't yet been any outage of power for UK but I think it's clear the margins are getting thinner. What a few years ago was considered impossible is now being considered a possibility. Possibly because we have been having a wind draught which is the backbone of our sustainable energy generation. " Absolutely right - people are quick to jump on the 'it hasn't happened' bandwagon before looking at the data and observating of the facts. Yes, there's been no power cuts, so far. But that's due to a record amount of Wind generation over the last 6 weeks. But two days last week, National Grid were paying 1million households NOT to use electricity as normal to teduce demand - has that ever happened in this country before? The Grid has creaked a number of times in December and January, although outages have been averted, Winter is by far over. The risk of shortages of Grid power is during High Demand when Wind Generation is low. We've not yet hit that scenario, its more than likely we may not, but the day demand outstrips supply - you'll no doubt here about it. February is usually coldest part of Winter for cold still-air High Pressure dominant weather and if there is high demand for electricity with almost no Wind, then there could be a problem- for some. We've hit 'tight' a few times, we may scrape through this year, but what about next Winter with more EVs charging, Heat Pumps running and further electrification with no plans to power this stuff on cold days when the wind isn't blowing? I've not heard any announcements of any non Wind generation in the last few months and until they do, supply will just get tighter and tighter each year. 50% to 85% of our Electricity over last Summer was generated by burning Gas, why? Because from April until the weekend of the Queens funeral, Wind generation barely reached over 12% of our daily supply - Wind Drought. Are we going to go on burning colossal amounts of Gas over Summer while trying to get to Net Zero? Or build alternative generation to give bigger Winter margins and reduce Gas consumption over Summer? | |||
"Are we going to go on burning colossal amounts of Gas over Summer while trying to get to Net Zero? Or build alternative generation to give bigger Winter margins and reduce Gas consumption over Summer?" Since the only viable alternative is nuclear, we're obviously going to carry on burning gas, and hoping for a miracle. Nuclear power stations are hellishly difficult to get built, not because they are complex, but because no one wants one near them. The legal wranglings mire down projects for years, and politicians can't get any votes from proposing them. Since 'renewables' don't work 24/7, and we can't store any meaningful amount of the power they generate to smooth over the gaps, they aren't a sensible option either. So we'll do what we've been doing for the past couple of decades, hoping that nuclear fusion will become viable, and crossing our fingers until then. | |||
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