Emergency contingency plans for a gas or electricity supply shortage in coming months include public appeals to use less energy
By Paul Homewood
Households could be asked to turn down their thermostats and switch off their lights under Government plans to avoid winter blackouts.
Emergency contingency plans for a gas or electricity supply shortage include public appeals to use less energy, The Telegraph can reveal.
Amid mounting concern over shortages in the coming months, the National Grid has held meetings in recent days with representatives from energy intensive industries to try and avoid a worst case scenario of blackouts or a shutdown of supply.
EU countries have been asked to cut their gas usage by 15 per cent from next month, amid fears they will not be able to store enough for winter after Russia reduced supply via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Several European countries including Germany, Austria and France have already appealed to the public to cut their energy use by taking shorter showers, switching off lights and turning down thermostats.
Official contingency plans for the UK seen by The Telegraph include the option for the Government to give similar advice.
The document states that public appeals to cut electricity and gas usage could be delivered at regular intervals via radio, television and social media as well as posters and leaflets.
To avoid blackouts, a deal could also be struck which would see the National Grid pay large users to switch off to avoid cutting supply elsewhere.
But Arjan Geveke, the director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents industry, said calls on the public to reduce demand would be made before National Grid started paying industry to shut down.
“First of all they will want to do a public information campaign because that’s the least costly option,” he said. “There’s obviously an increased risk of security of supply in the winter.”
National Grid has asked electricity suppliers to establish ways to pay households to switch their usage to times of peak supply, such as high wind power, and reduce at other times.
But two major national suppliers, British Gas and Shell, told The Telegraph they had no plans to do so this winter.
Ministers reluctant to appeal to public to cut energy use
National Grid will release an early winter outlook next week, months ahead of its usual October release, to help prepare for what is expected to be a difficult season.
Britain is not reliant on gas supplies from Russia, but could be affected if demand for alternative sources rises in Europe.
Analysis for The Telegraph by consultancy EnAppSys found that extreme gas curtailments across Europe could lead to blackouts in the UK. The Government has asked coal-fired power stations to stay open past their planned closure date, and is working to reopen the Rough gas storage facility five years after it was shut down.
Ministers are understood to be extremely reluctant to appeal to the public to cut their energy use, and believe that record high prices will naturally reduce demand.
Annual energy bills could reach £3,244 under the October price cap, rising to £3,363 from January, according to new estimates from consultancy Cornwall Insight.
But the Government would be forced to act if there was a real risk of the worst-case scenario, which is millions of households facing electricity blackouts.
There are no plans to cut gas use to households, which would require a manual reconnection of every home for safety reasons.
The Government plans to update its emergency protocols for gas and electricity supply later this year.
A UK government spokesperson said: “The UK has no issues with either gas or electricity supply, and the government is fully prepared for any scenario, even those that are extreme and very unlikely to occur.
“National Grid Gas has standard, long-standing emergency procedures in place to protect the integrity of Britain’s gas network in the extremely unlikely event of a supply emergency. Ministers are not involved in this process."
Earlier this month, the UK’s infrastructure tsar told The Telegraph the public should be told to cut their usage. Sir John Armitt, the chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, said there would need to be a public information campaign to encourage people to reduce peak time usage by moving their dinner times and turning down their thermostat this winter to avoid blackouts.
The UK Government’s energy supply strategy calls for increasing technologies such as nuclear and hydrogen, but says little about reducing demand.
The suggestion that we switch usage to times of high wind power shows the National Grid really have not got a clue. Are we supposed to go without heating, hot water and cooking for weeks on end when the wind does not blow?
And the idea of public appeals via radio, posters and leaflets brings back memories of the war!
And it is no good blaming Russian gas for the problem. This problem has been looming for years now, as dispatchable capacity has been shut down, and replaced by unreliable wind power.
Sir John Armitt lets the cat out of the bag when he says that the public should be “told” to cut usage, move their dinner times and turn down the thermostat.
Make do with less, you greedy deplorables!
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
People laughed at me last year when I bought a generator large enough to run the basics of our house, heating, lighting, refrigeration etc. Nearly £2,000 all in with housing and professionally installed wiring etc.
Am I allowed to feel smug now?
Absolutely, but I hope you’ve given some thought to how you’re going to fuel it – you can bet that “manufactured” shortages will occur when things get really tricky…
Me too. I have supplies of LPG which my generator runs on.
Yes!!
And smart.
Does it automatically start up when the grid fails? I costed the equipment for one at about £1500 to run on diesel.
Mine is not quite as sophisticated as yours and only quite small (1kW inverter generator) but runs on LPG so has a long run time. I also have two deep cycle batteries and 2 inverters plus a small car based inverter. I can comfortably run the combi boiler (only draws a max 130W) the fridge freezer, and normal telecoms/TV. so all the real essentials quite comfortably. Not too much of a faff to set up and actually quite cheap.
In 1987 following the Great Storm I was without electricity for 11 days in rural Kent.. i vowed .never again!
Off topic, but relevant. On 5th July the British Geological Survey submitted its report on Fracking:
“Following independent external peer review, a report has been submitted today, 5 July 2022, to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for consideration. The outcome of the report and any further communication regarding the report or its publication, will be handled by BEIS: newsdesk@beis.gov.uk. ”
This was nearly 3 weeks ago.
Is there any news of the outcome yet?
Not likely to be as long as Mrs Johnson is still living in Downing Street and Kwasi (who seems to have gone totall native) is at BEIS.
Coherent government has collapsed at the moment with the lying oaf swanning around and dressing up to tick things off his bucket list. With such chaos and the summer shutdown I would expect that noting will emerge until September when either Sushi or Miss Trussed take over.
SE: I am so glad you mentioned this. I have been following it closely. What are the contenders going to do about it? And what did it say? Is the report available for public view?
EU despite finger pointing at Germany Energiewende have plenty of Coal/Lignite stations they can fire up as well as ones they’ve mothballed so they are being encouraged to do just that through the summer so maximum gas can be made available to storage. And look at the storage levels the EU has available to them its vast compared to our pathetic 11TWh. Germany has access to 225TWh if it can they fill it (its at 62% currently). Kwartang has been asleep at the wheel since last autumn when gas price escalation was warning of issues ahead. Its clear Rough can be made available and rather than chucking money at consumers (hardly incentivises people to make savings) they should just get on with it before its too late to get it re-commissioned and get any gas into it.
Quite frankly someone needs to tell the public as its is but they won’t because it will turned back on them and they will be found wanting.
Personally im looking forward to a system collapse so it wakes people up to ask what the hell is going on why have you politicians allowed this to happen fudging it up will just put off teh day when we will have no choices left.
“Germany has access to 225TWh if it can they fill it (its at 62% currently)”
Gas that the UK is supplying.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11041495/National-Grid-asks-emergency-permission-pump-gas-Europe-storage-facilities.html
“Gas that the UK is supplying.”
That is not a problem in any way at this time. Our problem is a mad Government which is trying to prevent us using our ample and secure and essentially cheap sources of gas (Norway, North Sea, LPG) in the future.
To some extent we are just a middleman at present (I hope we are making a good profit) between Norway and the Continent, as Europe fills its reserves and tries to protect itself from the natural consequences of relying on the goodwill of a traditional enemy.
And to the extent gas is being extracted from British fields that is because there is an oversupply of it in the summer months. The BBL line was deliberately made two-way to allow us to sell to the Continent at this time of year.
Our supply of gas* is secure for the coming winter, but the consumer is not protected from world-wide price shocks. But that is yesterday’s panic. And perhaps tomorrow’s. Today, commodity prices are tumbling. The free market ALWAYS, ALWAYS sorts things out, if left to work.
*Our electricity supply of course is NOT secure, but that is not because of a shortage of energy for use in the power stations but, as rehearsed in this blog many times, because it has been MADE insecure.
Exactly.
It’s all planned. And it has nothing to do with climate.
When will people wake up to this madness?
I lived in London during 1969 and 1970 and I remember the union caused blackouts, usual for 4 hours at a time and several times week for several complete quadrants of the city at a time.
I also remember firing up the old fireplaces in the student digs I lived in to keep warm. Often they had been partially boarded over and replaced by an electric space heater.
They looked nice but the wood and coal only partially burned, with the resulting soot being pumped out the chimney, unless you were unlucky enough to have a chimney fire.
So much for the history lesson..
With gas, oil and electricity home heating cost going up 200% in the UK, the news this winter will be dominated by chimney fires, smog in the urban areas and neighbours complaining about each other burning green wood or low grade coal.
My discussions with my UK nephews revolve around how they justify burning wood and coal in a fire place (morally good) versus central heating using natural gas ( morally bad). This is complicated by the fact that when they buy a load of wood from a mate at the pub they have no concept of green ( lots of sap because it has just been chopped down) or wet ( because it has been lying in water for months). This even extends to buying a bag of coal that fell of the back of a lorry. I grew up shovelling coal and I can tell you good bituminous coal from bad coaly shale. Today it is still legal in the UK to burn âcoalâ in a fire place like the one above.
Keep up the good work and watch out for the November UK news on chimney fires and the return of the smog!
Andrew Newson
“…unless you were unlucky enough to have a chimney fire.”
Before the advent of roof trusses and other woodwork being inserted into the flues and thus becoming a fire hazard, chimney fires were the approved method of cleaning them.
I remember a local shop sold packets of “The Magician Chimney and Flue Cleaner” that, when sprinkled onto a good fire actually set fire to all the soot.
The French who still use wood for domestic heating have many such products on sale.
For example Buche de Ramonage according to one blurb. Special catalytic treatment tubes: removes and degrade the soot and tar; Patented formula contains no sulphur, no bleaching; Odourless
Totally agree, anyone under 50 only has a vague idea about open fires, wood coal and anything else that burns.
They certainly won’t remember the smell of a chimney fire.
Chimney fires might be a skill firemen have to learn
I was quite surprised to see a shiny sign-written Chimney Sweeps van the other day. I remember them (just) from my childhood, but I suppose they are making a comeback with the rise in use of wood burners.
Plenty of chimney sweeps in the rural, wooded, parts of England.
Wood fires and wood burners are still a normal part of life.
In France, the residents of the village in which my brother-in-law settled had traditional, legal, rights to cut as much wood as they wished on the mountain above them. Being French, they naturally made it a communal thing once a year, when they all traipsed up there, helped each other to cut enough for the winter, and then spent a couple of days eating and drinking without the women.
There is a LOT to be said for the traditional ways. Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – only a few realize this.
Easy to sweep your own chimney. Just need a set of rodding sticks with brush head, a cheap vacuum cleaner and old bed sheet or similar as dust sheet. Cost of this is less than one hiring of a ‘sweeper’. Ive now trained the wife in how to ‘rod’ the chimneys so its been a good investment.
Kent Fire and Rescue service raised concerns regarding the use of paraffin heaters becoming much more prevalent in electric only homes/flats with no flues. It’s not just fires but the really nasty CO (rather than benign CO2) that they are also very concerned about.
Well if this comes to pass, that’s us well and truly shagged. We are an all electric household. I like the idea of a generator to take over but can’t afford it due to our huge (and getting hugher?) energy bills. Maybe I should start a coal merchant business?
It’s already happening in Australia!
Many will NOT be following these nudges, though MIGHT once govt. admit that baseband power needs to take priority over unreliables & confirms that all mothballed coal plants are available to be brought back online immediately.
” confirms that all mothballed coal plants are available to be brought back online immediately.”
In the UK, haven’t they all been demolished?
“In the UK, haven’t they all been demolished?”
Yes, and the components sold to the Germans at scrap price to use in their new plant.
Didcot power station transformer moved
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25149717
Yes
And the insanity of pushing electric cars and demonising everything else needs to stop.
The EVs are unnecessary additional electricity consumers
It has been known for a long time that our generation capacity is not enough for the Winter , which is why they have been pushing ” Smart Meters ” . The main reason for them is so that they can cut individual users off to prevent the whole grid blacking out .
And , with a lot of renewable type generation , it can take a long time to reconnect the whole grid .
And this is all with just about 1% of vehicles being battery EVs .
To charge about 20% of vehicles at any time would need about 100% increase in generation capacity .
So when will this GREEN rubbish be admitted by the media , and perhaps force the politicians to scrap the NET ZERO insanity .
“So when will this GREEN rubbish be admitted by the media”
Perhaps when they can’t sell their products to the public (No power no product, no product no profit)
“It has been known for a long time that our generation capacity is not enough for the Winter ,”
Hansard in 1979 refers to a “planning margin of reserve capacity over and above peak demand” of 28%.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1979-07-11/debates/6c7436af-1ff2-4cc8-9a45-bf41f61a11b7/ElectricityGeneration
Micky R , what politicians were saying 40 odd years ago has no reference to the present .
https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/closure-of-uk-coal-and-nuclear-plants-to-create-electricity-supply-gap-of-up-to-55-by-2025
An article by people who know what they are talking about says over 50% shortage of supply by 2025 .
The last few winters have seen a generation shortage , and we have only been kept going by imports via the interconnectors .
But France has a generation problem at the moment , so we cannot expect any help from them .
So a cold winter will almost certainly see large scale blackouts .
“Micky R , what politicians were saying 40 odd years ago has no reference to the present .”
The relevance is to demonstrate where we were in comparison to where we are now. The UK achieved a reasonable reserve capacity by relying on coal; the Hansard link indicates that in 1978, 68% of UK electricity was generated by coal, we need to achieve similar today.
There is no short term solution to the current risk of power cuts; only coal offers a medium term solution, DRAX x 10.
Nobody actually knows what it would be like to do a black start on a grid as protection kicks in to isolate parts. Let us hope we won’t be the first to find out. I think Germany is vying with Australia to be first to this milestone.
Exactly right Gerry. The shift from Grid connected generators to embedded (i.e. DNO connected lower voltage) generators, can readily leave the system “islanded” and with an inability to synchronise. A long intensely cold, dry and windless anticyclone is likely to see Scotland go first as apart from Torness (on its way out in the not too distant future) and the remnants of Peterhead everything else is weather dependent.
As stated above, it’s unlikely gas could be cut off domestically, due to having to purge pipework and then reconnect houses one-by-one.
But don’t feel safe for the winter because you have a gas boiler – they need an electrical supply to run! A small generator, perhaps only 2kW, will keep essentials running: boiler, fridge and freezer.
The time to prepare is now.
If you have a combi boiler the max power draw is actually less than 150W for pump, fan and electronics. My own Worcester Bosch 42kW model only draws 136W peak. I recently plugged a 150W (RMS) inverter into the 12V socket in my car and proved it would work by powering up the boiler via an extension lead.
Even a very small 650W genny (sold for about £150 in Screwfix) with a cheap deep cycle battery (£80) and a 500W inverter will keep essentials going quite happily. But then again the vast majority will get caught out and after all why should people be going to such lengths in the 21st century!
Has the world gone mad ….. remind me it is 2022 ? We have abundant Energy leaking out of this planet and the technology to mop it up ….. We should be celebrating our good fortune and using more Energy to drive our country forward …… NOT asking our people to cut back !!! MADNESS
This is important. If the power is switched off, switch off everything at the fuse box/ consumer unit, apart from one lighting circuit to let you know that the power is back on. The reason is that when switched back on the grid boosts the amount of power and this can blow the delicate electronic circuits that control everything. Lost a fridge circuit and a central heating circuit this way. Simple lights have no such circuits.
The House of Lords was given a wake-up call:
42.Coal-fired power stations generate around 2% of the UK electricity.48 The Government wants to close all remaining coal plants by the end of 2024, with some stations scheduled to close in 2022.49 We heard that the Government should extend the life of these power stations to reduce reliance on expensive natural gas. Michael Liebreich, Chairman and Chief Executive of Liebreich Associates, said this would be defensible: “I would be in favour of in a sense suspending our aspirations on climate in the very short term but not in the long term. The long-term security and climate play very nicely together but in the short term there might be contradictions.”50 Dan Monzani, Managing Director, UK and Ireland at Aurora Energy Research, agreed: “Over the course of this year, we ought to be prepared to consider coal plants running more hours to use less gas. I do not see that as inconsistent with the long-term direction of travel.”51
43.On 18 May 2022, the Energy Minister, said in answer to a parliamentary question that the Government was exploring an extension to “the life of remaining coal-fired power stations to provide additional back up electricity this coming winter if needed”. He stressed that the Government remains committed to ending the use of coal power by October 2024.52 On 23 June 2022, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the West Burton A coal power station, which was due for closure in September 2022, will remain open this winter. On 6 July 2022, Drax also agreed to extend the life of its coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire, if needed.53 Negotiations with Britain’s only other remaining coal plant are ongoing.54
44.We support the Government in seeking to maintain existing energy generation in the short term, including coal-fired power stations where necessary, to reduce dependency on expensive gas imports. We welcome the Government’s continuing commitment to renewable energy in the longer term. Extending the life of nuclear power stations over coal power stations where possible, and cost effective, would result in lower carbon emissions.48.We heard that it was not clear what would happen if the EU decided to stop energy exports to non-EU countries to conserve gas supply, or if the UK decided to stop exporting gas to continental Europe. Professor Michael Bradshaw explained to us that Ireland, an EU member state, relies on UK gas infrastructure but nevertheless:
“It may sound a trivial point, but it is not that long ago the French Government threatened to switch the power off to Guernsey because it had a squabble over fishing rights.”
…
49.On 29 May 2022, it was reported that the Government was assessing the effect on the UK’s security of supply from a possible Russian decision to cut gas exports to Europe. The Government’s ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was reported to have said that imports of LNG, and piped gas from Norway, could halve, and imports via pipeline interconnectors with Belgium and the Netherlands could cease because of more competition for supply in Europe. The Government said this was just one in a range of scenarios for which it was contingency planning.58 It has also been reported that the UK has contingency plans to cut gas exports to Europe if there is a severe supply shortage.
50.When the UK was an EU member state it was bound by the 2017 EU Security of Supply Regulation, which aims to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the preparation and management of gas shortages in a crisis. We heard that now the UK is no longer a member of the EU, the full implications of its exit from the Single Energy Market are unclear and untested.60 SSE plc said there is no UK-EU agreement for emergency situations affecting and electricity trade been Great Britain and the EU. It said the UK and EU should “put in place a comprehensive energy relationship outside of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) as a matter of urgency given the importance of energy to the European economy.”61
51.The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which sets out the UK-EU relationship, includes a provision which states that in the event of a crisis, the EU and UK should only activate non-market-based measures as a last resort. Furthermore, plans to address risks to the security of electricity or natural gas supply should not distort trade between the parties and should not endanger the security of supply of electricity or natural gas of the other party.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5803/ldselect/ldeconaf/49/4905.htm#_idTextAnchor039
I think Jersey and Guernsey better test their diesel generators. The best the UK can hope for is zero electricity exports except for Northern Ireland, where the grid is under control of the South. Last December we had a period of Dunkeflaute lasting several days ahead of Christmas, with every available generator cranked into service, having to bid up to secure imports of 5.6GW across all available interconnector capacity. Next winter we will have lost some coal and nuclear capacity compared with then, so the shortage would easily be 8GW. If we stay in the market and keep exporting then we could be exposed to an additional 2GW of exports from the return of IFA1 to full capacity after the Sellindge fire and the start-up of Eleclink since last December, plus 5.6GW of exports from the interconnectors, which would leave us short 15.6GW, or around a third of demand.
It’s even worse than that in some respects as so much new generation is embedded in the DNOs and not connected to the HT grid so not directly nationally transferable. A glut of embedded generation in Electricity North West is no use to UK Power Networks for London.
“Simple lights have no such circuits”
Depends what you mean by “Simple” – All LED (and any remaining CFL lamps you might have) rely on electronics, so don’t assume they will survive either. Use an old filament lamp or inductive ballast controlled fluorescent fitting.
Sorry Paul, this is off the topic but I don’t know how else to get in touch.
I just read this in “The Spectator” of all places. Is nowhere safe?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/there-s-nothing-conservative-about-climate-change
There are two possibilities. We reached this point either by wilful stupidity ………or it was intentional.
Even IF the wind blew constantly anyone with a pocket calculator can do the maths and see just how many windmills of f.ex 2MW capacity would be needed to hypothetically match the current energy needs of the UK alone. That would be an impossible number. The real number would be at the very least 50% more to deal with the vagaries of weather and transmission loss etc.
For those in government to ignore this simple calculation of what a wind only fit could produce lands not just in the realms of extreme recklessness but wanton criminality because the single most important function of any government is to not to play party political games but to keep the population safe and fed. This manufactured catastrophe is manmade (or man unmade) and is placing the population in peril.
.
There is a random origin to a lot of things which are happening in the Western World today, which appear to have been seized upon by some very bad actors who seem bent on chaos. Tear it down, change it all with no plan of any kind except arm waving or performative dance aka XR and their absurd useful idiots with their white makeup and red polyester outfits both of which ironically come from hydrocarbons.
Look at what is going on in America and ask yourself the same question, are these people so dangerously incompetent or are they following a deliberate plan? I hope on both sides of the pond for all our sakes that it is the former, but building evidence would suggest the latter.
What is never mentioned in relation to the use of batteries to cover periods of no wind and stabilise the grid is the need for extra wind generation to recharge the batteries when they have run flat.
Looking at the past few weeks it looks as if double the number of windmills would have been needed to recharge the batteries that would have been needed to replace the shortfall in electricity when the wind didn’t blow.
“Or are they following a deliberate plan?”
There’s no doubt it’s deliberate:
https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/
Since when has WEF had locus standii at the UN?
I’ve been banging on about this for years. WEF is the front for UN Agenda 30 for Sustainability. All our parliamentary parties are signed up to it. Read it – and be very afraid. The above post confirms that it is with us RIGHT NOW.
4 to 5 times installed wind capacity is needed for any given amount of power when using hydrogen produced by electrolysis as the energy storage method to maintain a system where supply matches demand.
I scan the energy section of the Guardian on a regular basis and read the comments for a good laugh at how incredibly scientifically and mathematically illiterate most of the commenters are. But the one thing that makes me chuckle the most are the numerous ones who prattle on about making hydrogen from water by using renewables and the magical process of “hydrolysis”….yep there are a lot of people on there who really think you can break down water by watering it down!
This reminds me of a debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, ~1980.
Carter said, “Only government can manage scarcity fairly.”
Reagan, “Screw that! We’re America! We’ll just make more!”
It would be nice if some of the UK contingency plan included MAKING MORE.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/there-s-nothing-conservative-about-climate-change
What the electricity interconnectors have been doing this year:
https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-7c08a3e1-a2d5-4f14-b521-5b166a2f3e4a
We won;t have the spare to export in the winter, and they won’t have the spare to sell to us either.
“Households could be asked to turn down their thermostats and switch off their lights under Government plans to avoid winter blackouts.”
We had a fully functioning energy infrastructure which the government has deliberately destroyed. Why is it my responsibility to dig them out of the hole that they have dug themselves into?
I certainly won’t be helping the government out of the mess successive governments have created. I will switch the oven on whenever they forecast a shortage.
In WW II Air Raid Wardens would patrol the streets with cries of “turn out that light!” to enforce blackout. Perhaps we will see them return.
To avoid blackout, blackout your home.
¿Que?
When I hear that the wind supply is faltering I will turn my gas and electricity up as high as it will go. Nothing short of crashing our gas and electricity grids will convince our idiot politicians that they have gratuitously dumped us in the shit
Hi Alastair, as I have posted on here before, I am attempting to write a novel (currently stalled!) centred around an activist group deliberately crashing the electricity grid by legal group action. A rather perverse thing about wind and solar is that the greater part of supply they contribute, the weaker the grid becomes. All major power outages this century have actually occurred in either May or August and not in winter when the maximum amount of reliable dispatchable power is running.
At the height of lockdown when demand was dramatically reduced NG paid Sizewell B to run at half power simply because unreliables contributed too large a proportion of the system. If Sizewell’s full 1.2GW had tripped out (the largest single unit in the system) then the system would almost certainly crash.
Probably better I do not explain here the exact way to crash the electricity system ( it requires detailed technical knowledge and accurate timing) but this explanation of “Reactive” power is a good start to understanding.
https://www.drax.com/power-generation/silent-force-moves-electricity/
Interesting…
When I was at school a nameless individual worked out that there were four separate fused circuits connected to the main fuse box, so if all four were shorted simultaneously the main fuse would blow, thus requiring a callout of the electricity board electrician to fix it, seriously upsetting the schedule.
It worked, too!
Hi Catweazle, to elaborate, the grid protects itself against sudden loss of generators and predicted sudden demand surge (typically TV pick up). This is variously known as the Infrequent Infeed Loss Limit (IIFL) and the latter is one function of pumped storage hydro.
Totally unpredicted demand surge is exceptionally rare and is not generally accounted for (an example might be a strong earth tremor waking people up at night who investigate, turning on lights and the inevitable kettles!) such a surge differs from a generation loss in that the spinning inertia that holds on to soften sudden losses can actually dampen effects to ramp up generation.
So the simultaneous switching on of larger domestic loads (electric instant showers can be up to 10.5kW) by sufficient people will cause problems. Now add to that significant additional switching on of reactive power generating points and the system can become really log jammed.
The art is getting enough people to synchronise their action without the authorities predicting it.
My book starts with this poem.
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-have-changed-the-numbers-on-my-watch/
If I ever get to finish it and get it published ….please buy a copy!!!
As a descendant of John Knox’s lowland Scots, an Ulster-Scot, a Red Neck, I applaud alastair and Phillip. Choke them on their on $#|+!!
From Telegraph this evening (24/07) It refers to last Wednesday, the day after the heatwave.
The ESO at one point on Wednesday paid an all-time high of £9,724 per MWh to import power over the Nemo cable amid a scramble for electricity around Europe, data from market analyst EnAppSys shows.
Its the middle of summer, winter is going to be a disaster!
Tony Heller
“The BBC refuses to talk to anyone who tells the truth about energy and climate
– but they have written a primer on how to talk to a climate denier”
S Socialism Causes rationing
There is more at the Spectator:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-the-new-pm-survive-the-looming-winter-energy-disaster-
‘What millions of households could be told to do to avoid blackouts this winter’
You have been set up.
When the blackouts hit, it will be YOUR FAULT! They have transferred responsibility to YOU. Don’t blame them; you could have stopped it.
I was just thinking that.
You’ve been told what t do so if there still blackouts it’s your fault for not listening.
I live in the Welsh hills in a small village that has no mains gas.
I have 46kilo bottles outside that fuel my cooker.
I have enough gas to get me through till the spring.
I burn coal and logs and I have expensive electricity but I’m secure for cooking heating and light.
I feel for you city dwellers which I once was in Manchester.
Welcome to the 21st century it wasn’t supposed to be like this was it.
What a total cock up politically our elected masters have made over the years for your futures.
Burn wood!
So winter is when the problems start? Think again…
London narrowly avoided post-heatwave blackout
Published 25 July 2022
National Grid paid £9,724 per megawatt hour, more than 5,000% than the typical price, to Belgium on Wednesday to prevent south-east London losing power.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62296443
I think the story should read that British consumers will be paying the bill for keeping the lights on in Calais. We kept up our French interconnector exports at full throttle, when cutting back could have kept London supplied without paying fancy prices to the Belgians.