From the GWPF: Cold Winter Could Cause Britain’s Lights To Go Out
Emergency measures to prevent blackouts this winter have been unveiled by National Grid after Britain’s spare power capacity fell to just 4 per cent.
–Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 27 October 2014
The capacity crunch has been predicted for about seven years. Everyone seems to have seen this coming – except the people in charge.
–Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 10 June 2014
National Grid has warned that there has been a significant increase in the risk of electricity shortages and brownouts this winter after fires and faults knocked out a large chunk of Britain’s shrinking power station coverage. The grid operator admitted that in the event of Britain experiencing the coldest snap in 20 years – a 5 per cent chance – then electricity supplies would not be able to meet demand during two weeks in January.
–Tim Webb, The Times, 27 October 2014
The UK government will set out Second World War-style measures to keep the lights on and avert power cuts as a “last resort”. The price to Britons will be high. Factories will be asked to “voluntarily” shut down to save energy at peak times for homes, while others will be paid to provide their own backup power should they have a spare generator or two lying around.
–Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 10 June 2014
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Getting ready to buy my diesel generator.
Good luck finding any diesel to run it on….Take a lesson from your hurricane-belt bretheren: generators are worthless without fuel and fuel sitting in underground tanks without power to pump it out is just as useless. And hoarding fuel is just plain foolish.
We are farmers.
Why would he have trouble finding diesel? This is simply cold weather we’re talking about, not a hurricane. A diesel generator may very well be the only thing that separates people that can stay home and save their pipes from freezing and people that must go to designated shelters to stay warm during brown/black outs.
Mine generator runs on LPG – much better.
Well if you think about it almost everything runs on electricity, including petrol station pumps, and gas boilers. So even though 81% of the UK has gas heating you can’t use it in a blackout and nor can you go to petrol station to fill up unless you are prepared to travel a long way.
A car DC-AC inverter may give you enough power to run your boiler, so that could be an option if you have some basic electrical knowledge.
Add a carburetor which will allow the generstor to operate on Natural Gas.
You would be amazed how much juice the generator burns. We used a generator for when we were living in a part of Queensland which was prone to power outages, just a little 1Kw generator to keep the fridge and TV working, and maybe an electric fan. It burned through around 10L of fuel per day.
If you are trying to keep your house warm, and have a bigger generator – you do the math. Thats an awful lot of combustable liquid to keep in one place.
And if the power fails, the gas stations will shut down their pumps, so even if the fuel is in the underground tanks you won’t be able to get to it. Very few gas stations have backup power.
Diesel generators have their uses.
Most power companies have large portable deisel powered generators that are stored near locations of vulnerability that can be moved on short notice. Something developed as policy in most power providers 40 years ago. In Canada, most rural farmers I know have large deisel or propane generators for when grid power fails. My own automatic transfer unit is relatively small at 14 killowatts but I have a few point of use portables as well. They have had to run for a week at a time so in rural ares, back up generation is pretty important, especially at times when you have susceptible livestock or produce.
Wind power? We had a storm in Sydney and it wiped out the electricity grid. As the wind was so strong, turbines wouldn’t have been much use.
Bushbunny, you are lucky to (I presume) live downunder. on my farm in Wisconsin last ‘polar vortex winter’ we were consuming over 650 gallons of propane per month despite heating the house mainly with wood (two fireboxes, one double wall with blower connected directly to the main heat furnace.) Now this includes hot water, milking barn, calf barn… But still a lot of propane that doubled in price. Not barby quantities. Truckload quantities. At least every month.
It did help to have over 100 acres of woodlot, a nice diesel tractor (with 500 gallons in storage on the farm) to snake out deadfall trees for firewood, and a compliant fall hunting crew of 8 to help cut, split, and store those lovely about 6 full cords of firewood. (not wimpy face cords).
Good luck to you.
If anyone wants and example of what happens when “clean” power fails, look to Lagos in Nigeria.
Just tell them, this is another unintended consequence of…
Got this one, too, Jimbo. From last year, actually. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10220083/We-could-soon-be-paying-billions-for-this-wind-back-up.html
Diesel is difficult to store as it degrades and develops algae in the tank. A better bet is propane powered gensets. A 100 lb. tank lasts pretty much forever and can do other tasks as well. BBQ, indoor heating, cooking to name a few. There are also tri fuel kits on the market.
You can store diesel for many years, just put a biocide in the tank.
haven”t tried it yet but there is an additive for this problem.
sorry sam , you answered it.
Got mine already (tested out today when our grid supply failed for 2 hrs) + 2,000L of diesel. Referbing a second one
Diesel keeps well in full tank, put biocide in tank before filling, after filling squirt some CO2 from a fire extinguisher to displace air & remove oxygen, fit large fuel filter & water trap in line. after 5yrs it may need “polishing” ( google- diesel polishing) simple & cheap to DIY.
1Save,’ you must be a farmer. If not, you should be. Come on up to Wisconsin and have some fun withnthe rest of us, even if some of us are only part timers.
“Come on up to Wisconsin”
Thanks for the invite BUT Wisconsin is too cold (I see you hit -28°C) & I’m in UK (min -4°C where I live) 11°C today.
I’m a semi-retired engineer not a farmer, so I have fun in the workshop making swarf !!!
Make sure you get one with a proper injector pump that will run on vegetable oil, like my turbo diesel Mercedes and the wife’s Nissan Serena.
It can generally be had for less than £1 per litre, sometimes half that if you can find a BOGOF at Tesco or B&M.
Although I notice you’re a farmer so you can get the stuff cheap anyway.
I am getting a backup generator attached to my natural gas line.
Reblogged this on Aussiedlerbetreuung und Behinderten – Fragen and commented:
Britannien kündigt Sofortmaßnahmen zur Winter-Blackouts verhindern
Vom GWPF Cold Winter verursachen könnten britischen Lichter zu erlöschen
Sofortmaßnahmen, um Stromausfälle zu verhindern in diesem Winter wurden von National Grid vorgestellt worden, nachdem Ersatzkraftleistung Großbritanniens fiel auf nur 4 Prozent
Google-Übersetzer – Glück, Auf, meine Heimat und Danke für die Enteignung unserer Stromwirtschaft! Billiger hergestellt und auch mit Werkzeugen ohne die Natur zu behindern! Grantierte auch Leben in der Rente zu fairen Preisen und Sozialer Nähe! Siehe die Netzwerkausfälle in den Jahren der USA ohne deutsche Stromkünstler im Verrat! und bei Wetter – Engeenieruing!
Yea, thanks for doing that, what ever it was.
Quick Google for those who are interested. The German says something a bit like,
Which I think means, “Britain’s down the pan but German Engineering will save our economy”.
The German was kinda mutilated already… or written by a confused dyslexic.
Looks like the EU target of cutting CO2 emissions by 40% couldn’t come at a better time. They’re coming to take me away…ha ha… they’re coming to take me away..ho ho… to the funny farm .. with those nice young men in their shiny white coats…..
Heh heh. I remember that one. 🙂
One of the single greatest songs ever written. It’s 50 years old and it’s still great, it Is strangely timeless.
I have always maintained that AGW was a hoax, and its perpetrators should be held accountable. At the very least, the politicians who supported the hoax should be voted out. I would truly hate to see Great Britain go through a winter harsh enough to cause the implementation of the “emergency measures”. But maybe, just maybe, it would be the wake-up call that is needed.
UKIP is the only sane option left.
Yep, it is indeed.
WWS, Big Jim:
I agree – provided votes from – how do I describe them – ‘non-leftists, non-watermelons’ say, as a first draft – for UKIP do not deny the thoroughly imperfect Tories a majority – or, worse, hand a majority, based on 27% of the popular vote who actually vote – and so maybe 19% (or less) of the whole electorate – a House of Commons majority, although perhaps with the acquiescence of minorities with a handful of seats, like – say – SNP or Plaid Cymru, or the watermelon Greens.
Sorry – that was on reflection, a tortuous sentence.
I won’t vote UKIP if it will let the Commies in. Tories are – hmmmmm. . . . poor; but probably the least bad of a demoralising bunch.
I’m no ‘modern’ Tory – but I think I’ll vote blue [not UKIP] to keep[ the Reds out.
Auto.
Voting far right will not sort power problems. UKIP in fact wish to reduce the current capacity. By voting UKIP all you will do is to vote for a party that ensures only the people with plenty of cash cope well in such national emergencies. When they eventually do commit to a manifesto, read the energy section closely and their views on essential public services. They use the typical tactics of extremist parties on both the left and right by continually promoting a few populist policies, while keeping the darker policies well hidden.
I third that.
The warmers are sleeping soundly. The only thing that will wake them up is a winter spent shivering in the dark… and hungry too.
bravo exactly spot on right. They are causing misery and ruining the chances for many on this planet, It is why I call them parasitic climatic ambulance chasers. Like a parasite they are taking from the host, hard working good people that seek to advance, giving back nothing and benefiting only themselves and their warped agenda
One problem.. you cant wake up people who are long beyond that. There is no waking up anymore.. Realistically, there is no turning back now. Britain slept, and America is next. We got close last winter and the EPA regulations mean its only a matter or time.
Climate Science is a subset of Political Science.
This is a vicious insult against Political Science
I for one, disagree. One is a servent of the other.
Gonna go out on a limb and guess that their emergency plan doesn’t involve solar or wind power…
Maybe the greenies could stand in front of the wind generators and blow really hard.
Ironic question, I assume? Dig into the Grid report and you’ll find that it assumes ‘average’ i.e 27% plate output from windmills. Unfortunately, intense cold is frequently associated with a large high pressure area sitting over UK for many days on end – no wind.
ViewftS
Agreed
+2
Tell the Department for Energy & Climate Change.
// // Mod – Yeah that really is a great big /SARC
Auto.
My point was that any emergency source would, first and foremost, have to be dependably available on demand.
Wow, that says it all… Spend billions on wind as you kill the pensioners and the poor… All for nothing. Wake up people, the green agenda is a huge killing lie.
Obviously, the outages will be caused by everyone running their air conditioning units because of a hot winter.
It can’t get cold!!! The globe is WARMING!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!! ITS WARMING!!!!!! Shut down your power plants now!!!!! Then step outside wearing no clothes and see how you feel…… feel a bit cool? Now go back in and put on ONLY 0.04% of your normal clothes… see what a difference 0.04% can make!
Well it makes all the difference if you’re thinking about the same 0.04% I’m thinking about.
// Satire & Past Headline //
How is this possible? We were told this:
“According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
The thing is, climate alarmists make claims like that regularly, but when they are wrong they act like they never said it in the first place. They simply carry on and make a whole new set of claims.
And their fellow alarmists are alright with this.
@Klem October 28, 2014 at 11:54 pm:
True – or they tell us they expected this to happen, which of course is a complete and utter obfuscation.
Such an event is a needed wake-up call, perhaps even an inevitable one. Of course, 9/11 was a wake-up call too, and look what’s happened with that…
“9/11 was a wake-up call too, and look what’s happened with that…”
Scary thought!
An excuse for more Big Government interference in our lives.
Well, and Political Correctness got us all to turn our head away from a militant, anti woman religion, at the risk of being called racist, and shouted down. So now we have to ignore all their nuttiness. ISIS? How can we foist our imperialist western ideology on them. They have their own standards and norms, which are as good as ours, per the multiculturalist.
I read in a textbook once that 115% capacity was required for reliable utility operation.
That was old school when energy was about engineering not politics.
The UK always operated with a 24% margin, based on a risk assessment of blackouts. Now it’s down to <5%.
Indeed, a surplus is required just like the operations of a functioning pension fund: between 108 and 120 % to cover future payments.
Everyone like to have margin available, but no one wants to pay for it.
In the US, margin requirements used to be in the 19-20% range. But I think that the progressives insisted that this was wasteful, and that with good planning and demand management, it could be cut back quite a bit.
So, generating margins are low and you can’t build new transmission lines, so the lights are going to go out. Hopefully all those women who are supportive of this situation will enjoy staying home for days at a time with their husbands and children, huddling around a space heater with a noisy generator running outside….
You need to plan on keeping the system up with your two biggest units down, one out of service for maintenance and the second one failed. One way this is done is to keep old plants functional and use them only when you have a major unit down for maintenance. You still have to have enough spinning reserve to replace the largest plant online.
And yet we are still getting articles like this (below) from the cultists. The stupid, it burns …. useful idiot Lean is a disgrace to both responsible journalism and science (though he’s not remotely alone in that of course). Absolutely nothing can falsify the warming hypothesis – which means it’s not scientific at all but a belief system, a cult. I was going to say you couldn’t make this up but that’s precisely what these evil morons do.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/11191520/Cold-winters-have-been-caused-by-global-warming-say-scientists.html
Every village has one. The Telegraph’s is Mr Lean. Interpret every story he’s allowed to write with a huge pinch of salt. The man lives in cloud-cuckoo-land.
Forgot to add, everyone should read the comments below Geoffrey Lean’s article.
I have read the DT for over 40 years.
[Old f*rt – maybe}
I read two GL columns, Gawd knows when, and vowed ‘never again’.
Guess what?
Never since, at least. I even read the Bryony Gordon bits [on the train is my excuse].
But GL.
No.
What part of a watermelon ‘No’ is incomprehensible to your intellect?
Kindly,
Auto
Auto – I hope that watermelon comment is directed at Lean, not me. I too am an old fart who reads the Telegraph (though less and less). Old Lean can’t even remember what he wrote when the fires of doom were approaching on those halcyon days of the agw fraud.
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc-lean171206.htm
It’s not impossible that arctic warming could cause cooling in the regions south of it. But it surely shows how many unknown unknowns there are in climatology, that this discovery–if it is one–has just now come to light. It suggests that there may be many other unknown and surprisingly counter-intuitive discoveries to be made, unsetting what is now thought settled.
Here’s an amusing thought: Now there is scope for 10,000 more alarmist “Impact” papers, this time bewailing the effects on wildlife and glaciers and agriculture and diseases from a cooling middle-NH surface temperature, rather than a warming one.
Bingo, keep the gravy scam running. Frogs are bigger, frogs are smaller, walruses are having conventions, polar bears are increasing and decreasing, there is no end to the paid climate porn the “scientist” can produce.
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/the-new-normal-in-climate-science-perfect-anti-correlation/
It may not take a harsh winter.
Two older baseload nucs are out of commision at least through yearend due to discover of cracking. If they come back on line , likely below full power. Fires in exhaust scrubbers shut down one fossil fuel unit indefinitely, and an adjacent unit for some months. Fire in a forced air cooling tower has partly crippled another. Apparently available dispatchable gerneration is now 60GW versus average winter peak demand of 58. Wind canot be counted on here because intermittent so not dispatchable.
The hidden problem is that average peak is not peak peak given statistical variation in things like daily low temps, snowstorms,… Running a national grid without sufficient dispatchable peak reserves (5-6% is the normal absolute minimum) is beyond high risk foolishness. UK is scrambling to cobble up a series of emergency measures including industrial load shedding (shutting factories to keep consumer/voter lights on), bringing standby generators in grid (tricky and requiring retrofit frequency syncing equipment), since most are expressly off grid, intended to back up locally in ‘islanded’ mode (e.g. Key hospital functions) if the grid goes down, and bringing shuttered (coal) plants onto standby status which is very costly- (restaffing, maintenance,… ) And not very dispatchable unless these plants are also placed into spinning reserve status.
Getting less attention is a new set of this winters scenarios for Germany from their national transmission authority. At equal risk of blackouts, due to lack of north south transmission capacity rather than dispatchable generation capacity. There is exactly one major high voltage line. Normally there should be two or three. Nimby has prevented the redundancy from being built, despite growing imbalance in the location of generation capacity between north and south. They built non-dispatchable wind turbines instead.
Politically self inflicted green wounds in both countries. Should make for an educational winter.
But then, if they do shhut down the factories their CO2 emmssions will decline so they can claim that they are ‘making progress’ towards the 40% goal recently annouunced by the EU.
Rud
Agree.
And if lives aren’t lost in thousands this winter – maybe next winter – sadly in tens of thousands, I fear.
But
That will be after the General Election in the UK.
Auto
Auto, sadly agree. Except the chances are much better than even it will be this coming winter.
By comparison, Ebola may kill thousands before it burns out in West Africa.
A single cold snap in grid deficient UK coûld kill 10s of thousands in days in cold northern Europe.
That is an order of magnitude difference. Unlike Evola, also wholly preventable.
But of course the watermelons will blame skeptics, corporations, etc., and a lot of people will be gullible enough to believe them. ‘We didn’t go far enough,” they’ll say. “Should have had more windmills. Should have added battery backup. Must go to full communism, no more half-measures.”
You are correct, sir.
Lack of wind or nuclear problems ‘could wipe out UK’s spare power capacity’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/11193899/Lack-of-wind-or-nuclear-problems-could-wipe-out-UKs-spare-power-capacity.html
This definitely should be a Funny Friday posting, Anthony.
whats funny about being cold and dark for days without electricity?
I was there several times in those cicumstances in Massachusetts from 2008-2011. I can attest it’s Not funny.
From my seat in front of the fire it might make me smile a bit… Maybe the selfish idiots over here (US) will learn from the selfish idiots over there.
Did the selfish idiots in Massachusetts learn anything from your cold dark 2008-2011 episodes?
Does anybody at least think about trimming the trees away from the power lines or creating a more efficient supply system?
I live in Canada, and I do know that being cold and dark for days without electricity is not funny. But for the UK to worry about not having energy to meet its winter needs, in a world it believes is warming, is still very hilarious.
“Does anybody at least think about trimming the trees away from the power lines or creating a more efficient supply system?”
Actually yes. The power company has been trimming trees like mad over the past couple of years.
Can’t blame this national crisis on the Nazis or Hitler (presumed deceased).
Wonder how much wind capacity they are counting on?
Blackouts are just what is needed to make comfortable fools realise the benefits of burning natural gas and coal.
Just over a year ago the same fears of blackouts in UK.
The day is drawing nearer and nearer when we can shout in unison: “Told ya so.”
Gore,Kerry, DeCaprio, Pete Segar, the movie stars are all comfortable fools that live in paradise while telling others to go back in caves and live without heat…the trouble is ..the brainwashed greenies are willing to listen to the the comfortable fools when they tell them the cold is caused by global warming so do not use heat and get rid of fossil fuels.
Those comfortable fools will not be affected. Unwashed masses and the poor will be.
you mean the moon beams aren’t enough of a back up? 🙂 (yes i jest…)
There are still factories in the UK?
Eh? Britain is the 11th largest manufacturing nation in the world!!! It makes up 54% of our exports. Britain is 2nd globally in aerospace manufacturing. Britain exports 81% of the cars manufactured here. One of the largest-growing exports is food.
If you are going to take the piss, at least try harder.
Food, really? Imagine that.
Maybe before they process it. That could work.
If you are going to take the piss, at least try harder.
Do you export that too?
” Britain is 2nd globally in aerospace ”
not only real but make believe as well.
How Gravity was made… in England – BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25787725
17 Jan 2014 – Space movie Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock, is the result of some pioneering work by a special effects team based in London.
Warmest year or month on record so you shouldn’t have a problem.:-(
October’s warm mildness in the NH is likely a cruel set-up.
After leaving Bermuda in 1969, we had an Indian summer in London, but come November we froze again.
Over here in Belgium, the government isn’t taking measures to prevent blackouts, they are planning how to implement the power outages this winter. We already know which areas will be cut off and in what order. Isn’t that wonderful?
You see, we Belgians think a lot further ahead than the Brits… /sarc
Government doing what it does best: Distributing misery.
Sad to say but, that’s a fact
Leo, send us your chocolate and we’ll send you some timber to burn.
If I can find a post office where the lights are still on… 😉
Here’s how the “plan” works:
http://deredactie.be/permalink/1.2094658
http://deredactie.be/permalink/1.2077606
Several years ago California had rolling blackouts. The traffic came to a stop in the cities because the trafficlights quit working. A few wrecks in some of the intersections caused gridlock over large areas. Maybe you could help start a program to teach people what to do when the traffic lights quit. I know Belgium is not California but it only takes a few idiots to foul things up. You must have a few otherwise you wouldn’t be planning for the outages.
Belgian drivers will be fine if the traffic lights go out; as all intersections revert to ‘four way go’. Italy will be even better placed as their stoplights are always treated as advisory, so they will not be missed
A new reason for the pause
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2809995/Government-measures-slowed-global-warming-Energy-minister-claims-policies-playing-role-curbing-rising-temperature.html
Government measures ‘may have slowed down global warming’: Energy minister claims policies are playing a role in curbing rising temperatures
It’s us Brits
The warming may have plateaued… but the CO2 was increasing without any slowdown.
So, what government policies were responsible?
“‘It may have slowed down, but that is a good thing. It could well be that some of the measures we are taking today is helping that to occur.’
Now THAT is a very effective government policy at work. Policy measures being taken TODAY are helping the ‘pause’ to occur — 15 years in the past.
Some WUWT commentors said this would happen but I think they didn’t think it would happen this soon.
On 6th March 2010 (over four years ago), Christopher Booker said in his excellent Sunday Telegraph column:
“ . . . . and what is to be done to avert the fast-looming crisis in Britain’s electricity supplies? With 40 per cent of our generating capacity due to disappear in the next few years (with 14 of our major nuclear and coal-fired power stations scheduled to close), how does the government propose to keep Britain’s lights on and our computer-dependent economy functioning?”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7386628/How-will-David-Cameron-keep-the-lights-on.html
This was not the first time Christopher had raised this issue. He ran a similar worrying story in 2009 in which he also reminds us of the early power cuts during the crippling UK industrial disputes of the early Seventies.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1210569/CHRISTOPHER-BOOKER-Green-zealots-muddled-ministers-condemning-blackouts.html
I am really wishing for the harshest winter the UK has seen since 1963, with regular power cuts – in the hope that common sense will bring an abrupt halt to the warmist’s agenda and the UK’s failed renewable energy policy.
A better motivation would be for the effect on the voter.
Wo-oo oow – 1963.
1963.
A Baa-aa-aa-aaa-aaad winter in the UK.
Snow on the ground from 26 December to April – and hey – in – in London [UH – Sure Stillllllll.].
Outside – anecdotally – certainly not good.
but as a kid, with no Births, Marriages & Deaths out there – nothing to compare it to.
I’ve not seen one like it since [yeah grim passages – 1978 and 1981/2 – in Bristle].
But n o t [no shouting here] 1963. Ugggggh.
But 1963 = much the worst in my lifetime.
Keep warm!
Auto
1963 – ahhh yes – fantastic winter, school bus couldn’t get through some days – but unlike todays kids we had to walk the mile or so through the countryside to school anyway. (This was around Oakham, Rutland, middlish England for those who care).
Huge snowdrifts, making slides down the hills, rolling out snowmen, snowball fights. Making Igloos!!
Oh yes it was fun, except the making us walk to school and back in it. Oh and the parents worrying we were getting to the point of ‘eat or heat’ (sooty black coal fires then- which is odd because as we now know cold winters are caused by AGW and black coal was a major source of that, so the winters should have been milder – I am confused and think I will go lie down).
1963 winter was as wonderful for a 7 year old as 1976 summer was for a teen/young adult though 🙂
A BAAAD, BAAAAAAD Winter? It was nuts and many, many people died. Although I was just 12-13 years old but I still to this day I remember that winter . I was born and lived in Holland then and a (very poor) skater. The Eleven “Steden tocht”, a 220 km endurance skating race through 11 towns was so brutal that only a few entries (out of thousands) finished, besides the incredible low temps the wind factor was unbelievable, now that all these so-called new words are being thrown about like Polar vortexes etc, it is apparent again all these “extremes” are nothing new!
I remember talking to someone who used to work in the electricity supply industry about 10 years ago and even then he said that spare capacity had gone down from 20 percent to about 7 percent. The reason ?
When the UK sold the (then nationalised) power stations to the private sector, they took over the spare capacity of mainly automatic electricity generation plants that would fire up based on demand. The electric companies used to get government money for mothballing them but leaving the spare capacity available, but then a later government (Blair I think but I will honourably accept any correction) stopped this subsidy, so the electric companies demolished the plants and sold the land. There was one in my old home town which used to fire up every now and again, this is now a a housing estate with a block of ‘low cost housing’ flats.
Not that this is the entire problem but is definitely a reason for lower spare capacity.
the emergency measures:
where’s the wwII measures I do not see them?
As mentioned in paragraph 160 to 164, some unexpected issues have introduced uncertainty into the outlook for this winter, prompting National Grid to take the precautionary step of launching an SBR tender for this winter. A volume requirement was not identified at the time of this tender due to the uncertainties outlined above. Instead, any additional volume requirement would be determined as part of the winter outlook analysis, with SBR contract offered to plant to make up this requirement.
191. Given this information, we have reassessed the volume requirement for this winter.
192. The 2014/15 SBR tender process closed on 30th September 2014. A total of 5.4 GW of SBR was tendered by 8 organisations, representing 26 units across 13 sites.
193. The tenders received have been subject to economic assessment and consequently SBR contracts are currently being finalised with the following three power stations:
Littlebrook
Rye House CCGT
Peterhead CCGT
194. Together with the DSBR procured, these will provide an additional 1.1 GW of de-rated capacity to that assumed available in our base case, increasing the de-rated margin from 4.1% to 6.1%, and reducing the LOLE from 1.6 hours to 0.6 hours.
195. This capacity will no longer be available in the market, but held in reserve to be despatched only as a last resort in the event that there is insufficient plant available in the market to meet demand. We are working with each SBR provider to finalise contracts and ensure that the additional capacity procured is made available by November 2014
http://www2.nationalgrid.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=36714.
Increasing the National Grid dispatchable reserve margin to 6.1% is equivalent to saying you took one bullet out of the revolver and are now playing blackout Russian roulette with only two cylinders loaded rather than three. Even Russian roulette is ‘only’ 1 loaded cylinder out of six.
And no responsible electric grid plays Russian roulette ever. And even then, ‘stuff happens’.
The insanity won’t stop until some event causes massive casualties…,
Do you think the politicians currently in power at that time will blame themselves????
No, they are the ones that will have the diesel generators to keep themselves warm and comfy…
Well yes of course, politicians on one side will blame the politicians on the other side as has become standard operating procedure.
.. and then they’ll blame you for not trying hard enough to stop them.