Failure on National Grid network affects train services and road users
Large parts of England and Wales have been left without electricity following a major power cut, electricity network operators have said, with a serious impact reported on rail and road services, including city traffic lights.
Passengers were shut out of some of the country’s busiest train stations during the Friday evening rush hour, while hundreds of thousands of homes were left without electricity after what the National Grid described as a problem with two generators.
The British Transport police said officers were asked to help as services on the east coast mainline were suspended, with many customers being advised not to travel; and London’s Euston station, the southern hub for the west coast mainline, was closed because of “exceptionally high passenger numbers”. The outage was reportedly also affecting other rail services and traffic lights.
Shortly before 6.30pm, a National Grid spokesperson said the generator issues had caused “loss of power in selected UK areas”. The spokesperson said the issue was “now resolved” and the system had returned to normal.
About 500,000 customers in Wales, south-west England and the Midlands were affected and 300,000 customers in south-east England were left without power, the local distributors said. A further 110,000 in Yorkshire and north-east England were affected, alongside about 26,000 in north-west England, according to the electricity distributors in those areas.
There won’t be at the moment – all lines are blocked between London and Welwyn. Will update you as soon as I can.
-ZG
— Hull Trains (@Hull_Trains) August 9, 2019
Enappsys, an energy consultancy, said the blackout may have been caused by the unexpected shutdowns of the Hornsea offshore wind farm, which is owned by the Danish wind farm company Orsted, and the Little Barford gas-fired power plant, owned by German utility giant RWE.
National Grid data showed both of the generators dropped from the grid at around the same time. The twin outages caused a sudden loss of frequency of the electricity grid, to below 49Hz, which would have caused certain parts of the network to disconnect automatically, causing the power cuts.
https://twitter.com/MarisaOrRisa/status/1159870080324423680
⚠️ #TLUpdates – Trains are currently at a stand between Farringdon & Bedford.
This is having a wider impact to services across the whole network. More information once we have it.
Full details, service updates, travel advice & ticket acceptance ℹ️👇https://t.co/iYMraBkjSy
— Thameslink (@TLRailUK) August 9, 2019
There are many excellent technical comments above that could serve at the basis to an excellent WUWT Reference page about electric grids and electrical power!
Kudos those with real experience and practical knowledge who contributed!
Working with heavy machinery and major computing services acquainted me with the efforts taken to filter, control and supply consistent high quality power to meet their needs; but very little technical knowledge beyond that.
A simple series summations about the whys and wherefores would go far in educating many.
I watched the vid on the linked Guardian article. Seeing people walk along the railway tracks to get to the next station, I thought; treking along the tracks in high heals, that’s got to be fun. Can’t take your shoes off because the rocks are too nasty, but can’t walk normally either.
Great news for a potential terrorist, knock out a small generator plant and bring the UK to its knees as there is no reliable backup generation
It would be greatly appreciated if informed bloggers like “It doesn’t add up” would follow this through until clarity emerges, the fibs are identified and the consequences clarified.
This business of reliable electricity supplies affects all of us, regardless of prior experience, political bent, acceptance of global warming hypotheses. etc.
We have to assume that bloggers who volunteer what seems to be good information are themselves experienced, apolitical and neutral about global warming, so that a credible report ensues.
All too often the nature of blogs on all topics leaves us dangling after the heat of the moment has passed. We can sometimes find a satisfying post script summary, but not often. How about it for the analysis of the interruption here? Geoff S
How to live in Germany without electricity:
Energie Armut in Deutschland
Wie kann man
in Deutschland leben ohne Heizung ohne Strom
Voraussetzungen:
ein Arbeitsplatz, besser
ein Arbeitsplatz mit Kantine oder
ein Arbeitsplatz mit Würstchenbude vor dem Werktor
eine Wohnung in einem mehrstöckigen Gebäude ab Stockwerk 3 ( eigene Körperwärme, Gebäude heizt mit ! )
Abhärtung für Kaltduschen, Sommer und Winter
Möglichkeit zum Einkaufen fahren Fahrrad oder KFZ
gute Nerven
Zu Hause, warme Getränke, warme Mahlzeiten
________________________________________________________
geschieht mit Teelichtern:
https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&ei=OusIXImmL4uusAHWtaGgDA&q=teelichter&oq=teelich&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp. und https://www.google.at/search?q=st%C3%B6vchen+f%C3%BCr+teelichter&client=ms-android-samsung&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP0s_g84rfAhWrMewKHSiJA60Q_AUoAXoECBQQAQ&biw=360&bih=560
________________________________________________________
Im Backrohr E-Herd
kann man alles zubereiten mit Teelichtern und z.B.
https://goo.gl/images/3YdN3x
Achtung:
max. 4 Teelichter im Backrohr – die Dinger heizen ordentlich!
dabeibleiben – ohne Strom gibt es auch keine Zeitschaltuhr!
________________________________________________________
Warme Getränke zubereiten
mit Stövchen und Teelicht:
https://goo.gl/images/3YdN3x
Warme Mahlzeiten zubereiten
mit Stövchen und Teelicht:
https://goo.gl/images/UwsKCh
unbedingt beachten:
überall in der Wohnung Taschenlampen mit Akkubatterien verteilen
smartphone in der Firma aufladen ist eine schlechte Idee, kann wg. Unterschlagung von Firmeneigentum ( Ladestrom! ) zur fristlosen Entlassung führen + strafrechtlicher Anzeige !
besser Ladekabel für den Zigarettenanzünder im PKW besorgen.
________________________________________________________
Anmerkungen, Korrekturen, Tipps erwünscht !
Author: Johann Wundersamer
Do be aware that The Guardian newspaper in the UK (often referred to as the Grauniad due to typographical errors) is a liberal leftwing pro-establishment newspaper. Alongside the BBC it actively promotes climate change. It is not liberal nor is is democratic, rather illiberal and anti-democratic as it also actively supports overturning the majority decision to leave the EU.
BBC black out on power cut:
Their leadership have clearly mandated that silence fall on this event.
The last report was to the effect that Angela Leadsom (energy minister) was launching an inquiry.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49309691
That was this morning. Now it’s gone and the bbc news site is devoid of any mention of the very major and important event.
They lied saying that Little Barford (gas) went out first, not Hornsea (wind).
They lied by implying that the two plant failures happened together by pure unlikely coincidence; the reality is that the two failures were directly causally connected and 100% certain because of what they did, driven by their record-seeking wind hubris.
And now silence.
Call it superglue.
I feel a bit sorry for National Grid. They must know that you can’t run a grid reliably when over a third of the generators are unreliable but they have to do what they are told by alarmist politicians and then National Grid (not the politicians) gets the blame when the inevitable failure occurs.
Interesting little vignette on BBC Radio 2 this lunchtime [Monday, 12 August 2019].
On the Jeremy Vine Show [1200-1400 BST today] there was an article on the Big Blackout last Friday.
A little bit of background, including that an inquiry has been set up.
A couple of brief comments from folks affected by the blackout, reasonably but not importantly, then a several-minute interview with a Lord Adonis, presumably because he had been the Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission [2015-17]; he is also a former Labour minister, and is also the current Vice-Chairman of the European Movement.
See the well-known [editable] Wiki-thingy – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Adonis,_Baron_Adonis
His thesis was that it was unacceptable for any profit-making entity to ever make any error (except ‘Acts of God’); there was little or no discussion of the underlying cause – only bad-mouthing the National Grid [NG]. He did NOT say ‘It couldn’t be the wind’, but I felt he wanted to do so.
Certainly it was to do with iniquitous profits . . . .
This on the national broadcaster. No significant challenge from the presenter.
The NG, of course, is required to ‘take’ ‘Unreliable Power’ – even if that is destabilising to the national network.
I do not know whether the BBC will – ever – seek a true cause of this blackout.
As much of their pension fund is reputed to be invested in Big Bird Batterers and Burly Bat Bangers, that might be expecting a little too much.
Auto
Excellent explanation of the sequence of events – Hornsea Wind Farm almost certainly first https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2019/08/10/the-shape-of-things-to-come-3/