From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
London: 29 April 2025
For immediate release
Net Zero Watch warns of growing grid instability
With more than 50 million EU electricity consumers suffering blackouts yesterday, campaign group Net Zero Watch has reiterated its warning that the UK power grid is also becoming increasingly unstable.
Grid analysts have suggested a high likelihood that the extent of yesterday’s blackout in Iberia was a result of the Spanish grid operating almost entirely on renewables at the time. The stability of power grids depends on so-called ‘inertia’, a resistance to rapid change that is an inherent feature of large spinning turbines, such as gas-fired power stations, but not of wind and solar farms. Too much renewables capacity on a grid can therefore mean inadequate inertia. As a result, in grids dominated by wind and solar, faults can propagate almost instantaneously across grids, leading to blackouts.
In a recent Net Zero Watch paper, entitled Blackout Risk in the GB Grid, energy system analyst Kathyn Porter pointed out that our own electricity system is also becoming increasingly unstable. Large fluctuations in grid frequency – the first sign of problems – are becoming much more common.
In the past four years, the upper operational [frequency] limit was breached around 500 times in each winter season…the number of such breaches has also been growing steadily, which is consistent with falling grid inertia…and a perception that the grid is becoming less reliable.
In addition, Ms Porter points out that the GB grid experienced a ‘near miss’ at the start of the year.
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said:
For 20 years, every aspect of the grid has been subordinated to the concerns of the eco-warriors. It’s no surprise that our electricity system is now both unaffordable and dangerously unstable. We can no longer afford to have energy policy determined by fantastists.
Notes for editors
Kathryn Porter’s paper can be downloaded from the Net Zero Watch website.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thursday night and Friday morning will be interesting and closely watched in the UK. They are holding local elections in a substantial proportion of constituencies, along with a couple of regional positions and also a Commons seat by-election.
The only party which is explicitly opposed to net zero, Reform, is high in the polls and is running in all or almost all the seats, mostly for the first time. Now, Reform is also strongly anti-immigration, so that will be a factor in any success it has. This is by no means any sort of referendum on net zero.
But essentially Reform has a monopoly on the anti-woke vote, where the pillars of woke are climate, gender, race, immigration. As often happens in democratic politics issues are coalescing, and net zero is an increasingly important one of these issues.
If you are in the UK, get up early Friday! UK politics appears to be evolving away from the traditional binary divisions of class into a more culture based and, dare one use the expression, diverse, political landscape, with, as John Curtice remarks, five political parties all contending, and three or four of them with some chance of emerging as a dominant force.
Whatever happens though, in the light of Iberian blackout it is very difficult to see the UK’s net zero 2030 policy holding up. But its also just about impossible to see Labour ditching it. So lay in popcorn!
” Reform has a monopoly on the anti-woke vote”
That is purely because Parliament (all parties) are woke.
Farage Backs Bipartisan Campaign to Force Government to Hold National Child Rape Grooming Gang Inquiry
Royal Marine Detained Under Terror Legislation After Questioning Corps DEI Policy
I could go on…
Diversity in and of itself has merit. The problem has been for years now that it has been used as an excuse to promote racism, sexism, and other ethical malfeasance.
Why does hiring people of different skin color have merit over merit itself?
You did not read:
“The problem .. an excuse to promote racism, sexism, and other ethical malfeasance.”
Why couch your response in racist terms?
My office is very diverse. All were hired based on merit. None were given an advantage due to skin tone, religion, sex/gender, ethnic background.
Diversity of ideas and experiences and points of view allows people to experience beyond what they would have otherwise and from that grow.
I misread your post.
Dark or light skin tone has no bearing, just like hair color or eye color.
Sparta Nova,
ther are so many occurances in such as the U.K. Air Force and the Police force’ (Sorry Service) where the recruitment aim is diversity not merit.
A distortion and lowering of standards as the better candidataes are overlooked.
I suspect you organisation is in the minority unfortunately?
We are a division of a very large corporation that does space and defense work.
Unfortunately, my organization might well be in the minority, but the way we do it works. We do not hire someone based on their hair color.
It’s fair to say that the governing party is all over the place on anything you can think of. Mad Ed is fuming at the intervention of Tony Blair and his doomed to fail critique of net zero. Normally, I would not find myself in agreement with the saintly one, but on this occasion he is dead right: it is doomed to fail.
The fallout from the uber massive power failure in Spain and Portugal continues..
“Inside Ed Miliband’s friendship with Spain’s net zero architect
Policies of former environment minister Teresa Ribera may have laid ground for catastrophic power cuts”
The Energy Security Secretary has previously praised and hailed his “friendship” with Teresa Ribera, while also once claiming that Britain and Spain could “lead the world in climate action”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/29/ed-miliband-friendship-spain-net-zero-architect-ribera/
Mad Ed still believes that.
“The result of the drive to Net Zero is energy that is both more expensive and considerably less reliable – so unreliable, in fact, that blackouts on the scale of those in Spain and Portugal could soon cease to be rare. So why do our leaders still tell us that going green is the answer? That cheap, abundant ‘clean’ energy is around the corner, lowering bills and powering new industries?
Our elites’ embrace of green ideology has divorced them from reality. The blackouts in Spain and Portugal are a taste of the bleak future to come, should we fail to change course.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/29/spains-blackouts-are-a-disaster-made-by-net-zero/
And today…
“Labour’s civil war over net zero continues to rumble on after Tony Blair took a blowtorch to the party’s “irrational” green agenda – branding it “doomed to fail”.
Environment secretary Steve Reed was wheeled out on the morning media round after the fallout, admitting on Times Radio that he agreed with much of what Blair said:
https://order-order.com/2025/04/30/environment-secretary-blairs-net-zero-attack-valid-and-important/
All over the place. We won’t be moving to their fantasy grid. They still haven’t grasped that. Maybe on Friday morning they will?
Unfortunately Labour still have about 400 MPs – and basically the whole 650 MPs voted for the Net Zero nonsense. Without a general election or some mass religious conversion most of them still believe in the carbon dioxide devil.
I’m bemused at how the British sheep have allowed themselves to acquiesce in the climate nonsense – but then they allowed themselves to be locked down over the covid scare – with many wanting even more absurd restrictions.
The world is topsy turvy and I want to be buried upside down in the hope that I will be the right way up when it has sorted itself out.
” Without a general election”
Well, we just had an election and only 60% could be bothered to vote – even by post.
Labour has ~20% of the possible vote and ~32% of those who did bother to vote. It’s not the victory the number of seats would suggest. But then, this is a wholly rigged system of election. Even the referendum on the voting system itself was rigged. Parliament is all about preserving the status quo. And it will use violence to that end.
But spare a thought for London. Only 40% voted for a London Mayor and Khan got a little over half of that.
British democracy. Sounds great until you try it.
The Tory PM Sunak called an early election having been scared by Farage opting to stand in the forthcoming Autumn election and thus damaged his party as better economic news came through after the election and before Labour sent the UK into a recessionary spiral. The rush to the polls did undermine Reform as they had yet to appoint candidates for most seats and were therefore at a low level in the public consciousness at the election which therefore became a vote between the 3 main arms of the Uniparty. Without a really strong alternative why bother voting? I was a bit dubious of Reform but gave them a vote. The alternative was going to be spoiling my ballot paper to at least show I cared enough to turn up. So I believe it is unfair to blame non-voters who could not stomach voting for the least worst once again.
As for London, the recently ennobled Sir Knife Crime benefitted for the anti-Tory sentiment shown in the general election and even a good independent standing on an anti-ULEZ was spurned in the desire to punish the Tories.
On climate, essentially, we have a dominant state broadcaster that represents the only source of news for, probably, the majority of the population, and they are absolutely committed to AGW, net-zero, etc, and will not allow any contrary opinion.
On Covid and sheep, I’ve read every SAGE minute and much beyond, thought about the subject deeply, can probably hold an intelligent discussion with any professor of medicine on the subject, and have come to the conclusion that the UK Covid response was as close to correct as could be reasonably expected in the circumstances.
So, which one of us is the sheep? The well-read expert, or the one who recites conspiracy theories, without even realizing it, about a country he’s likely never even visited?
“the UK Covid response was as close to correct as could be reasonably expected “
Now, that was funny. But then again, it is deadly serious. A whole load of children needlessly messed up by technocratic – lets be like China – control freaks.
I can see that you attended Imperial College.
There was no alternative.
In your expert opinion, of course.
What was the alternative?
If it collapses the healthcare system, that is not an alternative.
Ironically, the healthcare system was essentially idled. Doctors and nurses took their dance moves to YouTube to prove it.
Can’t you think of any?
Giving out bonuses for covid deaths was perhaps a misguided incentive.
Rubbish And you know it.
Also, on the subject of “messed up children”, I think you’ll find the real problem was the parents.
Parents did not decide to lock them up The technocrats did that. What are you imbibing?
Exactly right, and the group of children who were worst affected are doing GCSE exams in a few weeks. The knock on effect of “home schooling” which nobody in government took into account and now none of them care about.
One question if it was as bad as claimed why were Nightingale Hospitals empty over summer 2020? £530 million spent and one issue came to define the narrative around the Nightingales – quite simply, they were not seeing many patients.
The death rate really was minimal.
It was a test- of what they could get away with. The teachers in my opinion were the worst of the worst.
Eric –
Your thoughts are particularly valuable because . . . ?
I think you’ll find it wasn’t.
Eric,
As Richard Feynman said “Science is belief in the ignorance of experts.”
You may not be ignorant, but you have only ventured an opinion, having “come to the conclusion” about something.
Colour me unconvinced – appealing to your own authority having “thought about the subject deeply” is deeply unconvincing.
Not that it matters, really, does it? Your opinion is as equally as valuable as mine.
Can you quote reliable sources for your opinions?
Yes.
“in the circumstances”
Quite an out.
Sweden’s response to Covid was far more correct. Everything was voluntary, no schools closed, and their resultant all-case mortality rate per 100,000 inhabitants, 2020-2022, was 158 compared to UK’s 289.
“.. a dominant state broadcaster that represents the only source…”
BBC is probably the ROOT of the evil. This communist news outlet has been front and center for decades in their propaganda against Western culture and capitalism. This has unfortunately spread around the world. So now it’s everywhere…
Altipueri,
the British sheep are very badly informed about climate change and net zero, both from the media and from the government.
They don’t realise that what the government claim about wind and solar is not supported by fact or logic, but they know no better. The Media is largely to blame as there is little contradiction from it to highlight the nonsense from government, added by the continual propoganda by the BBC on climate.
Then how many even read or listen to the media in any case and are completely disinterested?
To be fair though Blair is talking crap ad well. He is favouring carbon capture and fusion both of which won’t be happening.
This is a bit of Curtice’s analysis in the Telegraph: The party at greatest risk is the Conservatives, partly because
….Nearly a thousand of the 1641 seats at stake are being defended by the Conservatives. Labour is trying to hang on to a little under 300, the Liberal Democrats just over 200. Reform did not win a single seat in 2021…
But also because Reform is the real challenger here from the right, and many are leaving the Conservatives for Reform because they have concluded the Conservatives are no longer a conservative party.
Thanks to the two parties’ joint plight, less than half of those with a voting preference are currently minded to vote Labour or Conservative. British politics appears to be fragmenting.
Reform, at 25 per cent, are narrowly ahead in the polls, something Ukip never came close to achieving. The Greens may only be at 9 per cent, but that matches the all-time high they previously briefly achieved in the wake of their success in the 1989 European elections. The Liberal Democrats, on 14 per cent, are at their highest level since 2019. Moreover, both these parties typically do better in local elections than in the national polls.
As a result, Thursday’s local elections will likely be the first in which as many as five parties are serious players.
This is a very different political climate from the one Britain enjoyed when the seats being contested on Thursday were last fought over. The Conservatives, boosted by a Covid vaccine boost, stood at 42 per cent, six points ahead of Labour. Gains for the party in the local elections were topped by winning “red wall” Hartlepool in a parliamentary by-election. The Liberal Democrats were at just 8 per cent in the polls, the Greens, 5 per cent, while Reform barely troubled the pollsters at all.
“The party at greatest risk is “
Completely immaterial as far as Parliament is concerned. Decadal swings and roundabouts. Parties wax and wane but the institution is always in control.
The Civil Servants don’t change
UKIP was the largest party in the 2019 Euro election with 30.5% of the vote. Lib Dems were second on 20.5%.
The historical pattern might be the fall of the Liberal Party in the early 20c. Not sure how likely such a realignment is, but it seems possible, and Curtice, who is a very penetrating observer, is suggesting its on the cards in his view. Its also not at all clear what form it would take, but I do think this is quite different from UKIP.
The issues have coalesced in a way they did not with the Referendum and I detect a sort of recklessness on the part of the electorate. Unlike at the Referendum there are issues which affect people locally on which they are now voting. At the Referendum it was more that vague discontent attached itself to a topic. Now its more like they are voting directly on a set of specific issues, an explosive mixture of the cultural and the financial, and a lot seem to have, in the line from the film, the feeling that they are ‘mad as hell and not taking it any more’.
Well, we shall see Friday morning. It may be a damp squib. But its one to lay in the coffee and croissants to watch!
The thing that is always worth watching with a sort of grim amusement is the efforts of the BBC staff to conceal their consternation if the vote goes any way against the liberal consensus. A feature every time the Conservatives get in, and a shining example was during the Referendum coverage.
The quoted part of the article makes no mention of the fact that Reform have been winning lots of council byelections at the expense of Labour which indicates they can threaten Tories and Labour. The LimpDumbs under Ed the Clown think they might be safe to pick up seats but lost to Reform in W Sussex where a byelection was held in a council area that has blocked elections. I am not voting tomorrow as here the Tories in fear of Reform backed the Labour plan to wreck local government without any consultation or thought.
Oooooh energy reliability, Ed? As I write faceplate 25GW of your windmills are producing POINT EIGHT THREE of.a GIGAWATT. Help help blackout! But solar is producing about 30GWH today! ( demand near 720GWH)
Well that’s easy. 100 divided by 0.83 means they just need 120.5 times as many windmills for the 25GW required and you want more you just incentivise it like so-
Labor’s electric vehicle (EV) fringe benefit tax break blows out 10-fold as uptake skyrockets
Isn’t there supposedly a new way to get grid stability- I read about it somewhere but don’t recall where. No doubt it won’t work. Perhaps this hypothetical solution should have been mentioned.
JZ, I have studied grid inertia for over a decade, as economic support for my energy storage carbons invention for supercapacitors.
There are only three ways to provide grid inertia:
South Australia has installed a huge package of Tesla batteries, providing many MW’s of power during more than one hour if necessary. Seems to react in a fraction of a second if necessary to restore the frequency of the net…
150 MW / 195 MWh when fully loaded…
https://hornsdalepowerreserve.com.au/
Yes, and Rud has missed providing grid inertia synthetically using those batteries. Considering the future grid is very likely (IMO) to rely on synthetic inertia that would seem to be a rather large gap in his understanding.
We can no longer afford to have energy policy determined by
fantastistsfanaticsFixed it
How lucky we are in Ontario that previous governments continue to promote and fund CANDU reactors when the rest of NA was shunning nuclear energy because of Hollywood style propaganda after an issue at a reactor in Pennsylvania. Back then America and Britain were proud of their coal mining capabilities, with many a coal fired facility.
With wind and solar being shown as engineering and economic dead ends, and using fossil fuels deemed to be a “sin” by so many, what else will be used to produce all of the electricity needed for an advanced economy?
Ontario Power Generation, a government-owned corporation, is moving forward with its Darlington SMR project. Onsite construction has now begun.
Their first 300 MW GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 is scheduled to be brought online in the early 2030’s. Three more will follow at Darlington if the first is successfully delivered on budget and on schedule.
It is my expectation that OPG’s BWRX-300 project will be the first grid-scale SMR to go online on the North American continent.
OK, will more SMR’s follow if the first BWRX-300 is successful? Certainly more will follow in Canada if the first can be brought in on cost and on schedule.
But how about everywhere else on the North American continent? Competition from new-build gas-fired capacity will remain fierce.
My guess is that the nominal capital cost of the first BWRX-300 at Darlington will be north of $10,000 USD per kilowatt. How far north of that figure the first one will be depends upon how disciplined an approach our neighbors to the north actually take in managing their first SMR project.
So, does the public always find out these flaws and near misses after the fact like Chernobyl?
What is wrong with these people? Wind and solar are not a substitute for fossil fuel, nuclear and hydro. CAGW crackpots lying and saying they are will not change anything. Fire up all fossil fuel and nuclear generators. Build new fossil fuel and nuclear generators. Maintain the grid. Remove all wind and solar from the grid. It is that simple.