he does that quite often with his various log ins
National Grid warns Britons of blackouts on ‘really cold’ evenings
- Thread starter JohnD
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That's no way to talk to a lady.
Traitors? Who said that?
Texas went cheap on their infrastructure, their Coal and Gas systems froze and shut down, as did a handful of their wind turbines. The main failure was their gas infrastructure.
But you probably didn't know that.
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Reality
● Gas provided 41.9% of electricity generation by Major Power Producers, with renewables at 37.8%, nuclear at 17.0% and coal at 2. 4
Why do they do this at times - because sometimes we can't produce enough ourselves.
Between 2010 and 2021, electricity imports to the UK increased almost ten-fold to 28.7 TWh, while electricity exports remained broadly level with exports of 4.2 TWh in 2021. Since 2010, electricity imports’ share of the UK’s electricity supply has increased, up from 2.0 per cent in 2010 to 9.1 per cent in 2021
As of March 2022, the UK has seven international interconnectors with a total capacity of 7, 440 MW, an almost three-fold increase in capacity since 2010. In the 2020 Energy White Paper, the Government set an ambition of 18 GW of interconnector capacity by 2030, with new interconnectors set to connect the UK to Germany and Denmark.
We import ~10% of what we use and intended to increase this.
Good job it doesn't go through boarder checks.From
Interesting choice - covers a period where a fair number of people will be getting up to prepare to go to work. Electric kettles and some showers etc.
Loads of kettles tend to go on at certain times.Our gas storage capacity has been allowed to run down to avoid maintenance costs. This is now seen as a bad decision as we are very dependent on imports. This has meant paying top whack to get the stuff. Eg as reported on the news a tanker heading to S America and a good way there turned round and came here.
There has been talk of resurrecting some storage but talk come for free and doesn't mean it will happen. Fact is that our storage capacity is far too low. All countries should have a decent buffer to avoid being desperate for the stuff however they get it.
What a complete and utter f*** up this is. Here we are in 2022 being told we might need to turn the lights off. When you look back at things like Nick Pleb oops sorry Clegg saying no to nuclear a decade back because it would take a decade to come online ... well here we are a decade down the line.
Not that straight forward. Their gas comes from wells so this applies to all. The gas comes through a pipe that has a certain flow capacity. Demand varies throughout the year so storage is used to even it out.
I'm not naive enough to think these things are straightforward to plan and implement, however surely now the UK will be strategising to ensure (asap) we're as close to 100% self-sufficient in energy as we can be? As far as possible, a country should never be reliant on other countries to keep the friggin' lights on.
Farce.
Farce.
Not really, if we wanted the fastest and cheapest self sufficient grid we'd have lots more Wind and Solar, backed up with Gas and gas storage to cover low periods.
We do have a reasonable amount of Gas, just not enough to supply all our needs. If we had twice as much renewables then we would probably be self sufficient most of the time.
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Well the Tory way is to run everything in or near to being in crisis.
However a number of PM's have tried to get nuke stations built and failed as no takers. Last one was Toshiba who dropped out because there was not enough money in it. EDF have come forward. China offers as well. Go back to early Mrs T and she was encouraged to allow us to do a self build to retain the capability but we had the N Sea. Rumour says she decided they were needed later.
Germany is criticised for dropping nuclear. Why did they do this - The Greens who do figure in their politics. Merkel had other thoughts even concerning Russian gas.
One of the problems in this whole area is getting straight information. Groups have an axe to grind. How do you reduce the cost of nuke electricity. Relatively simple, extend the stations life. This is being done, Also ask why France's energy is cheap. Russia are said to prefer to sell petroleum products for generating electricity rather than use it themselves. They go nuke instead. Sweden was more or less totally nuke and cheap. It's how they heat their homes etc. Be interesting to see how they get on without it. Some of the comments about nuke don't seem to stack up. A favourite was can not produce variable amounts - essentially incorrect.
I've seen comments that the ideal is seen as being 50% nuke and 50% renewable. I haven't tried to look for the reasoning but it or similar appears to fit in with intent. Obviously an idea come up with by some idiot or the other according to arguments by people who want to produce via something else. Solar will be wonderful according to some who want to do it. Can that be sensible for the land of sunshine called the UK? It's such a large place isn't it as well. It would definitely need storage.Cover the entire country with windmills or stick them in the sea. Tends to depend on who wants to do it.
Hydrogen needs to figure at some point as well. Yet more electricity. Solar might be ok for that as the output would be stored. Any surplus from nuke or wind could go the same way. Which is favourite?
Export electricity - we are a long way from entirely producing our own.
What part of my post are you saying 'not really' to?
This is where I need to watch that I don't turn into a conspiracy theorist! Part of me thinks the delays (in coming up with a different approach/strategy) are caused by the powers that be and business working out how they can continue to make enough tax and profit out of energy. Let's face it, if I announced I'd discovered a way to provide 100 homes with 24/7 energy for a week with 3 AAA rechargeable batteries, a glass of still water and a microfiber cloth, how well would that go down
We get all this waffle about doing this that and the other to reduce our bills, be better for the environment etc. Reduced income from energy ... is that really what's wanted by those who benefit financially? Doesn't matter what way we slice these cakes, government still needs the taxes to roll in.
I suspect your 100% self sufficiency is one of the problems To be 100% self sufficient at peak demand would require a lot of redundant plant for most of the time.
So storage is needed as it is with gas. More cost. It's hard to get around that. An alternative is to export but.................
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