Blackouts in the British Isles

Justo Miranda said:
I wonder what would happen to radical environmentalists if the Big Blackout really happened:
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Probably the most straightforward scenario would be a Carrington event or an EMP attack. These *could* result in blackuts that last weeks to months. In that time major cities would turn into hellscapes... food would quickly run out and go bad, while more food would *not* come pouring in. In that case, evironmentals or no, those who survive would be those who prepared... and those who turn into real bastards.
 
www.telegraph.co.uk

Sales of £1,400 batteries surge amid winter blackout fears

Britons are snapping up large batteries costing up to £1,400, as concerns grow over winter power cuts.
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk

Sales of £1,400 batteries surge amid winter blackout fears

Britons are snapping up large batteries costing up to £1,400, as concerns grow over winter power cuts.

A large manufacturer of portable batteries, Anker Innovations Technology, has said that sales were up to three times higher in October than in the previous month.

Normally, it sells power station products to the US where power cuts are more common, while UK customers have traditionally only bought them for camping.

But Britons who worry about blackouts this winter are now stocking up, PR manager Lorna Smith told Bloomberg.

The 757 Powerhouse model, which costs around £1400 and can recharge a portable fridge for 22 hours, is sold out until December "due to overwhelming demand".

“It has been a slow uptake in the UK because we haven’t had [storms and blackouts] before, but now we’ve seen quite an increase over the past couple of months with all the warnings of power cuts,” Smith said.

The Government has outlined a worst case scenario of four days of organised blackouts in January to cope with gas shortages.
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uk 75 said:
As a simple soul can someone explain to me why people still say the solution is in renewable energy (wind, solar etc) while not explaining how to supply power when these sources do not?
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Several types of renewable energy are needed to minimise this issue just as power stations today use different fuels. Storage solutions are in place right now but not quite complete - we know them as reservoirs and dams. On a nice sunny, windy day, with high seas the extra electric generated can be used to pump water into the reservoir above the dam. When there is excess demand open the valves to the generators and within seconds there is a substantial boost to supply. We could start building the pumps tomorrow morning if the will was there.
If the demand still fluctuates too much then extra capacity can be built by electrolysing water and either burning it in generators or in fuel cells - in the latter case the only exhaust is water which, once purified, can be reused forever.
Then there are the batteries in electric vehicles. This needs a bit more work but if able to be left plugged in when not in use then more capacity is there. When the supply is excessive your car gets charged up at a given rate. When demand is excessive the charge can then be taken back at a slight premium. How far it discharges would depend on job, location, pattern of use etc. A doctor in a rural area would go no lower than 80% while a city dweller with a short commute could go to 30%.
The result would be a far greater supply, with better security than today, and little fuel needing to be moved around. It would also be completely isolated from varying fuel costs.
uk 75 said:
Just get some different climate models. In the 70s we were told the next Ice Age was due any day now. In which case we may need all the Coal powered stations we can refurbish.
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An interesting story there. Across the world there are many sites where instruments measure the climate by various methods, the readings are co-ordinated by different national groups of universities, weather centers etc. In the early 70s it was noticed that light levels at ground level were reducing and, if continued, would mean we might be running up to an ice age in a couple of thousand years. Much panic followed especially after the press exaggerated the details including knocking a couple of zeroes off the time estimate.
Across the globe serious scientists looked into what was really happening, why, what could be done, and how. An Israeli group were using large water pans to measure evaporation as part of a project to improve irrigation methods. They checked their data and found no change at all. Weird.
It turned out that UV is the main cause of evaporation and it was unaffected by most things in the atmosphere. Other instruments measure the whole light spectrum which is affected by many things in the atmosphere including water vapour, ozone and CFCs. Remember them? Once the models were improved to allow for these extra factors it was realised that global warming was happening, there was a huge hole in the ozone layer, and many people with respiratory problems could be treated because the cause was known.
I have been following this for many years as my interest is economics and especially the impact of external factors like global warming, political interference by vested interests in industries, and what Iain M Banks termed Outside Context Problems. A very smart man there. I can support everything above and fill this forum with related stuff if you're interested.
 
Orionblamblam said:
Arjen said:
[


reneos.eu

Tailor-made solutions for end-of-life EV-batteries

Tailor-made solutions for end-of-life EV batteries across Europe. We are a network of Europe’s top national battery collection systems.
reneos.eu reneos.eu
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You know what will happen? "This battery contains no user repairable components. Any effort to repair, modify or replace any component at a non certified service center will immediately void the vehicle warranty and cause the self driving AI ro take over and drive the vehicle to the nearest crushing yard."
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This is no different to how many see petrol or diesel cars today - especially with the sound deadening around the mechanical parts. Political groups like the EU are breaking the car manufacturer's cartels - I worked for an independent garage, we had all the tech equipment and regular factory training courses. We save the customers money by having flat structures, modest premises away from prime locations, we don't bill for work we don't do, and we use alternative parts when needed. Car batteries fail because the sludge in the bottom touches the plates in a cell. One cell is 2.2v and means difficult starting and rapid failure of the rest. We use a different manufacturer with a much larger gap at the bottom and also fit the battery for diesel engine cars as default.
I'm mostly retired now just helping at peak demand times some of the guys who've been on the EV training have real horror stories concerning safety and specification. Even in the UK recycling for the battery packs is in place already and solar panel recycling is coming on-stream as early installations get to their end-of-life. Economics at work again.
In eight years time the supply of new petrol and diesel cars will end in certain markets, there will be plenty of vehicles around for years afterwards until the cost of providing the fuel prices it out of the market. In the UK many years ago most cars needed 4-star petrol. That was phased out after a pool of vehicles able to run on un-leaded was in place. Four star rapidly disappeared from most petrol stations with a couple in each town supplying the lowering demand. Older vehicles could be modified to run on unleaded if it was worth doing. The recent addition of ethanol to petrol is the same again. To modify my little Ibiza was twelve pounds for the parts and an hour or so to fit them. Hardly difficult for me but beyond most owners.
 
The ozone hole and its link to CFCs is especially poignant for me as our small corner of 'Big Pharma' made many asthma inhalers, both Salbutamol (blue) and Beclomethasone (brown). About ten minutes after the ozone news broke, us lab-rats looked at each other and chorused, 'We are F***KED !!!'

We just knew Corporate would totally mishandle it: Wait, wait wait until the last moment of 'medical extension', switch to the temporary / place-holder HFC version, and make a 'pigs ear' of that, too...

Could have licensed FC-free 'bag-in-can' tech from outset, and/or reformulated our Volmax slow-release tablets as 'isotonic'. But, no...

We actually managed the transition better than expected, mostly thanks to us being 3~~4 moves ahead...

However, the ensuing 'Retreat from Moscow' had nothing to do with subsequent TLA mega-merger or my early retirement, honest....
 
More on topic, doing my weekly shop in our local 'budget mall', I noticed an elderly lady buying multiple sets of battery-powered LED 'seasonal' lights. All 'white'. Also cup-hooks, picture-rail hooks and batteries...

Yes, she was giving them to her son and daughters to string around their apartments so they and kids would not be left in dark, rely on phone lights or scary 'tea candles' in kitchen, washroom, hall-way etc...

Kudos, Ma'm !!
 
3:16PM

National Grid warning amid decline in wind power​

The National Grid issued a surprise warning on its capacity for tonight as British households were expected to increase energy consumption during the cold snap.
The notice of its tight electricity margin was sent out warning of a potential shortage from 7pm, when most people would be returning from work, cooking their dinner and using household appliances.
The National Grid quickly cancelled the automated warning as it put in place its contingency systems but experts said it was a signal of "much tighter days ahead".
The electricity network operator issues the warnings when "there may be less generation available" than operators expect will be needed "to meet national electricity demand".
It comes with temperatures dropping as Britain heads into the winter months, which was combined with a drop in the amount of wind power typically generated.
Phil Hewitt, director at Enappsys, said: "This is the first tight day of the winter but it is not super tight.
"It is a small appetizer of tightness, there will be much tighter days ahead."
The National Grid website says: "The notices are intended to be a signal that the risk of a System Stress Event in the GB electricity network is higher than under normal circumstances."
Click to expand...
3:34PM

Wind power slumps as cold snap hits​

Temperatures will fall as low as 1C in Newcastle tonight as a cold spell hits the UK, driving up gas and power demand.
The pinch point for the grid comes as wind power generation has fallen as low as 3,958 megawatts at noon today - less than half of the 10,000 megawatts produced a day earlier.
While National Grid said it was confident that power margins would be sufficient, the measure was narrow enough to trigger the automatic alert for 7pm to the market.
The warning shows the impact a decline in wind generation will have as temperatures plunge this winter.
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3:37PM

National Grid cancels warning​

Thankfully, the National Grid has put its contingency plans in place, meaning the automated warning has been cancelled.
Actual blackouts are unlikely, despite the National Grid's power shortage notice.
Energy consultancy EnAppSys explains how Britain will keep the power running:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1595065455135318016
View: https://twitter.com/enappsys/status/1595065455135318016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1595065455135318016%7Ctwgr%5Eb3fb22eff322007a75dd6bdf3d665a7df86be301%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fbusiness%2F2022%2F11%2F22%2Fftse-100-markets-windfall-tax-rises-fiscal-drag-crypto%2F
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www.telegraph.co.uk

RMT announces series of strikes in the run-up to Christmas

Rail passengers will be hit by waves of strikes in the run up to Christmas and in the New Year after talks to avoid festive travel chaos collapsed.
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
 
Grey Havoc said:
3:16PM

National Grid warning amid decline in wind power​

The National Grid issued a surprise warning on its capacity for tonight as British households were expected to increase energy consumption during the cold snap.
The notice of its tight electricity margin was sent out warning of a potential shortage from 7pm, when most people would be returning from work, cooking their dinner and using household appliances.
The National Grid quickly cancelled the automated warning as it put in place its contingency systems but experts said it was a signal of "much tighter days ahead".
The electricity network operator issues the warnings when "there may be less generation available" than operators expect will be needed "to meet national electricity demand".
It comes with temperatures dropping as Britain heads into the winter months, which was combined with a drop in the amount of wind power typically generated.
Phil Hewitt, director at Enappsys, said: "This is the first tight day of the winter but it is not super tight.
"It is a small appetizer of tightness, there will be much tighter days ahead."
The National Grid website says: "The notices are intended to be a signal that the risk of a System Stress Event in the GB electricity network is higher than under normal circumstances."
Click to expand...
3:34PM

Wind power slumps as cold snap hits​

Temperatures will fall as low as 1C in Newcastle tonight as a cold spell hits the UK, driving up gas and power demand.
The pinch point for the grid comes as wind power generation has fallen as low as 3,958 megawatts at noon today - less than half of the 10,000 megawatts produced a day earlier.
While National Grid said it was confident that power margins would be sufficient, the measure was narrow enough to trigger the automatic alert for 7pm to the market.
The warning shows the impact a decline in wind generation will have as temperatures plunge this winter.
Click to expand...
3:37PM

National Grid cancels warning​

Thankfully, the National Grid has put its contingency plans in place, meaning the automated warning has been cancelled.
Actual blackouts are unlikely, despite the National Grid's power shortage notice.
Energy consultancy EnAppSys explains how Britain will keep the power running:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1595065455135318016
View: https://twitter.com/enappsys/status/1595065455135318016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1595065455135318016%7Ctwgr%5Eb3fb22eff322007a75dd6bdf3d665a7df86be301%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fbusiness%2F2022%2F11%2F22%2Fftse-100-markets-windfall-tax-rises-fiscal-drag-crypto%2F
Click to expand...
www.telegraph.co.uk

RMT announces series of strikes in the run-up to Christmas

Rail passengers will be hit by waves of strikes in the run up to Christmas and in the New Year after talks to avoid festive travel chaos collapsed.
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
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or they could drop us to (god forbid) 239 volts for a while....

And yet as I drove home at 5pm, past 10 turbines, 7 of them were turned out of generation....
 
Down for maintenance, or some sort of attempt to manage what wind there was?
 
Grey Havoc said:
Down for maintenance, or some sort of attempt to manage what wind there was?
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Who knows, but odd that I noted it. Also odd is that its about 4 deg C warmer today, that yesterday, so heating demand will be lower, but thats mostly gas.
 
Update to the above:
National Grid was poised to pay households to cut their power demand tomorrow to avert power cuts as it prepared to activate its winter emergency electricity plan for the first time.

Its electricity system operator had warned the market it may need to use its new "demand flexibility service", a contingency scheme aimed at reducing household consumption when supply is tight.

The plan, which National Grid said it was considering this morning, was cancelled this afternoon after a scramble to secure enough power to keep the lights on.

If it had gone ahead it would have raised the prospect of households being asked to turn off their televisions when England face Wales in their crucial final World Cup group game on Tuesday night.

Low temperatures and outages on France's nuclear power fleet are set to put pressure on power supplies, according to market experts Enappsys.

Under the DFS scheme, National Grid will pay households to cut power demand by, for example, stopping running the washing machine or dishwasher until the supply crunch has eased.

Households which have signed up to the programme in advance will get a message asking them to turn off appliances at a certain time in exchange for £3 per kilowatt-hour saved. If the £3 is fully passed on by the suppliers to customers, that implies payments of up to £20 for each day when requested by National Grid.
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On a quick tangent:
www.telegraph.co.uk

Taxpayers to hand China millions of pounds to quit Sizewell nuclear plant

Exit deal comes as Sunak says the ‘golden era’ between the UK and China ‘is over’
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
Taxpayers will hand China millions of pounds to quit its nuclear power venture in Suffolk as part of a £700m deal as the “golden era” of UK-China relations comes to an end.

The Government is spending an initial £679m to help get the £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power plant project off the ground and has confirmed part of this will go to state-owned China General Nuclear (CGN) under an exit deal.

It has not disclosed what proportion will go to CGN but a Government spokesman said the payment “covers the value of their shareholding, their contribution to the project’s development and a commercial return reflecting their work to date”.

He added: “The value of their 20pc stake in the project is commercially confidential.

“CGN has decided to exit the project at this stage in its development, following constructive commercial negotiations.”

China has played a key role in the development of new nuclear power in the UK since 2015 when it was welcomed into the sector as part of a “golden era’ under former prime minister David Cameron.

It signed a deal under which it would help finance and develop three nuclear stations, two as a minority partner with France’s EDF and the third in which it would be lead developer.

The first of those, Hinkley Point C, is now being built in Somerset, but the Government has moved to curb any further involvement of CGN in the nuclear sector amid concerns about Chinese involvement in critical national infrastructure.

The second, Sizewell C, is in the early development stages and will now be taken forward by EDF which needs to bring in other investors, while CGN’s planned third station, in Bradwell, Essex, appears to be off the table.
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The UK needs to build new nuclear reactors to help replace its ageing fleet which currently supply about 18pc of electricity across the year but all but one of which is set to close down within the decade.

The Government’s £700m backing for Sizewell C will see the state take a 50pc stake in the development of the project.

It marks the first direct government investment in a new nuclear power project since Sizewell B in 1987. The state will now help EDF bring in outside investors.
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Must be a clear decade since a 'Which ?' report again recommended shunning electric under-blankets that did not use a low-voltage transformer. Don't know about people, but our pet under-bed heaters run via 12 Volt transformers...
 
Grey Havoc said:
www.telegraph.co.uk

The sinister truth about bird-killing wind ‘farms’

The Tory party must have a death wish now that it has fallen back in love with onshore wind turbines
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
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https://www.greentechmedia.com/arti...or-trend-helping-turbines-to-kill-fewer-birds

October 01, 2020
Roel May, senior research scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, was the lead author of a July report that highlighted a possible low-cost solution to eagle deaths at onshore wind farms. The study found that bird fatalities at Smøla, a Norwegian wind farm with a reputation for white-tailed eagle collisions, were reduced by more than 70 percent on turbines on which one of the blades had been painted black.
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‘Don’t take the lift’: French alarm rises over risk of winter power cuts (ft.com, subscription or registration may be required)

As falling temperatures test Europe’s resistance to a winter energy crisis, France has unveiled contingency plans for power cuts — including a stark reminder that in the event of a blackout elevators would be off-limits.

But far from reassuring the public, the government’s messaging — which also warns that some emergency telephone numbers could go down — has fuelled concerns over who could be hit and how to protect the most vulnerable.

“Right now it’s just raising a lot of questions and causing more panic than the opposite,” said Florence Compte, the headmistress of a primary school in the southern Var region, after hearing classrooms in areas hit by short, targeted cuts would have to shut for the morning, as they would be unheated and unlit.

“We didn’t think we’d be the target public,” she said.

France is not alone in envisaging power cuts as a last resort to energy shortages this winter. From Britain to Finland and Estonia, several countries expecting strains have warned that networks might have to be cut for short periods. The German central bank has made arrangements to have more emergency cash available in case cash machines are paralysed by outages. From Switzerland to Italy, telecoms operators have been lobbying to be spared from blackouts.

But few countries have gone as far as France in detailing the possible fallout from programmed power cuts, with most governments choosing to focus on appeals for businesses and households to cut energy usage rather than on contingency plans.

[snip]
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www.telegraph.co.uk

France requests emergency cut in electricity exports to UK as nuclear crisis deepens - live updates

France's electricity network operator requested emergency help from Britain as the cold snap caused demand to surge across Europe.
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
France's electricity network operator requested emergency help from Britain as the cold snap caused demand to surge across Europe.

RTE asked the National Grid if it could halve its scheduled exports through one of its interconnectors to the UK between 8am and 9am this morning as it wrestled with a spike in demand.

A combination of the cold weather, strikes among its nuclear power workers and delayed maintenance on its fleet of reactors prompted the request.

Phil Hewitt, a director at EnAppSys, said: "The French market was particularly under stress today.

"It was always going to be in trouble because of the reduced nuclear reactor fleet, the temperature is low and there has been a big demand spike combined with low wind.”

It comes as the National Grid Electricity System Operator stood down two Drax coal-fired power stations in North Yorkshire, which had been instructed to warm up in case of a surge in demand for energy as a cold snap hits Britain.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned that the European Union could face a gas shortage next year if Russia further cuts supplies.
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Thank G*d we have Coal Power stations in reserve.
If I hear one more well off do gooder complain that we are not relying totally.on wind and solar power to meet our energy needs I will break something.
This morning the UK's massive investment in Wind power contributed sweet f all to the National Grid while a mix of gas (50pc) nuke and imported (13pc) kept us going.
If China and India keep building a Drax a year we should keep ours . F*ck Cop.
 

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As of now wind is currently generating 3.77GW (8.78%), gas 23.85GW (55.54%) and nuclear 5.84GW (13.6%). Both gas and nuclear are approaching max capacity.
Interesting that pumped hydro is delivering 1.24GW and normal hydro 0.873GW - meeting about 4% of the load.

From the news last night, Drax has been stood down again, though coal is showing as 1.29GW (3%) so maybe it is actually running?
 
uk 75 said:
Thank G*d we have Coal Power stations in reserve.
If I hear one more well off do gooder complain that we are not relying totally.on wind and solar power to meet our energy needs I will break something.
This morning the UK's massive investment in Wind power contributed sweet f all to the National Grid while a mix of gas (50pc) nuke and imported (13pc) kept us going.
If China and India keep building a Drax a year we should keep ours . F*ck Cop.
Click to expand...
Talking of do-gooders, Caroline Lucas, former Green Party leader, can be found at least as far back as 2007 stating that nuclear power is “too slow”, so don’t bother.

Imagine if people had ignored her?
 
There is a huge amount of media carp, yes it is difficult but a bit of lobical thinking will get us all through. The media just want to push up their ratings which is all they really care about.
 
We have plenty of former Nuclear Reactor sites around the UK which could host these small new reactors.
By using sites already experienced in handling nuclear stuff we ought to be able to jump start an emergency nuclear programme. After all there is a war on!
 
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