[credit: green lantern electric]
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Britain must prepare for low energy supplies this winter as two nuclear plants shut down and workers return to the office, the business behind the power network has warned. The Times reporting (via The GWPF).
Low wind speeds and surging demand in Europe may also squeeze the amount of electricity available as the months get colder, according to National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO).
The Hunterston B and Dungeness B nuclear stations are both due to shut within months, taking away a stable energy source at a time when unpredictable wind and solar generation is an increasingly part of the country’s power mix.
There is also uncertainty over how much energy will come from remaining coal-fired power stations as they start to shut down.
National Grid ESO said: “While we remain confident there is sufficient supply to meet peak demand, we should prepare for some tight periods during the winter. We have a well-functioning market that responds to market signals and the ESO may need to use its tools to manage these periods.”
The power system is getting less predictable as it moves from relying on large, fossil-fuelled plants to more wind and solar power stations, as well as cables linking to the continent which can be used to import and export power.
Meanwhile, French company EDF announced last month that it would immediately shut down the Dungeness nuclear plant in Kent following a string of technical problems. It is also closing the Hunterston site in Scotland because of cracking in its graphite reactor core.
Full report here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Somewhat ironic really as many Tory ministers were all for keeping coal a part of the United Kingdoms raw energy mix. It became a farce when Thatcher made coal and the working classes associated with their trade unions her political priority to kill-off – revenge. This became more acute when (as well as founding the Hadley Centre for Climate Predictions – to give the UN’s IPCC the ammunition to blame climate change on CO2 from burning coal) she then ignored BG and opened up our NS gas wells to feed the new CC gas/steam turbine power stations. Since then her private utility markets have flourished whilst bills have gone up and are now even more inflated as the current band of political numpty heads are also subsidising wind tidal and nuclear power. And just to make this far worse Russia (as well as itching to sink our RN HMS QE and POW) is also itching to shut off NG supplies when it suits them – this winter?. DC’s motives may indeed be questionable and his ideas may be even more extreme, but given Bojo’s track record with the Worlds worst Covid death toll I for one believe he did say he will buy-in anything and have the cheapest tunnel to Ireland to keep Britain going. Seams to me this is even more extreme than Thatcher and Blair et al and a total contradiction of the aims of Brexit. Surly we should be burning UK coal cleanly and massively increasing our related energy utilisation efficiency – of which cheaper UK steel is an absolute must. Coal and shale ore can also play a significant part in specialised/strategic oils, but bulk CH4, H2, chemicals and other allied products can be produced for industry road transport and commercial needs. E.G. C H2/CH4 combustion engine with WHR and enough battery storage to meet inner city pollution needs – all automated by roadside sensors.
Make sure you have a supply of candles. Even better, see if you can install a generator. You will need to be able to isolate from the dead grid (and have provisions for the horde of visitors when it becomes obvious that you have electricity).
Having been through 3 days without electricity (some went 5+days) during the South Australian State blackout I don’t wish it on you, but your politicians want to do so. (Survived thanks to gas heating and cooking but I read they want to get rid of that over there).
And don’t think interconnectors would save you.
Good luck, to all who sail those perilous waters.
And just what are all these politicos going to do when their power goes out in the middle of a heat wave or cold spell?
Storming of the “Bastille’s” of the world is long overdue. This will not end until they are all hunted down and rooted out and neutralized.
Great! Bring it on! L@@K – there’s plenty of wind ! /s https://gridwatch.co.uk/wind
‘it alerts the market – effectively telling generators they will get a good price if they ramp up supply’
If they still have employees.
Utter insanity.
The arctic has been below normal right through this melt season. I cannot find another year, in the DMI record, when that has happened.
We have no idea what effect that will have on the winter but with another La Niña coming, the antarctic ice above normal for several years and now the arctic cold, it doesn’t look good for us and the alarmist commies.
I always said it would take a catastrophe before the green stupidity would stop whether that be by riot or by economic crash.
Vive la grande relance.
So shutting utterly reliable generation for utterly unreliable generation might cause problems? Well I never.
It’s certainly true that the highest UK demand is in the winter, but it’s been a hot week to date, cooler today. Interestingly, electrical demand was a bit higher when it was hotter.
Presumably there is an optimum temperature? Something like 22C for Brits?
On a tangent, 3 reactors tripped yesterday because of grid connection failure. Anybody know more?
Make Britain Great again.
On September 28, 2016 South Australia was hit with a severe storm, followed by blackouts. Victoria & Tasmania didn’t experience these despite the storm.
Warnings were issued about this storm two days before its arrival yet the state’s electricity system was left in a situation where most of the power was coming from the wind farms in regional areas supplemented by the 2 interconnectors, (which could supply about 50% the demand).
the sudden loss of generation from wind farms because they automatically shut down in response to “voltage disturbances”. This increase in demand led to the major interconnector tripping out. There were widespread blackouts, with people without power for days, and it was 13 days before complete restoration. Kangaroo Island did not lose its supply, as the island power station had been built to supply the island for the contingency of a failure in the power cable under the Backstairs passage.
… points out SA went into the storm with the vast majority of gas generation left idle.… would it have been prudent to fire up the gas generators near the city so baseload power was available close to most customers, without being transmitted across vulnerable infrastructure?
As more detail emerges about the blackout emerge, we are seeing additional levels of vulnerability built into the electricity system by the push to wind energy. So we are seeing that the statewide blackout was not only a case of bad policy and poor infrastructure planning but also a case of mismanagement.
It seems to me that the UK is following the same path; shutting down reliable generation and relying on wind and interconnectors. Should there be blackouts expect the same result – “But the government is avoiding the issues and covering its butt”.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2021-01-11/debates/641EBC42-663C-4EE0-AFB7-2B0A4860C17F/NationalGridCapacity
From Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist 11th Jan 2021 …
[my bold]
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From https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2021-05-19/debates/6B44921F-7042-421C-A6E8-6B911C04FDD6/10-PointPlanSixMonthsOn?highlight=national
And that the House of Commons and The House of Lords are completely captured by the Green Plan …
and on it drones, forecasting a bright green and prosperous future — fat chance!
IMHO the whole ’10 point plan’ smacks of communist style central planning with yet more government interference in the markets (picking ‘winners’ again?). In all probability the domestic energy markets will be screwed with domestic heating fuels being ‘levelized’ to match the price of domestic electricity.
Humm, maybe a prediction of a modern ‘Winter of Discontent’, after all, some say food stocks are low, others that stored gas is low, now electricity might not be available.
So stock up on your foods and fuels — wood, heating oil, bottled gas, paraffin, etc … oh and charge up all the batteries.
…
Or maybe not 😉 .
Not that the UK Government can see any problems …
the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution
Subsidising ‘green’ jobs isn’t a revolution, it’s a massive burden on the economy that everyone has to carry.
“So stock up on your foods and fuels”
Or sell out and immigrate while you still can.
100 days to save the planet, John Kerry claims
Date: 22/07/21 London Evening Standard
US climate envoy John Kerry has said there are 100 days to save the next 100 years as he called on China to increase the speed of its efforts to cut carbon emissions.
https://www.thegwpf.com/100-days-to-save-the-planet-john-kerry-claims/
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Gordon Brown said it was 50 days…in 2009.
http://cdnedge.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8314044.stm
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Is there a contest to make the most vacuous climate alarm claim?
Are Hunterston B and Dungeness B being shut permanently?
Phil S — Are Hunterston B and Dungeness B being shut permanently?
Yes.
National Grid ESO highlights impact of two nuclear plants closing
22 July 2021
https://scotlandagainstspin.org/2021/07/warning-over-winter-power-crunch-telegraph/
If edf , put up its prices, don’t, forget if you put in the price we can cancel our contracts.