Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 106 total)
  • Power Cuts
  • drnosh
    Free Member

    Power cuts….pah….just testing

    thelawman
    Full Member

    Yep, it looks like time to buy a fresh bottle of gas for the camping stove, and a supply of those nightlight candles from Ikea. Welcome to the 1970s. Happy winter everyone.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Can you run a dialysis machine off a turbo trainer?

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    bikesandboots
    Full Member

    Has to be approved by the king, I read. And that available power would be shared “equitably” across regions, whatever that means.

    ernielynch
    Full Member

    It doesn’t sound like anything to get too worried about – a three hour power cut with a day’s advance warning via text message.

    I think most people could survive that fairly unscathed, especially with plenty of advanced warning.

    I am surprised that the expected electricity saving of the measure would only be 5% though.

    And I can see possible long term benefits from trying to reduce our energy dependency, with greater education and awareness of the need for energy savings, and of course the importance of insulating Britian.

    Edit: Nadhim Zahawi on QT this evening claimed it is unlikely that power cuts will be necessary, which begs the question why announce the possibility of them at all?

    Is it to allow enough time for people to make alternative arrangements? Encourage consumers to use less energy? Or manage expectations so that when the power cuts don’t occur a grateful nation praises the government and energy providers for overcoming a very difficult situation?

    reeksy
    Full Member

    @tired Erm, might not be much good in the winter of discontent part 2, but … https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3280036/

    tillydog
    Free Member

    Nadhim Zahawi on QT this evening claimed it is unlikely that power cuts will be necessary, which begs the question why announce the possibility of them at all?

    Because his “unlikely” is a lot more “likely” than it has ever been before.

    I can’t find a source at the moment, but I believe that the chances of the UK suffering widespread electricity supply failure has gone from 1/100 years to 1/20 years as margins are eroded. (Widespread failure = collapse of the grid which will take *days* to recover.). The most risky time is if there is a prolonged cold spell accompanied by high pressure (= no wind).

    I believe that “the industry” has, for some time, been trying to get the gov’t to address this. It’s more a function of the UK infrastructure than the current political events, but will no doubt be blamed on the latter.

    dyna-ti
    Full Member

    Yep, it looks like time to buy a fresh bottle of gas for the camping stove

    Good point, luckily though I’m gas cooking/ living-room fire but will stock up on some canisters for the camping lantern

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    Or manage expectations so that when the power cuts don’t occur a grateful nation praises the government and energy providers for overcoming a very difficult situation?

    National Grid have no skin in that game, their job is to manage what they have. I very much doubt they would come out and say this for no reason.

    Nadhim Zahawi on QT this evening claimed it is unlikely that power cuts will be necessary, which begs the question why announce the possibility of them at all?

    I’m sure the Minister for Equalities and Intergovernmental Relations is well briefed on energy infrastructure so I take great comfort in his words.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I think it’s interesting that Truss’s government has been able to claim that the closure of the Rough gas storage facility wasn’t a decision that the government would have had any say in, but simultaneously that Kwasi Kwarteng is responsible for it being reopened.

    irc
    Full Member

    Power cuts forecast in 2024 for Northern Ireland as environment regs mean a coal plant won’t be allowed to run

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63155327

    Personally if it is a choice between reg and power cuts I would amend the regs.

    With the current gas situation closing a coal power station looks unwise.

    kerley
    Free Member

    All depends where you live but I get 2 or 3 power cuts a year and had a 3 hour power cut just last week.
    Having notice of them would have made it a lot easier to deal with.

    Better if they occur in the day than the evening as you can just go out, don’t need lights in house etc,. but it somewhat disturbs any working at home.

    NZCol
    Full Member

    Our power resilience has been in decline for many many years. Cold weather and high pressure with no wind will create problems. Rolling blackouts happen a lot in other countries, when I lived in NZ we had these as well. Not ideal but we’re so conditioned now that we expect a new car, new phone, two overseas holidays a year and everything to be avaialable NOW that coping becomes ‘a thing’. It’s not great but survivable.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    It was made clear that cuts were a worst case scenario, but that doesn’t make a great headline.

    National Grid have been warning about the increasing risk for a few years now, and governments have done nothing to prepare for it.

    Hope for a mild winter with enough wind and sun. And rain, if you’re in a still too dry England.

    ransos
    Free Member

    It’s not impossible, but a lot of things have to go wrong before we have domestic power cuts. Bear in mind that large industrial gas consumers are often on interruptible contracts.

    longdog
    Free Member

    A lot of people would be glad of only 3 hour power cuts after the power cuts of last winter which lasted days or weeks for some. Obviously for different reasons.

    3 hours of cuts notified in advance should really be no biggie for the majority people who have no medical need to have a dedicated 24/7 supply, and I’d hope those people would have some sort of back up in place the could cover 3 hours.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Can you run a dialysis machine off a turbo trainer?

    Aye. We need to keep upto £15k of live blood product cool in fridge.

    From what chappie on R4 was saying, we would need a combination of calm, really old weather and an issue with Norway interconnects and likely a powerstation down for it to be an issue – and they would a) appeal to public to conserve a
    b) shut factories first, c) put it on a rolling blackout only a few hours at a time if they *had* to hit residential homes.

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    So basically if a station trips out because there’s a Y in the day then:

    A) appeal to an imaginary better nature
    B) shut down industry and have folk moaning about that
    C) **** you we tried to be nice about it.

    I’d imagine that sums it up.

    We’re okay, could certainly survive a few hours. Aside from medical devices what about heating? Can’t run a boiler without electricity. Maybe just turn the hobs on at full chat, that doesn’t sound like it could go wrong at all.

    I don’t blame National Grid for this, I blame 30 years of governments failing to take responsibility for national infrastructure and leading us to where we are today.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    We’re okay, could certainly survive a few hours.

    People survived days of it last winter,we can manage a few hours.

    I don’t blame National Grid for this, I blame 30 years of governments failing to take responsibility for national infrastructure and leading us to where we are today.

    The fundamental requirement of government to protect its population? If only…

    dissonance
    Full Member

    I blame 30 years of governments failing to take responsibility for national infrastructure and leading us to where we are today.

    The problem is this is incompatible with the markets know best approach. The power supplies were handed to private companies and it was their job to ensure it works. Sadly though contingency measures tend to be expensive and so when it comes to resilience which is rarely needed or profits the latter wins.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    I don’t blame National Grid for this, I blame 30 years of governments failing to take responsibility for national infrastructure and leading us to where we are today.

    Coupled with a dose of 40-50 years ago we decided to sell off all our reserves to private companies, ignore renewables, go the cheapest route, and live for the day.

    If anything has been shown over the last few months, it’s that on national issues such as energy and food we have to become more independent and look to the future.

    intheborders
    Free Member

    Not ideal but we’re so conditioned now that we expect a new car, new phone, two overseas holidays a year and everything to be avaialable NOW that coping becomes ‘a thing’.

    I’m old enough to remember power cuts in the 70’s, but still sane enough to realise that how we lived 50 years ago was totally different to now.

    Example; our house back then had 2 sockets upstairs, 1 in my folks room (for their teasmade) and 1 at the top of the stairs. Had a fire in the Living room (glass door’d coke fire) and we had a bath once a week (whether we need it or not). Had an inside loo though, unlike the house I was born in.

    Anyone who talks positively about the current s**tshow IMO is an idiot (or a shill).

    ernielynch
    Full Member

    I’m sure the Minister for Equalities and Intergovernmental Relations is well briefed on energy infrastructure so I take great comfort in his words.

    As I member of the current Cabinet Nadhim Zahawi is undoubtedly sufficiently well-informed of the likelihood of power cuts, although iirc on QT he was referring to information he was privy to as Chancellor of the Exchequer, which was only a month ago.

    The question is was he being truthful with regards to his claims of the low likelihood of power cuts this winter?

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Personally I’ll just make sure the campervan is charged and fuelled.

    Of course they should direct the electricity to the region’s that need it most in account of the prevailing temperatures. That’ll mean keeping the frozen North a bit warmer and that the balmy South can withstand maybe 6 hours.

    johnners
    Free Member

    Maybe just turn the hobs on at full chat, that doesn’t sound like it could go wrong at all

    Where I worked 40+ years ago the first one in of a morning turned all the gas rings on in the messroom kitchen. It was very effective but rather moist.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    As I member of the current Cabinet Nadhim Zahawi is undoubtedly sufficiently well-informed

    They’re all zealots, they don’t live in reality, they just live in Brexit land where everything will be OK because Brexit. I doubt any of them could find their own arseholes.

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    It was on PM on R4 as I was driving home yesterday. The interviewee, Greg Hands used to be energy minister up until a few week’s back. The National Grid report was discussed – h<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>e was claiming the NG report this threat every year which is kind of true; the difference is that every year NG have said that if x, y, z all go wrong then we could be at risk of power cuts but the likelihood of them all going wrong at the same time was outside of any credible range of modelling. This year, it’s now within the credible range – still (highly?) unlikely but no longer ‘wired to the moon’ levels of disaster scenario.</span>

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001cpxm

    34 mins onward

    Also part of that was interesting – the French have just launched a ‘sobriety plan’ asking people to do obvious stuff mainly, aiming to reduce consumption – reduce your heating temperature by a degree or so, slow down on motorways, public buildings will reduce their temp, and so on. They also are launching an app like a live traffic queue time, so you can see when the system has high demand so if you can avoid running your washing machine or whatever until another time then you can make a difference. Sounds quite a decent idea (although presumably over here one of Truss’s mates would be asked to produce the app, for 5x the going rate and then fail to deliver it anyway)

    footflaps
    Full Member

    The most risky time is if there is a prolonged cold spell accompanied by high pressure (= no wind).

    I would expect the most likely scenario is the same thing which happened to the NS 1 / 2 pipelines happens to one of the inter-EU interconnects – a mysterious under water explosion.

    fossy
    Full Member

    I predict a run on loo roll !

    wbm1874
    Full Member

    This link gives an overview of the state of the grid.

    https://extranet.nationalgrid.com/RealTime

    duncancallum
    Full Member

    They’ll turn off industry 1st before infrastructure and domestic

    Pieface
    Full Member

    So we want a growth economy, which would probably benefit from having a reliable supply of energy, however we’re not going to ask people to cut back on energy use during this period, but under supply may result in power cuts.

    Something doesn’t quite add up

    BillOddie
    Full Member

    Also part of that was interesting – the French have just launched a ‘sobriety plan’ asking people to do obvious stuff mainly, aiming to reduce consumption – reduce your heating temperature by a degree or so, slow down on motorways, public buildings will reduce their temp, and so on. They also are launching an app like a live traffic queue time, so you can see when the system has high demand so if you can avoid running your washing machine or whatever until another time then you can make a difference. Sounds quite a decent idea (although presumably over here one of Truss’s mates would be asked to produce the app, for 5x the going rate and then fail to deliver it anyway)

    Yeah we should do something similar…oh.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/07/climate-minister-britons-not-be-told-use-less-energy-winter-nanny-state

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    The power supplies were handed to private companies and it was their job to ensure it works.

    No, their top priority is to make as much profit as possible for the directors and the shareholders.

    “Ensure it works” is rather lower down the list.

    reluctantjumper
    Full Member

    I did giggle at the advice somewhere to use your washing machine and tumble dryers at night to lessen the load. Partly from a safety perspective (at least the odd fire will lessen the heating bill for the neighbours) but also the thought of everyone in flats having their washing machine on full spin at 1am, the whole block would sahke enought hat noone could even hope of getting to sleep.

    They’ll turn off industry 1st before infrastructure and domestic

    Depends if the industry is a Tory donor or not surely? Also imagine if they decide to only switch off Labour areas, will be interesting to see how they do it if they do have to go ahead with these plans.

    lamp
    Free Member

    @footflaps – perfectly put. This is what happens when we have to endure the political dregs. I mentioned on a post yesterday about deadwood in the public sector which was sort of taken in the wrong way by some. There’s a ton in this cabinet that i think we don’t need along with all their hangers on. They contribute little if anything and have been quite damaging to the country. Have you noticed the more the government interfere with your life the worse it gets?!


    @theotherjonv
    – yup, yet still electric cars are meant to be the future for everyone.

    Re the power cuts, we’ve been being nudged and softened for a while on this. There was a section a few weeks on BBC Breakfast where they were discussing strategies for coping with power cuts and which best batteries to have for your house.

    In the words of the great Alan Partridge; ‘this country!’ 🙂

    bigrich
    Full Member

    I got a proper hiding in 1982 for pouring candlewax all over the new carpet during a powercut

    zilog6128
    Full Member

    yup, yet still electric cars are meant to be the future for everyone.

    there’s got to be some not-insignificant electric cost associated with processing/distributing petrol & diesel though, which can be saved? Although I think it’s really important the gov bring in some much better subsidies for solar PV for homes/businesses so people can top up their cars without stressing the grid out!

    footflaps
    Full Member

    @theotherjonv – yup, yet still electric cars are meant to be the future for everyone.

    Well everyone having a 100kWh battery sat on the driveway would be very good for managing peak demand spikes, just dip a few % into all the batteries. Long term you can see it making the grid work far more efficiently….

    ayjaydoubleyou
    Full Member

    yup, yet still electric cars are meant to be the future for everyone

    Unlike petrol/diesel which has never had an issue. It was only a year ago people were going nuts over their car fuel. Half hour queues and then being limited to £30, if you could find any at all.
    Personally, that was more of an inconvenience to my life than a publicised/pre warned 3 hour black out would be.

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