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Greater risk of blackouts this winter, National Grid warns - article by Rachel Millard 07.10.21

Writer's picture: Michael JulienMichael Julien

This article for the Telegraph needs to be seen in the context of another article by Lucy Fisher, Deputy Political Editor for the Telegraph entitled: "Energy is being used as a weapon, warns Defence Secretary". See below for link to that article.


In addition, the Global Warming Policy Forum have published a 50 page magnum opus entitled "Constable-Brink-of-Darkness" which can be downloaded here in pdf:

This article by Rachel Millard says:


Britain faces a greater risk of blackouts this winter after a fire knocked out a cable importing electricity from France.


National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) believes supply will meet demand, but has cut its forecast of buffer supply.


Its officials are also warning of high costs for getting power generators to fire up at short notice to help balance the grid.

Those costs are ultimately passed onto household bills - a further pressure when bills are climbing due to soaring wholesale costs of natural gas and electricity.


“Forward wholesale electricity prices are higher than last year,” the ESO says in its annual winter outlook report published this morning.


“In addition, tight margin days are likely to see significant price spikes in the balancing mechanism.”


The UK's few remaining coal-fired power stations are also likely to run more frequently than last year, it added, due to the prices they can earn to fill in gaps in supply.


The ESO warned in July that Britain should prepare for constrained power supplies over winter, with nuclear power plants shutting down and demand bouncing back from the pandemic.


At the time, it forecast a winter margin - the difference between supply and peak demand - of 4.3 gigawatts, or 7.3pc.


In its full winter outlook published on Thursday, its base case is now for a margin of 3.9 gigawatts, or 6.6pc, with a range of between 4.2pc and 8pc.


A key factor leading to the cut in forecast for the winter is understood to have been a fire at a converter station in Sellindge, Kent, on September 15.


The blaze knocked out the IFA interconnector bringing in about 2 gigawatts of power from France. About half of that is expected to be back online this month, but the rest not until late March 2022.


For the full article in pdf, please click here:

and for the full article in pdf by Lucy Fisher entitled: "Energy is being used as a weapon, warns Defence Secretary" please click here:


Credit: Zhenqing Du Jo





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