Two news items this week are a stark warning that our electricity grid will soon be little better than third world countries.
On Monday, the Telegraph reported:
Emergency power cuts could be imposed on millions of households at short notice to avoid nationwide blackouts, under new rules introduced by grid bosses.
Measures that came into effect this week give the National Energy System Operator (NESO) the authority to tackle electricity shortages with rolling power cuts around the country.
Each area would have its power switched off for three hours at a time. NESO would have to give just eight hours’ notice to use the so-called demand control rotation protocol.
The new measures, first reported by the Guardian, are designed to bridge a gap between NESO’s current emergency powers and rolling-blackout plans that require government approval.
Currently, the UK’s electricity supply emergency code, a national plan of energy rationing, can only be triggered by ministers and requires emergency legislation.
It is intended for prolonged national crises lasting more than 24 hours.
NESO, meanwhile, has the ability to disconnect up to 20% of power at five minutes’ notice in the face of imminent system collapse, such as the nationwide shutdown seen in Spain in 2025.
Under the updated rules, NESO can activate rolling local blackouts without political approval.
Make no mistake – this is not just administrative box-ticking. NESO is effectively admitting that blackouts are now a real possibility and will soon become a regular occurrence.
And little wonder. The
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All by design.
South Africa does power sharing, so I’m told by a South African family member. Two hours a day! People tend to rig up their own generators to kick in!
Can you imagine the problems with your fridge and freezer being off for three hours every day, in the heat we’ve just experienced?
Right now gas is providing us with a little over 50% and we are exporting a little under 10% to Europe.
The main problem is not (just) power supply but frequency stability which is what caused the problem in Spain.
Spinning generators – gas, nuclear coal – spin at 3 000rpm setting grid frequency at 50Hz and provide inertia from all the kinetic energy in the spinning machinery and speed governors which resists change to rotation and thus frequency caused by increased or falling demand. The frequency has to be maintained within 1Hz around 50Hz.
Wind and solar cannot set or maintain frequency. The more wind and/or solar in the mix, the less stable is the grid and more susceptible to events which affect frequency, such as lightening striking power lines, grid or consumer equipment faults, sudden volatility in demand, or supply.
When a wind supplier suddenly drops out, this immediately causes a frequency change. If the majority supply at the time is wind and/or solar they cannot resist that fluctuation and will disconnect to prevent equipment damage causing yet more frequency fluctuation.
The grid in Spain didn’t shut down because of lack of power, it had plenty, it shut down because one solar supply faulted, caused a frequency anomaly which cause another supply to disconnect and then a cascade effect… Read more »
Exactly – you can’t beat physics with politics, no matter how hard you ‘believe’…
I ran you post through ChatGPT – interesting.
For the sake of a memorable and relevant acronym, shouldn’t that read “demand control rotation and protocol”?
Get fracking and drill. Why pay a world market price for domestic and industrial use when the gas / oil is under UK soil which would invigorate industry? The UK cannot manufacture and export with high energy prices. Just pay Quadrilla et al just to extract and the profit go to a UK Sovereign Fund?
Release the gold mine shackles. Let the Fracking industry put their money where their mouths are with local independent bodies monitoring the geographics of the area, indemnifying the local population against damage.
(Also, legislate that the compensation is paid within 1 yr, unlike the 45 yrs plus it has taken to compensate the hemophiliacs ! ).
What nobody has mentioned is, after provoking Russia for years into its “unprovoked attack” in Ukraine, we slapped massive sanctions on Russia, cutting off decades of cheap, reliable oil and gas, which had been delivered on long-term contracts since before the Cold War ended. Never once did Russia use this for any form of political leverage against us.
The sanctions have backfired all over Europe, and especially in Germany, where America made “double sure” Germany/Europe would get no more Russian gas by blowing up the Nordstream pipeline off Bornholm, Denmark, exactly where the US Navy held its “Baltops 22” exercise in March 2022.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/08/legendary-investigative-reporter-seymour-hersh-says-nord-stream-2-was-blown-up-by-u-s-navy/
https://seapowermagazine.org/baltops-22-a-perfect-opportunity-for-research-and-resting-new-technology/
Now Germany is de-industrialising, with the massive BASF plant, central to the whole European economy, shut down for the first time ever, and not restartable. In Britain, we can no longer produce high quality steel, losing blast furnaces at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe.
We have a government that doesn’t want to use cheap oil and gas. We have our own under the North Sea, which it’s desperate to avoid exploiting. Under those circumstances, Russia wouldn’t achieve much leverage through gas and oil prices anyway. Our current predicament has very little to do with Russia, but a lot to do with successive UK governments’ deliberate efforts to downgrade our economy and make our industries uncompetitive, dressed up as net zero leadership and environmental concern.
Of course. I simply mean that the loss of Russian oil & gas is a contributing factor that is overlooked, not primary cause.
Absolutely. BASF have shut down large parts of their flagship plant as a direct result of Euro energy policy, and are investing €11bn in a new facility in…
come on now, you can guess this one…
Does it begin with a C?…
How can this not be seen by everyone as a huge retrograde step caused by gross incompetence?
It’s the 21st century fxsake.
To many idiots have bought into the apocalyptic narrative.
They’ll probably blame the far right for the first outage.
Not incompetence – it’s too well planned and consistent and carried on over 30 years. It is not credible that every politician in every Government has been incompetent, and by the by, the situation is the same in Germany.
You are absolutely right. It’s a clear agenda to impoverish the West for the benefit of ‘developing’ nations (China is still considered to be one). Starting with UN Agenda 21, this has always been about ‘sustainability’ (de-industrialising the West) and ‘social justice’ (redistribution of wealth from the West to the aforementioned developing nations).
Back in 2019 we holidayed in Cape Town, where they had a programme of “Load Shedding” operations for the summer months. The schedule was all planned out weeks in advance, so there was plenty of notice of when the outages were likely. It was galling to find that we’d chosen a hotel with no emergency generator. there we were, sitting in sweltering darkness in the evening, with nothing to do, while in the hotel across the street, which had a generator, life carried on as normal.
I don’t know how things are in South Africa these days, but I’d be surprised if it’s changed all that much. Load shedding had become another aspect of normal daily life there. My fear is that, now the grid operator in the UK has these new powers, planned power outages will become normalised.
The question is how the population will respond. Will people exert pressure on government to get a grip on our power generation, or will they simply accept the cuts, brainwashed by the government and the media into believing that sacrificing a few hours’ electricity is a necessary sacrifice if we’re to reverse climate change? I fear it will be the latter.
In South Africa’s case, I don’t think the power supply situation was caused intentionally, probably just a combination of corruption and inept management. But the UK’s situation has most definitely been created intentionally, as part of a deliberate and concerted attack on our living standards.
South Africa got rid of most of their competent,white, engineers and management and their system gradually fell apart. Reality hit and they managed to re-employ many of the knowledgeable people to rebuild things. I gather their system is more robust now – while our donkey-led system is failing!
I tend to think the opposite – the great unwashed won’t like not having access to all their 21st century distractions for long… sadly, I think we need this experience to try and wake people up…
Attaching a CO2 control knob to the Earth’s climate has surely been mankind’s greatest invention.
Where are the likes of Jonathan Swift when you need them?
A triumph of ideology over physics. Pats on the back all round 🏅
I already have a wood burning stove in the living room, and will be investing in a 2000Wh power bank.
Your definition of ‘triumph’ is a little unorthodox?
Take it with a large pinch of sarcasm.
Talking of Third World countries, I have often wondered why despotic leaders in such countries seem content to preside over relatively failed states, as long as they remain in charge. Surely it’s more satisfying to play a small part in improving your country for a limited time than to rule over a shitsow for decades? It seems that this tendency is not confined to what we call the Third World.
Indeed. (hit the read more button to get sensible formatting)
The UK has become a despotic nation. The last 40yrs of tribal politics that has seen Privatisation in the UK, assets stripped by the oligarchs, the silverware given away and rendered the political scene to a third world corrupt nation with the liars, greed, cronyism and corruption, and so it continues.
In evidence:
NCA leaking information on political opponents
Hiding MP’s criminal convictions
Manipulating the Police and media into persecuting the opposition
Hiding public interest data
Corrupt Inquiries (Dr. David Kelly – Hutton Inquiry)
Political influence on sentencing (Lucy Connelly)
2 Tier justice.
Unreliable and politically motivated police forces.
Corrupt legal system – magistrate maladministration.
Restricting jury system.
Parachuting unelected individuals into the Lords to enable a favoured position in govt.
Super injunctions hiding fact from the electorate.
Releasing prisoners denying the electorate their security and denying victims justice.
Hiding the Epstein files
Locking people up without trial (Assange)
Silencing Free Speech
Obfuscating criminal enquiries for political motives
Enabling the manipulation of the state pension calling it a benefit
The former PM feathering his own pension nest
MP’s salary rises incongruent to the electorate
A former PM mired in incompetence… Read more »
Guess it depends on the state of the personal bank account?
Those always seem healthy. Can anyone think of a failed or disgraced leader who is now struggling for money?
Power and money.
Power is power and sometimes the only way to keep yourself alive.
That’s because they are hardly affected at all by what is happening around them. They simply take what they want at the point of a gun. Surrounded by security in their mansions and moved around in convoys and motorcades without ever meeting the downtrodden.
I guess so
It doesn’t seem like a very appealing way to live to me but I guess we’re all different
The South Africanization of the UK is almost complete.
Does that mean we can now deport migrants too?
They knew in 2014 as I recall ! Verified by AI:
In 2012–13, the UK was already being warned that its electricity capacity margin was heading down towards the 15% level traditionally regarded as desirable. A House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee document from 2013 explicitly discusses the additional generation needed to “maintain 15% margin”.
But the really significant warning came in June 2014.
Ofgem forecast that Britain’s electricity capacity margin for winter 2014/15 would be only 6.7%, falling to 3% in 2015/16. The House of Lords subsequently recorded this explicitly.
Then, in October 2014, National Grid revised the 2014/15 forecast down to 4.1% after a series of power-station outages.
Yet again – politicians not observing their prime duty of protecting the electorate. Bowing to people with vested interests?
Political expediency?
Dogma.
Perhaps they could introduce a 3 day working week to go along with the rolling power cuts. The country would be back on its feet in no time, especially with the blob working moie than they currently do.
Mr Burnham wants to return to the 1970s so a three day week must be in his sights, although whether it will be compulsory to work on the days with electricity hasn’t been mentioned as a ‘policy’ as far as I know?
It days would have to be synchronised with the wind.
At least all those people who work from home would have an excuse to not do anything now rather than having to invent a reason.
Whut? Did Spain get 5 mins notice of system collapse? I thought it was just a few seconds or almost instant – more or less the speed of electricity across the Iberian peninsula.
Hold on! Don’t disconnect that 1/5th of our customers just yet. Wait for it, wait for it… just another 1 minute 30 seconds… (.phut.)
Edit: I recognise that the quoted section is itself quoted from the Tellygraf
From Wikipedia:
Sources:[11][23]
All done in 27 seconds.
The Iberian grid collapse happened within 3 seconds. There was no warning and no way to stop it because – only 27% of the input was from spinning generators and nit enough time to bring more on-line to provide inertia and maintain 50Hz.
When grid frequency strays more than +/- 0.5Hz from the 50Hz at which the grid operates, within 1 to 2 seconds safety relays disconnect grid equipment – generators, transformers, etc to avoid damage. That happens all across a grid sector and often cascades across the whole grid.
Wikipedia says 27 seconds from first generators going offline to France interconnects going down. I made a comment to this effect but it’s ‘Awaiting for approval’ (sic) (I’m guessing because it contains too many links – five in all). Yes, once the first dominoes fell the collapse was unstoppable.
MODERATOR HERE
It has been approved
Meanwhile, we build yet more wind farms (to farm those lovely subsidies..) in N Scotland, possibly on top of unused oil and gas reserves, and we don’t have the Grid to get that electrical power into areas where it is needed.
I have been surprised this summer, in light of the prolonged warm, dry weather not to have ‘climate catastrophe’ rammed down my throat by the news media. Who told them
to hold back? Or am I mistaken, do I just not see the right media?
There are quite a few wind turbines in S Wales as well, on top of coal measures that are probably not exhausted.
The trouble with coal, though, is getting the miners to dig it out these days, as none of the ex-miners I know would ever go back to that profession.
Although, come to think of it, there’s a ready supply of potential new miners being shipped across the channel every day.
I think you do see the right (more correct) media.
Anyone else get the invite/bribe email from their electricity supplier asking them to turnoff during the eclipse?
April 1 was months ago?
A partial eclipse in the evening when sunlight is fading anyway.
I looked at Gridwatch the next day and there wasn’t even a blip in the (minimal) solar output or the usual evening gas use.
They’re trying to play with us.
I wonder how many will be reported as dying as a result of Net Zero if its a bad winter.
If they can somehow spin it to attribute it to climate change instead, then loads.
That’s what they did with covid. When people died from missed cancer treatments it was covid, not the insane measures they put in place. When businesses went bankrupt, it was covid, not their mental lockdown.
Is anyone other than Net Zerobrain surprised?
A good article.
My guess is that they plan rolling blackouts, like the 1970s where you know in advance when it will happen.
This will be the only way they can keep some essential services running.
If you have not put an emergency pack together, then now is the time to do so.
That occurred to me as well. Probably dusting down the paperwork from the NUM strikes in the 1970s. Back then, it also encouraged investment in local diesel generators at some retailers to cover the gaps, as well as emergencies.
Mind you, power supply is not always the snag. The local branch of Morrisons lost a lot of poultry when all the refrigerated shelving for it failed! For a while, there was a trailer without it’s tractor parked outside, relying on it’s little generator for a while. No chicken on sale that morning.
I am not sure I have confidence in the system to run blackouts as efficiently as you suggest. And which users will have priority. You can bet it will include government departments, Westminster and other state dense places.
Time to buy a diesel generator?
That is how I spotted the move as a different supplier contacted me months ago out of the blue because I was old and vulnerable.
No one ever helps you unless it is a scam!
‘If you have not put an emergency pack together, then now is the time to do so.’ Oddly enough, I was discussing that very subject with an old friend – a retired electrician – only yesterday. He put in a sophisticated system for his own house several years ago. It cost him a four figure sum in equipment, and his labour of course, but he’s never regretted it. I can’t see myself doing anything on that scale, but ensuring I’ve enough power to keep some lights on and heat some soup etc has got to make sense. (We don’t have gas in this village.) For almost any sort of business however there’s probably no affordable solution.
Yes. There’s a huge difference between managing a rare power outage of a few hours and more frequent or lengthy outages or even grid independence.
I should be able to keep my fridge/freezer running and gas central heating working for a few hours by manually plugging them in to a separate battery powered inverter circuit I’ve set up – no automated switchover or anything clever like that. Batteries are kept topped up by campervan-type solar panels on the shed. If they are depleted by a long outage then I’d charge them from the mains before switching back to solar top-up.
I’ve tested the setup works but not the duration – maybe I’ll find out soon.
It’s cost me a few quid but it would be worth it for a hot shower in the morning during a power cut. Gas BBQ should allow essential tea prep and cooking.
If it goes on for too many hours or happens every day I’m screwed just like everyone else.
Do not forget water and water purification tablets in your emergency supplies as you can survive weeks without food but only days without water.
Buy a battery operated radio plus batteries .
No they cannot plan ahead. It’s not supply/demand mismatch, it’s grid instability caused by intermittent wind and solar which occurs at short notice requiring immediate load shedding to prevent grid collapse.
Your only warning will be when the lights go out.
I believed this as well but have been told they can isolate different areas.
It is not the 1970s, through which I lived, it is 2026. Anyone who thinks our society can function without constant electricity needs to wise up. Whatever contingency plans an individual can make will still be entirely dependent on other users and uses. Electricity and oxygen are now roughly comparable as life-support requirements and we cannot survive without either of them.
It’ll certainly wake the masses from their social media / app driven world for a bit won’t it…
When the power goes off and the cell towers no longer operate, there won’t be any social media as no one will be able to connect to anything.
I agree and this is going to come as a shock to the households where electricity runs everything even opening the doors and curtains.
Commercial buildings and Hospitals can only be accessed via door codes and codes to open all aspects of the business.
So unless you have a crow bar you are not getting in or out of the building.
Needless to say no Companies have prepared for this scenario .
And all those people stuck in lifts…
I would like to add that I have a letter written by my grandfather in 1909 mentioning a new oil lamp he needed to do his schoolwork. Now imagine electricity dependence in 1959. Even more progress using electricity has been made in the last 50 years since the 1970s. It is inconceivable that we are imagining trying to get round interrupted supply now and all talk of “blackouts” should be dismissed as an aberration.