Running 'nukes' in the red

For many days now the Grid' has been running these assets 'in the red'.

A policy to prove a point , no doubt , but these are 'old bangers' now and

we all know what happens when you 'floor' an old engine too long.

New Year might be interesting

Talk of an "old engine" is rediculous, these are base load steam turbines driving normal generators, all designed to run as hard as necessary. Currently some 22% of demand.

For many days now the Grid' has been running these assets 'in the red'.

Please explain. If you are looking at Griwatch UK, you are not understanding the meaning of the dials readings ad it means no such thing.

Edited By not done it yet on 31/12/2021 12:11:35

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but these are 'old bangers' now

And subject to extensive testing to determine the condition of the cores to determine if they are safe to continue operating. It is the testing that has determine that the cores have not deteriorated in the manner that they were originally expected to (and on which the original operating life was given) and the basis on which the life extensions have been granted.

Nigel B

France has plenty of nuclear the only problem is the 1GW interconnect that was damaged by an exploding transformer and subsequent fire last year. It's stil not back in service.

Why might the New Year be 'interesting'? What do you have in mind?

France has just 'unexpectedly' lost two assets due to corrosion problems.

WE are often exporting through that French link to make loads of money using our coal-fired units.

IS that really true? We don't seem to run our coal-fired units for our own use.

Tony

To sell at the rate of £4500/MWhr I think you would.

You haven't answered my question, just throwing crap around, not sure why?

Tony

Here's the Gridwatch link, to which NDIY refers. Notable, that at the time I'm typing this, Wind is supplying over 50% of UK load, and we are exporting to France
If you hover your cursor over any of the dials, a drop down explanatory message will appear.
Not sure how it works on Apple/Android.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Happy New Year
Bill

They aren’t running in the red (as in overloaded).

See this info from EDF who own them:

**LINK**

or this site for a breakdown of all generation:

**LINK**

The Gridwatch website shows nuclear in a red portion of the meter only because that is how the website designer set the scale!

Stuart

Today's paper reports on using agricultural land for solar farm to supply the City of London. It would make more sense to me to require all supermarkets, factories, warehouses etc to have the roof completely covered in solar panels. Reduced transmission losses, no visual impact and leaves farmland for growing crops.

Duncan

That is a very good point.

Its a pity the building regs haven’t been changed to force this to happen.

This could have been done a few years ago, without subsidies from the rest of us.

Stuart

5-10 years ago china was dumping solar panels at subsidised prices and the EU blocked them to protect local solar industries

If I'd been king for a day I'd have bought the lot and solar panelled everywhere possible

Having watched grid watch not sure it's data is correct. It states that there is no coal powered stations running and gas prices are low - REALLY ! Can some one enlighten me as to what I've missed, may be the last 3 or 4 months ? Noel.

Nearby to our house in France there was a Nuc powerstation.....always had power cuts and needing a stand by Genny....

every house, factory should at the min have a solar water heater.....and compulsary on any new prop where the roof is suitable.......all systems/parts should be VAT FREE...........

I've had em in the last 2 houses I've owned and saved a load of money....

I wonder'd why in SW France there were so few.....

after I enquired it seems the French seemed to think that a price of more than double the cost on average to everywhere else is OK.....I bought mine in the UK.....

I wish I had enough funds to get the Photo voltaic system for my roof so that I could go off grid.....

but I need three phase.....

Coal burning stations are often switched off these days. Not all that many left in the UK - Longannet in Fife was once the largest coal power station in Europe, closed in 2016, the massive 600 foot high chimney was demolished last month.

Biomass is still being burned.

The wholesale cost of gas varies with demand. The spot price drops if no-one buys it, Could be because wind is doing well or industry are on holiday etc. Over a longer period, the price of Gas tripled since April last year, but during the last few days it's dropped sharply to 'only' about double April's prices. So gas is cheap compared with prices in mid-December 2021, but still scary expensive compared with April 2021. Be interesting to see how much it costs at the end of the month.

Wholesale gas prices also vary due to political rough and tumble. Much of it comes from Russia. Sometimes Mr Putin likes to lean on Europe by reducing supply, but opens up again when he realises he needs our money!

Dave

Of course if we were using our own gas by fracking, we wouldn't be at the mercy of overseas suppliers. Yes we want to reduce fossil fuel usage, but we can't do it overnight, so we might as well burn our own in the meantime.