Networks
As the country largely remains locked down, electricity demand continues to be low, and renewable generation high, particularly in the current sunny weather. This is creating challenges for National Grid ESO in balancing the electricity system, and so it is introducing new tools to [...]
In 2019 the GB market went a total of 18 consecutive days without any coal contributing to demand and 83 days without coal throughout the year as a whole. This was hailed as a great turning point and a sign that soon there would be [...]
As we all enter the second week of the covid-19 lockdown, what is the impact of the crisis on the gas and electricity sectors?Retail markets: changing usage patterns and an increase in consumer vulnerabilityMore consumers are now vulnerableOne of the more urgent aspects of the [...]
Last week I had the pleasure of being one of the keynote speakers at the Institute of Directors Guernsey Branch annual convention, speaking about energy policy options for the Bailiwick in the context of climate ambitions. The day before, the States had published a [...]
Ofgem is in the process of reforming the way in which users pay for access to and use of electricity networks, which I have described in previous posts here and here. The Targeted Charging Review is the more advanced project and is tackling reform [...]
Ofgem has now published National Grid’s technical analysis of the 9 August blackout. Much of the meat is contained in the appendices. The report does not answer many of the questions that have been asked in relation to the incident, and throws up a [...]
National Grid has now published National Grid ESO’s initial report into the 9 August blackout. The extremely repetitive 26-page report sheds some new light onto the events on the day (and I was rather gratified to see that my hunch relating to Hornsea tripping [...]
Since Friday’s blackout, there have been press reports that National Grid has presided over three “near-miss” situations where system frequency fell close to the lower frequency tolerance of 49.5 Hz, 1% below the target level of 50 Hz. National Grid responded to these reports, [...]
On Friday evening, there was a widespread power blackout across many parts of the UK, with transport systems in particular being affected. Supplies were restored within an hour although the transport problems took far longer to resolve, with the knock-on effects of delayed trains [...]
Last Thursday, the UK’s Labour Party published a plan for re-nationalising Britain’s energy networks, buying them back from private investors at below-market prices. £1 billion was wiped off the value of the National Grid overnight in response to the news. Labour claims the move is [...]