Juliet Samuel (columnist Times) 4days ago
Four/five incidents in 2 weeks on the UK electricity grid. We’re begging France for power. Why are the grid bosses gaslighting us?
Craig Dyke, NESO operations chief, says there is no need to be alarmed because even though it’s called “emergency assistance”, it’s all normal
(In reference to this quote:)
This week NESO issued two requests for Emergency Assistance. While the term can sound alarming, it is an established tool used by our control room and other system operators.
It’s just that suddenly the wind stopped blowing and therefore we were buggered
(In reference to this quote:)
We responded by instructing all the generation the market could make available to the affected area. This included around 400MW of generation and batteries running at full out - the amount we required. However, during this period we saw wind generation reduce quickly, falling by around 20MW every minute. This sudden drop in wind caused system frequency to fall, lower than we'd liked, but it remained within the statutory limit.
Juliet Samuel (columnist Times) Today
It’s official: a legal investigation has found engineers in Britain’s electricity grid control room are stressed because renewables make it so hard to keep the lights on. And when they raise concerns, managers won’t listen - they only want “good news”
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/neso-engineers-review-national-grid-blackout-risks-6lqpq03sp
Grid engineers doubt ability to keep lights on in switch to renewables
Staff at Neso are said to have ‘high levels of stress’ and feel bosses ignore concerns because of the need to keep the government happy
Engineers running Britain’s power system have “high levels of stress and concern” about their ability to keep the lights on because of the shift to renewables, an independent report has found.
Staff at the National Energy System Operator (Neso) believe its senior leadership do not understand how the control room works and feel their concerns go “largely unheard” because of the need to keep the government and others happy.
The report by Eversheds Sutherland, a law firm, could not substantiate specific whistleblower allegations about Neso’s handling of the power system during June’s heatwave, but did identify significant “cultural, governance and control issues” at the government-owned body.
These included a “culture of reputational sensitivity affecting operational decision-making”.
Control room staff said Neso should not have claimed the system was “not at risk” on June 23, given that “the system was consistently in breach of operational limits for a number of hours, with operators working around the clock to regain balance”.
The article goes on to talk about whistleblowers saying how close we came to blackouts and how fragile the system is, with issues in September/October which are stable reliable months, giving serious cause for concern.
Reply to Juliet Samuel
Henry Dodds
There is cause for real concern about this. There are scenarios in which some or all of the grid goes dark. Severe space weather could be one trigger, as could the triggering of a hostile EMP device in the upper atmosphere.
If this happens NESO invokes ‘Dark Start’ to bring the grid back online. This was less difficult when you had coal fired power stations but much harder with renewables, not least because some of the control rooms are outside the UK.
It could be very, very bad. And I’m not given to hyperbole.
I've been quietly watching this story because Lucy Easthope has been following it. It's a slow burn of a story and I've been trying to establish just how much people on twitter have been blowing nothing up. This does make it seem like there's real concerns here and a risk profile that doesn't look great for potential blackouts in the near future...