3 Hour Blackouts

[pyjamafashionista]

If they happen, they are saying they'll be planned between 4-7pm. Surely this is the most ridiculous time, when most people will still be at work/ travelling home/making tea etc.
Any genius thoughts to get through a 3 hour blackout besides blankets and 🕯
I feel really sad for vulnerable people on their own if it happens 😪

I work for the Port authority in Scotland and we have been told by the government that we will be expected to load shed over the winter with little to no warning. We've had to get in contact with our tenants to advise them to get generators and back-up systems in place ASAP.Leith and Grangemouth Ports are unaffected as these are classed as being critical to the national infrastructure. Not posting this to scaremonger, but commercial sites are getting prepared.

This fiasco is what happens when there is no long term infrastructure planning. Our method of government is responsible for this. Subject to changes every few years and party politics not addressing important requirements like energy, health, housing, transport, education and industry.

As everyone has said, that’s when usage peaks. Do you not follow what’s going on in Ukraine? It’s between 5-10 pm that those who have power are being told to conserve it because it’s peak time.

Make the dinner earlier and put a lid on it. Have a bit of heating at other times so your house isn’t freezing. Wash clothes in the morning and hang them out. It’s all doable.

Was still able to work during lockdown and those who couldn't were furloughed or got grants.

Will those of us who lose money from the cuts be given grants or govt help? Probably not.

Yes the government are total shits and unlike Ukraine we don’t need to be in the situation- it’s their mismanagement. But I’m just talking about the timing.

It's not ideal but some of the comments are ridiculous. How have so many of you not experienced power cuts before?

Not sure about aliens, but IIRC, zombie invasion is one of the ones they use to practice with, presumably because a little bit of levity goes a long way, and if the documents get leaked, they won't cause mass panic...

They're planned. And are on a rolling basis, so it won't be the same time or every day.

It won't hurt to shower the night before, and you can shave using oil, or even hair conditioner, or experiment with depilatories.

Use a head torch, so you can have light with your hands free, and/or rechargeable lanterns (usually sold for camping). And buy now as there will be a run on them if cuts move from planning to likely.

You can boil water on a camping stove (make sure you use one safely) or on a gas hob (you'll need matches or a lighter for ignition) and both those optiones will also heat a pan of food.

I'm in my 50s and remember the power cuts of the 1970s. I did my homework by oil lamp (smell is very evocative) and my parents bought a calor gas heater plus we had an oil filled one that if you ran on high just before the cut would keep emitting heat for quite a while after the power went off.

New options are power banks, that will keep a lot of stuff going, including online if 4G stays up, and LED bulb, so I think options for lighting have improved - rechargeable LED candles will be much safer than ones with a flame

im sure it was the same in the 70s , i remember walking home from school with the street lights out when i was in juniors. we had to go in pairs

It's not ideal but some of the comments are ridiculous. How have so many of you not experienced power cuts before?

Growing up in the 60s and 70s was tough. I vowed I would never be freezing when I grew up. I didn’t expect to be spending the autumn and winter of my life unable to afford to heat my home, going through the power cut thing again and living a life that was as miserable as it was growing up. Yet, here we are.

I didn’t expect to be spending the autumn and winter of my life unable to afford to heat my home, going through the power cut thing again and living a life that was as miserable as it was growing up. Yet, here we are.

Get a grip. It’s a three hour power cut, not the end of the world.

I’m and lived through the 60s, 70s and early 80s. It wasn’t that bad!

That should say “I’m over sixty and…”

No its normal contingency planning in case of emergency. People are getting wound up about this because there has been more publicity than normal.

It is true the UK has been close to capacity in previous years and thats caused concern. And the situation is more likely in parts of the EU which were more heavily reliant on Russian Gas.

HOWEVER variation measures have been put into place to try and improve our energy security this winter (of course this doesn't get well publicised like these timetables because its not clickbaity). Also some power companies are doing dynamic pricing to help customers save money and to spread the demand on the grid during the day to avoid peak time useage being higher than the network can deal with (it something people may want to look into if they are struggling with bills).

If you look on your bills there should be a small letter on it above your name. Thats your area code. If there are brownouts they will either be at the start of the week or the end of the week depending on your code. Not all week. Its usually a max of 3 blocks and they are at various times of the day. And each block will be a small area or estate, with the next one over unaffected.

Not everywhere will be affected across the country - there are certain areas of the country where the grid has more capacity than others. I think the SW, South of Wales and the SE are much more vulnerable to problems than the North generally speaking.

I stress that I personally think its still extremely unlikely we will see issues. Demand is definitely down on previous years and people are being a lot more conscious about using energy more efficiently. I think this effect will cover much of the concern / gap in energy supply this year. We only imported a small amount of Russian gas, and we can cover this by sensible usage (without going crazy either) this winter if every does things like switch off lights when you leave a room or more people run energy intensive things off peak where possible.

This one is largely a case of a media frenzy feeding on people's anxieties and extra interest in energy prices and availability.

It is possible we may have problems, but if have a worse case scenario, I really don't think it will be longer than a week in duration. Which means you'd get 2 maybe 3 cuts and thats it. Which is both managable and people should be able to cope with this as a matter of course by default because there is always the risk of power cuts. 3 hours is a pain in the bum, but its also not long and if its very localised.

In short: Don't panic

I’m and lived through the 60s, 70s and early 80s. It wasn’t that bad!

well it was bad for my family who were on a low income . And it’s not good for me now also on a low income with major health problems from a progressive condition. I’ve have got a grip, which is more than I can say about the sodding government who have systematically mismanaged the basic services we depend on with their self-serving, corrupt and short-sighted policies.

@RedToothBrush There is every possibility of electricity cuts this winter.
We have almost no storage, so in real terms have to import gas & electricity during the winter, so we'd better hope Europe has a mild winter.... thats the only way we'll avoid it.

We are being helped enormously by the EU/Europe as they've boosted storage and have several months worth of gas, prices have even dropped.

Dynamic pricing is being run by National Grid..as a trial, with support from 3 energy companies... must have a smart meter too.

Do you know which energy companies?

Yes, I remember that too. School gave us all reflective vests to put over our coats. They were called Diddy Jackets

I think it will be ok. We're lucky not to have any health issues and don't actually 'need' power. I'm not sure that I'd actually just sit in my house in the dark though, I'd probably take the opportunity to take the dog for a walk etc using torches if necessary.

Isn't it typical that just like with Covid, one of the things you might do to pass the time is 'go for a walk.' At least this time you can go with whoever you like!

(Still think it's unlikely to be really bad though)

It will be grim but manageable. I remember the power cuts of the past and we got through them.

I was just going to have a look to see if I could find out which companies @ofwarren - I'll post back if I can find it!

How the fuck do you know its only a 3 hour power cut? a few weeks ago.. it was "no power cuts"

You ve no idea about how harsh the winter will be in Europe or if Norway will even allow supplies of gas to be exported to non EEA counties.

...and for many older folk, who rely on heating and light to stay alive, it may well be the end of the world... given that you lot have reduced the ambulance service to non existent in just a few months.

Ah, I can't find it yet, but 'Demand Flexibility Service' seems to be the search term that you need!

www.nationalgrideso.com/news/esos-demand-flexibility-service-launches

It looks like Ovo will be one of the companies but the rest TBC - this from the BBC news website

It is understood many of the UK's larger energy firms are looking to take part in the trial, after being consulted in recent months on how it would work.

Thank you

That's the point though, there are solutions and a tiny bit of thought and use of smart meters could offer more modern alternatives that would help spread the load.

E7 is still available (although as you say too expensive to be worthwhile for anyone but very high users). Many other time of use tariffs (heatwise, warmwise, control, weather watch, comfort, comfort plus etc) have been withdrawn much to the distress (and expense) of users.

The frustration is that these types tariffs used well and freely available could help avoid the problems we now face but were withdrawn rather than improved and extended.