Possible Power Cuts Ahead- How Can The Country Save Power ?

[LuluBlakey1]

We are now, after months of being told by the government that we won't have power shortages, being told we are likely to face rotas across the country of 3 hour power cuts during the winter.

Are there things we can do, nationally and as households, to save power?
I have a couple of ideas- but not much understanding of what really has most impact:

1. Across the country turn off street lights between 1am and 6am every night.
2. All municipal buildings/city and town centre buildings and shops to turn out all lights from midnight to 6 am.
3. Close down railway lines between midnight and 5 am across the country.

I am not including hospitals/medical/care facilities or other necessary night facilities in any of that.

Just listened to a feature on 4 news, this is not what they were saying. First they pointed out that they do contingency plans like this every year. That it is unlikely a countrywide blackout would be imposed and if it was it would be for 3 hours at a time. But this would be if, and only if, there wasn't enough gas to power stations when it was cold and there was no wind for the wind farms.

It was most definitely very far from "likely".

Please do some due diligence before posting as you could create concern amongst some where none is needed.

And what about mail and cargo that travels by train at night?

There is a huge nighttime economy and workforce that need lighting at night for safety, or because you are tucked up in bed sod those lot.

It was being suggested that if everyone tried to curb their own energy use a bit, a bit, then the conditions are even more less likely to mean a short blackout.

The time when there will likely be cuts are when the grid is under most stress and can't cope with the demand at that time. So morning when everyone is getting breakfast is the smaller peak, but 4-7pm int he afternoon, when everyone gets in from work, cooks dinners, has showers, turns on tv, gets heating go jog, turns on all house lights etc. Possibly turns on washing machine/tumble dryer/dishwasher etc as well.

There is far less demand on the grid overnight, so far less likelihood of outrages at that stage.

They need to save power at peak times not the middle of the night.

Peak times being evenings as we only have limited generation abilities now. They intend to share the discomfort so everyone will have cuts some of the time.

It didn't need to happen, thanks to the green policies the UK destroyed most of the coal generation plants. Our dirty winter insurance against blackouts is gone leaving only 3 plants remaining and no alternative to cover the gap. From wikipedia on UK coal fired power stations:

Ironbridge ceased operations in late 2015. In 2016, three power stations closed at Rugeley, Ferrybridge and Longannet. Eggborough closed in 2018 and was granted consent to convert into a gas fired power station. Lynemouth power station converted to biomass in 2018 and Uskmouth is being converted to an energy from waste plant. Cottam and Aberthaw shut down operations in 2019, Fiddlers Ferry closed in 2020 and Drax stopped burning coal in March 2021.

The shortage will most likely occur between 5 and 8 in the evening

Reducing power use overnight may not help as we don't have any storage

What can you shifts to other times of the night ?

Maybes shift working days - sone people doing 7 to 3 and others 11 till 7 for example ?

this government got rid of our gas storage and this is why we are in this fucking mess. The government need to reopen more gas storage, this is taking us back to the 1970s when we had black outs /power cuts night after night thorugh the winters.

The power cuts were not at peak times but later in the evening.

its going to be strange without tv and internet - people might talk to each other, but many people live alone

Oh FFS @TheNoonBell coal had to go it's not green policies, that's just right wing daily mail propaganda boring regurgitation nonsense.

It's consistent lack of investment by all governments, short term policies with no consistency for future clean energy.

There might be loads of blackout babies @ivykaty44 and people who live alone can go to bed and listen to the radio, get an FM set with batteries, they can't turn radio 4 off or the navy submarines might surface and start a nuclear war!

To be fair, I said 'Possible' and 'rotas of 3hr power cuts'. Two days the energy regulator Ofgem said there is “a significant risk” of the UK having to deal with gas shortages this winter. I'm not being irresponsible.

That's a good point about goods/freight/mail trains.

Do you mean you listened to Tory Greg Hands who waffled some platitudes? And you believed him?

The government is in denial about what may happen. It would be worth them developing contingency plans in case. It was their decision to get rid of gas storage.

Remember when they decided we didn't need a pandemic contingency plan? Twats.

TBH they do rolling power cuts in South Africa a lot (or at least they did a year or so ago).

Best thing to mitigate would be to spread the demand, so introduce a reduced rate night tartif for everyone to encourage people to run their washing machines/dish washers/tumble driers over night rather than in the early evening.

What we need to do is encourage people to spread their usage where they can, so washing late at night for example.

Government has been so bloody reckless! Getting rid of gas storage and blocking renewables at the same time.

Last night I came home quite late from a meeting, on the Metro, I was the only person in my carriage on the train.
I walked through a large town to the station and then though our small town from the station home. In both there were shops closed but with windows lit up at night.
Seems a pointless use of electricity- especially given what it costs now.

Do street-lights use a lot of electricity? They seem an obvious saving. Even if we can't store lots if electricity, surely the less we need to make would knock the prices down, of gas and electricity?

Most big appliances have delay timers I think they should start some public service films. Run them at night so we can keep the light.

There are contingency plans- here
inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/uks-emergency-plans-winter-gas-shortage-blackouts-battle-rhythms-1818758

I think I may be in a minority,but I thought the ofgem/power grid report was good from the point of view that more things need to go wrong for blackouts (unless I'm taking it wrong). Still,got preps in place,but feel less likely to need them.

I'd happily put the washer and dishwasher on at midnight. I don't see that as much if a problem.

@frozendaisy Coal didn't just have to go. Coal could have been mothballed for emergencies just like the one we face now.

But go it did. Equipment stripped and sold to India for their new power stations then the plants demolished with no alternatives in place.

I thought running appliances overnight was a fire hazard.

Why would it be a fire hazard? What happens at night to make it more likely to catch fire?

I guess the thinking used to be that you were more likely to spot a fire starting when you were awake, but linked fire alarms are mandatory now and I doubt many people could sleep through them.

You don't have to do it while you're in bed, just later than peak.

is anyone considering buying a solar powered generator?

The likelihood hood is that we will be short of power when there is little sun or wind

when there is little sun or wind

solar runs on daylight on a cloudy day, it’s not reliant on sunshine