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.

In winter at 4 pm when demand starts rising isn't a good time for solar

I gather they’re bringing some coal stations back online. It’s a bit hush hush, cos it flies in the face of all the green policies.

Many of the coal power stations have been converted to gas. There's obviously been an anti coal rhetoric, so they say they've got rid of coal fired power, but in reality it's mostly been replaced with burning a different fossil fuel. Yes, the gas is slightly cleaner, but then we've been dependent on Russia for that. If the power stations weren't burning so much gas for electricity generation there probably wouldn't be a shortage.

'1) and '2) There's plenty of surplus power in the grid at off peak night time hours, turning off street lights won't help. There's a couple of hydro electric power stations in Wales that have storage capabilities (pumped water), but it's a tiny amount of power compare to the national consumption.

'3) There's barely any trains running at night anyway, and again it's off peak time.

Maybe some industrial users could switch to more night time usage, but that would mean swapping employee's onto night shift work.

Domestic users need to be very conscious of when they're using appliances, most dishwashers, washing machines etc have built in timers. Turn down your central heating by a couple of degrees. Don't boil a kettle full of water when you only want one or two cups from it. Shower quicker! Only charge EV's at night etc. The little things should add up if everyone does it.

They are still running a rolling schedule of load shedding, and are predicted to continue doing so for the foreseeable future, with more/more frequent outages. It's something we'll quite possibly have to turn to. Our drive on building homes isn't helping as the grid in many areas cannot provide new builds outside of those already planned.

Back to the 70s and going to bed by candle light!

everyone to encourage people to run their washing machines/dish washers/tumble driers over night rather than in the early evening.

The fire brigade always recommends people NEVER use those appliances overnight, as they're the ones most likely to cause house fires. So no, don't do that. If they have timers, set them to start when you get up, not when you're asleep. 🔥 🏠 😢

linked fire alarms are mandatory now

What's a linked fire alarm and why don't I have one?? 🔥 🏠 🚒 😢

I was shopping today in a big centre for the first time in months. At home we've been trying really hard to reduce consumption. Not using the tumble drier, switching tho gs off etc, using one room. I was horrified to count 27 spotlights in one shop. Plus every shop had its doors wide open, staff wearing t shirts and the heating on full blast. Flipping ridiculous.

Ive told this story before but we were thing of putting in 2MW on our farm. The land can be grazed so dual purpose. It's not financially viable because the grid people retain the power to switch off us exporting between 12pm and 6pm. Why on Earth we
arent pumping money left right and centre into battery research/subsidies I do not know. It's criminal.

European governments are asking people and businesses to cut back. I suppose we'll wait until the last minute for a while. We should all be taking measures to stop wasting energy, either for financial or environmental reasons, but some of us have more reason than others to start now. I can't believe me cutting back on my heating will make as much difference as it would if industry did it, but I'm not convinced there's a will.

We wouldn't even need to make sacrifices if everyone stopped waste. Don't need to turn off street lights, but we could turn off some of the lights in office blocks when every room is empty. Big businesses turning the heating down by one degree will make much more difference than any of us doing it.

Basically if they come out say there definitely wont be any power cuts this winter, you know that means that there definitely will be power cuts this winter.

They will put their heads in the sand and not face up to the issue until the last minute, when instead they could have spent weeks preparing for the problem.

A lot of powered street stuff (like lampposts and parking ticket machines) have solar panels now - that's probably more about switch to greener power than dealing with peaks after dark in winter though.

I suspect what is needed is lots of little gains:

Make sure streetlights have as efficient bulbs as possible, Consider turning off every third one on wider, straighter (ie safer) streets

Black out all forms of lit or rolling adverts for a couple of peak hours, and replace lit ones within buildings such as stations with posters (like they always used to be)

Discourage floodlighting of buildings, except when there is essential security need, but even then reduce to bare minimum

Encourage companies to stagger working times. And to turn off lights and appliances (and don't leave stuff on stand-by) when people leave - it's amazing how many seem to stay lit up all night, even though work has finished and cleaners don't take that long

Public information campaign on spreading the peak - even if individual households shift only some of their consumption by an hour or so, it all adds up

Apparently it’s only here in Scotland

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58268855

@LuluBlakey1 without being rude don’t you think there are experts looking at this, I’m not sure you need to be brainstorming ideas on Mumsnet

That's the theory - Liz doesn't want to contradict what she's so recently dismissed. Get the National Grid to to lay the ground.

There is currently a thread about washing bedding twice a week. So that should stop.

So should half loads of washing, dishwashers or tumble dryers (I use all those things but they are full before I do).

Stop heating houses to 22 bloody degrees in winter! Its excessive. Wear a jumper or move a bit.

Hahahahaha! I'm sorry, have you been asleep for the last 2 years????? I'm not sure where all the experts are but they sure as shit don't work for this government.

This is quite an interesting app showing live UK electricity demand and what proportion the electricity is generated from (nuclear, gas or ccgt, wind solar biomass etc)

apps.apple.com/gb/app/gridwatch/id1553702520

Muststopeating It’s not the washing machine, but the tumble dryer that uses massive amounts of electric. A load of washing will be approximately 30p compared to £1.30 for the dryer

I did a 75min tumble on Monday and it cost c60p on the price cap. My drier is b rated and has a drying sensor. It wasn't a heavy load (ie jeans) but sheets, t shirts, underwear, pjs etc.

Different machines will have different ratings

If everyone could shave a few percent from their load - especially at peak - I can see that as being useful

For us that might mean remember to use pressure cooker where we can and we turned the heating down 0.5 but we are already pretty tight

Things like sheets, Tshirts, PJs etc dry in an afternoon on my airer anyway - it's the towels, jeans etc that are the issue, and they can still be damp after a couple of hours in the tumble dryer. So, for me, with mixed loads, I am trying to keep the dryer for occasional rather than habitual use this winter.

Also, I do think tumble dryers have encouraged a lot of people to do more washing than they need to - it does make you less likely to chuck another load in if you know that you can't hang it outside and it's got to dry without a dryer.

All of these. Plus people could think about what they could do to cook dinner outside the early evening peak. Eat later, or batch cook and reheat in the microwave. Don't have the dishwasher, washing machine or tumble dryer running at this time. If you have extra fridges/freezers, run down the extra ones and turn them off.

For businesses, they need to turn the lights off when the building is closed, not have doors open and heating/air con running.

It would be interesting to look at the household/business/heavy industry split to see what energy is used and when, because there's no point targetting households, if the majority of energy is used by certain industries. I do industrial consultancy work and some sites have energy as their biggest cost - steel, glass and paper takes enormous amounts of energy to manufacture, so a single site could be the equivalent of tens of thousands of homes, or more.

Also, I do think tumble dryers have encouraged a lot of people to do more washing than they need to - it does make you less likely to chuck another load in if you know that you can't hang it outside and it's got to dry without a dryer

You're probably right about this. Some Mumsnetters seem to do astonishing amounts of washing.

In our old house we could dry the bedding draped over the upstairs bannister, and it would dry in a couple of hours. Sadly our new house has a much smaller upstairs landing and it doesn't fit, I really miss that when the weather means outside drying isn't an option.

But we try to time our washing to fit in with the weather - if its going to be dry tomorrow, put a load or two on in the evening before or <whispers> overnight. My thinking is that the risk is very low, we have smoke alarms and what are the delay timers on washing machines and dishwashers for, if not to run when you're not around to switch them on?

@UserNameNameNameUser South Africa is currently facing black outs of 6 hours a day, including between 6pm and 8pm! We will survive

i expect most of the recommendations will be for businesses and industry, as they are such large users.

But small reductions by households multiplied by millions of households will add up to a useful saving too, and domestic peak in early evening is relevant.

But as The Telegraph is reporting that the climate minister Graham Stuart is saying they're not a nanny state and there will not be a use less campaign this autumn after all. An - ummmm - interesting view from someone in his position, if his view prevails. Even if there is a campaign (Rees Mogg seems to support it, so I don't rule it out) then I expect it won't be detailed.

So ideas emerging from communities and grass roots might well be valuable

Christmas lights might have to go.