Apparently we were close to experiencing power blackouts last night so tonight could be a repeat

[user8762456]

Time to charge up your laptops, battery packs etc and make sure you know where the candles and torches are..

I'm about to cook dinner now in readiness- just in case!

Ive also got DS fetching in some additional logs for the fire!

Where? Why?

The whole of the UK is going to experience a black out? Why?

We had a near miss event in the UK. That is where the power we can generate plus the back up power we import from overseas is not enough to meet demand. Its obviously cold so everyone was using a lot of power.

"Apparently..."

So yeah , going to take that seriously

https://watt-logic.com/2025/01/09/blackouts-near-miss-in-tighest-day-in-gb-electricity-market-since-2011/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR35ebPXO6gxJsVqQEGxacRFeUiqX2YFyJ3v70z1tm2aI90KmvY0udQaemixeGYiunkJ81BzY7JahmuA

Take it as seriously as you like, no skin off my nose. This is the preppers topic by the way so we do tend to make sure we are prepared for things just in case...

Grid watch is always useful

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

The plandemic monster shouters on my Facebook keep me informed in advance of this stuff. Not in the way they would like but it's still useful.

Annoyingly my car battery to run the inverter has gone kaput because I forgot to keep it charged this year. Must order a leasure battery.

There was a warning between 5-7pm last night, helpfully these things aren’t publicised. We only knew because DH works in the energy sector.

Thanks for the heads up OP. Will see if the solar lanterns are actually charged yet (they've been in the window for weeks, this is the first winter they have had issues, it may be the rechargeable batteries going) and I'll try and steer the kids towards something that can be cooked on the gas hobs.

And your answer is to encourage everyone here to use more electricity... yes that will help.

All you have to do is google the word 'blackout' and there's news articles confirming the OP from the Telegraph, Sky News, and the Guardian right at the top of the page.

Bit weird to outright deny something you don't even know, when Googling takes seconds.

DH works for national grid and monitors usage and distributes demand around the grid to make sure places with higher demand are covered. His specific job is specially to ensure people have power.

Just asked him about this, he said newspaper reports just scare-mongering. He said supply is plenty today, there will not be any issues tonight at all.

Err no. My answer is to encourage everyone to get themselves in a situation where they will be able to find torches etc and to use any power they need in advance. There is currently no issue with supply. At 5pm it rockets as everyone gets home and starts cooking, puts on the heating etc

And it would've taken seconds for the OP to post a reliable link or a quote 🤷‍♀️ if they actually wanted to be helpful instead of scaremongering.

Which I literally did.

Nobody is forced to come onto the prepper board if they don't want to

From sky

The NESO was at pains to point out that it does not signal that blackouts are imminent or that there is not enough generation to meet current demand.

news.sky.com/story/amp/power-grid-operator-scrambles-to-avert-blackout-threat-13285474

lol, you posted a link after I posted.

Anyway, no skin off my nose

It's a public forum.

Just had to jump in and say I love your username!

Dh works in the industry and says the system is extremely close to capacity in any cold weather snap and it’s been this way for years. However he seemed no more bothered about it yesterday than at any other time. He’s certainly not told me to look the candles out.

Was it yesterday Octopus had an energy saving session? Makes sense now.

I'll make sure the fire is lit, oddly enough 5-7 will be a quiet time in this house and I can definitely survive a blackout though I can't see it happening.

Have just discovered though that the boiler has stopped working due to a frozen pipe so it's going to be cold either way

You're right, we did the Octopus energy saver session yesterday 5-6pm. Their blurb always says something about the sessions being linked to anticipated extra-high demand on the grid?

(No opinion on proximity to nationwide blackout disaster, as I know very little about such things).

We have a solar set up and a battery. I've loaded the battery from the grid this afternoon so that we can use that later when the strain on the grid is likely to be at its heaviest. Every little helps

Yes, I got home last night to find DH sitting in the dark and cold working off his laptop battery!