The UK is much closer to blackouts than anyone dares to admit.
We are heading for a big electricity crunch as it is. Whoever wins the general election, the next government will be committed to decarbonising the National Grid [by 2035 at the latest]. That means either closing all the gas power stations or fitting them with carbon capture and storage technology – which does not yet exist on scale in Britain and whose costs are likely to be massive.
At the same time every single one of our existing nuclear power stations is currently due to reach the end of its life by 2035. If Hinkley C is delayed much beyond its latest estimated completion, we could end up with no nuclear at all.
That could leave us trying to power the country pretty much with intermittent wind and solar energy alone – and this at a time when politicians want millions more of us to be driving electric cars and heating our homes with heat pumps, thus substantially increasing demand. How will we keep the lights on? One struggles to find satisfactory explanation from the National Grid ESO, which is trusted with this task.
...another large part of the picture seems to be “demand flexibility” – a polite term for rationing energy through smart meters, jacking up the price whenever supply is short. No wonder the Government seems keener than ever to force smart meters on us.
But even if your meter is working, don’t be fooled by the claim that it will save you money. When we get “dynamic tariffs”, they are unlikely to be anything like Economy 7 where the daytime and nighttime prices are fixed and easy to understand. When the wind drops and the sun goes down, it will require eye-watering electricity prices to persuade enough people to turn off their appliances to avoid blackouts.
It won’t take an enemy power to put us all in the dark – just energy customers doing normal things on a normal winter’s evening.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/25/uk-closer-to-blackouts-than-anyone-dares-to-admit/
Paywalled, but quoted here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02...oser-to-blackouts-than-anyone-dares-to-admit/
maximus otter