Reinventing electric grids so that they become reliant on wind and solar, particularly the former, is a retrograde and potentially disastrous step.
One of humanity’s great achievements has been the way in which we have been able to reduce our dependence on the weather. Reinventing electric grids so that they become reliant on wind and solar, particularly the former — a sad, steampunk technology without the looks — is a retrograde and potentially disastrous step.
The U.K.’s political class has taken great pride in the example it believes it has been setting to the rest of the world in racing to net zero, an effort that has been stepped up even further since Labour was elected in July, and Ed Miliband, a fanatic’s fanatic, resumed his old job (there were others in between) as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, an office in which he and his predecessors have typically prioritized the latter.
Britain has based much of its climate policy on its “investment” in renewables, specifically wind.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he wanted the country to become the “world leader in low cost clean power generation.”
Speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference, which was delivered virtually, Johnson stressed the importance of renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind.
“We believe that in ten years’ time, offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts,” he said.
“World leader.” Of course.
Miliband would approve. He wants the grid decarbonized by 2030, five years earlier than the target set by the Tories. Britain, he said in October, “is back in the business of global climate leadership.”
“Leadership.” Of course.
But it can be chilly at the top.
Households paid more than £2 million an hour to gas-fired power stations on Wednesday after low winds and freezing temperatures left electricity grid bosses scrambling to keep the lights on.
As freezing weather swept into the South East, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) warned that it expected power supplies to become particularly tight between 4pm and 7pm.
The crunch forced grid operators to pay huge sums to gas power plant owners to keep them running. These costs will ultimately be borne by households and businesses through their bills.
But why was this necessary? What about all that wind?
The Daily Telegraph:
At the same time, a sharp drop in wind power and low availability of power interconnectors with Europe is also putting more pressure on the grid.
Oh.
Interconnectors?
These are cables through which electricity flows to and from the Continent, so long as Vladimir Putin doesn’t cut them. They typically supply about 10 percent of the U.K,’s energy over the course of the year, but can supply more in the event of a crunch, if sometimes expensively. They couldn’t supply enough on this day. Putin was not to blame, but two interconnectors were down. Maybe the winds were low over the European mainland too. It happens, especially during Dunkelflaute season.
Neso (the grid operator) was nationalized last fall (not for ideological reasons: the Guardian gives some background here) and combined with the unit responsible for overseeing the gas system). At the time, Miliband said that it would have “a huge role to play in delivering our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower” by providing “impartial, whole-system expertise on building a network that is fit for the future”.
“Clean energy superpower.”
Anyhoo, there was certainly a supply crunch (as the prices paid show), but Neso stressed that there was no suggestion that a power cuts were “imminent.” The notice was quickly withdrawn. It was interesting to read that, on this occasion it included instructions to electricity suppliers to declare any “additional demand control available.” Demand control is a handy euphemism, and in this case can include asking factories to switch off.
The Telegraph interviewed Kathryn Porter, an independent energy consultant, about what had happened. Amongst her comments were this:
“The Government wants to rely on ‘home grown’ energy but its current strategy creates huge risks when the weather doesn’t play ball.”
Those risks will only increase as decarbonization proceeds.
Oh yes, there’s also this (via Bloomberg, January 7):
As the UK builds up more wind farms to help cut carbon emissions, there are are increasingly times when the power grid can’t handle all the generation. When that happens, the country’s grid operator often pays some wind farms to turn off and pays other power stations that are closer to demand centers, frequently ones that burn fossil fuels, to turn on.
Those so-called constraint payments are set to rise to more than £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2025, according to data from the National Energy System Operator. That’s up from some £1.5 billion in 2024, according to an estimate from FTI Consulting.
Too little wind: Consumers pay up.
Too much wind: Consumers pay up.
House of Commons Library, Research Briefing (December 10):
Electricity prices in the UK have gradually become more expensive than in most other EU countries. In the early 2000s domestic electricity prices were the second lowest in the (then) EU 15.
Amazing.