Blackouts

Armengar

large generators dont just appear overnight in business premises. Not permanent ones anyway.  It was probably part of the maintenance replacement plan.  There is a lot of work, testing, analysis that needs to be carried out in order to commission a generator.

matelodave

Lets not start another Daily Mail scare

Some industries and organisations install generators as a matter of course, hospitals being one, quitre a few supermakrkets have them as do telephone exchanges, data centres or anyone else who needs or want a reliable electrical supply. 

Even in the era of the three day week our factory had installed a couple of big diesel generators and a combined cycle gas turbine generator to keep the place running, so there's nothing peculiar or sinister about having them them.

The_Green_Hornet

matelodave said:

Lets not start another Daily Mail scare

Some industries and organisations install generators as a matter of course, hospitals being one, quitre a few supermakrkets have them as do telephone exchanges, data centres or anyone else who needs or want a reliable electrical supply. 

Even in the era of the three day week our factory had installed a couple of big diesel generators and a combined cycle gas turbine generator to keep the place running, so there's nothing peculiar or sinister about having them them.

Or a Guardian one - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/07/winter-blackout-risk-great-britain-rises-after-cable-fire

Or maybe a Daily Mirror one - https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-winter-blackout-warning-blackouts-25172830

Or why not try The Independent - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/gas-supply-prices-shortages-winter-europe-russia-b1923584.html

The moral of this story is that all the British media promote scare stores. It is what they do.

Streaky_Bacon

oldagetraveller1 said:

Just wait until everyone has an all electric vehicle and the grid is totally overwhelmed by them all being re-charged.

The electricity grid of which the capacity has not been increased for years.

It will certainly be interesting to see the impact.

However, I would also throw in the potential load balancing storage that the cars' batteries could provide, which has been discussed as a possible benefit (drawing energy back from plugged in cars, when demand is high). No idea whether that is just pie in the sky.

chris1973

There is talk from next May of limiting public charging points to certain hours of the day - nine hours I believe it is. Those 50kw and 100kw points will really gobble up the capacity, just think of a 100kw charge point for every pump in a petrol station, and 12x 100kw charging points to replace 12 petrol pumps will be equal to a small industrial estate - per filling station.

Of course diversity could be applied and total capacity could be limited per forecourt, but then charging times go up, those queues waiting for a charge point at Motorway services could stretch for miles on a hot weekend or August Bank Holiday.

Most domestic home chargers already have some kind of connectivity such as Wifi or even built in Sim Cards and I suspect these will be mandatory fitments in the new breed of smart chargers!. Part of this connectivity will probably be used in the future by DNO's to  geo rate limit charging during 'local' peak demand or for load balancing. Which is fine, until you are planning a long drive the following day and go to bed thinking that your EV is charging at 7KW, however the DNO have some capacity issues during the night or a sudden cold spell and remotely throttle back all chargers in the area to 1.5kw or 3kw. Suddenly that day out is put on hold when you load the kids into the car and find you only have 40 miles of range to do a 160 mile journey. A bit like somebody standing on the petrol station forecourt and telling you that you can only put £10 in today.

EV's have a glowing future if you live in a Mansion, with a solar array and three wind turbines on your 50 acres of land or have 10 grand just lying around for a battery bank and the space to store it in. Unfortunately for most drivers living in a house or flat on an estate they will soon become as useful as a Betamax Video Recorder.

Anybody who thinks those 5p kw/h charging rates and zero tax and duty levies will still be here in the future is deluded. The Government WILL find a way of clawing back the lost £30 billion a year in fuel and diesel revenues once we are out of the bait and switch period!. But first they have an energy crisis to deal with.

Sadly we don't exactly have an excess of any infrastructure in this Country, including Energy.

In relation to Generators. Always useful to have around if you can buy one cheap enough and have an outbuilding far enough away from neighbours not to cause an issue. I bought an old lister diesel generator from a farmer for £70 about 5 years ago. I've since adapted it to run off either veg oil or red diesel all from information available for free on the internet. On Veg oil its cheaper to use it than pay 20p kw/h for Electricity at the moment, which is what I plan to do during 'peak' periods during the Day & Evening when noise won't carry and be a nuisance.

Gerry1

chris1973 said:

Anybody who thinks those 5p kw/h charging rates and zero tax and duty levies will still be here in the future is deluded. The Government WILL find a way of clawing back the lost £30 billion a year in fuel and diesel revenues once we are out of the bait and switch period!

Stand by for a barrage of 'Scaremongering !' wails from the industry shills...