Mail online article about how the rolling blackouts will be planned and implemented.

TheGardener

LilacPotato said:

Hello, 

I don't post much on here (but I read it a lot!) so not sure I can post links but there is a website called powercut105. com where you can enter your postcode to find both your DNO and your load block number. For anyone with extra time to spare perhaps with some time entering postcodes we can find out where we should move to to be a J!

brill - apparently I'm a 'P' 
Thanks for the link.

GingerTim

LilacPotato said:

GingerTim said:

LilacPotato said:

Hello, 

I don't post much on here (but I read it a lot!) so not sure I can post links but there is a website called powercut105. com where you can enter your postcode to find both your DNO and your load block number. For anyone with extra time to spare perhaps with some time entering postcodes we can find out where we should move to to be a J!

'Postcode not found'! 

Darn it! It worked for the three I tried!

This is undoubtedly a 'me' issue - the box on my bill which should carry this info is also blank!

Spoonie_Turtle

TheGardener said:

SAC2334 said:

TheGardener said:

I'm with octopus and can't find a load block anywhere - there is nothing under my address line that resembles a load block. 

its on page 2 of a bill under the supply address and says Postcode area alpha identifier: S ( in my case )

Sorry - but no not on my bill it isn't. Just the address and postcode. There is nothing else other than a QR code box. I have looked and got DS to look as well. Not there. 

Are you looking at your most recent bill?  I'm with Octopus and it only appears on my bills from September.

Miser1964

My house is in 'S' but the pub in the next village is 'U'. Result!

>if you were on a circuit which fed a hospital you were lucky and did not go off.  I wonder if all these schedules take account of this.<

I read that hospitals and other critical installations are on the 'V' load block so aren't scheduled for power cuts.

Anyone know how site-specific the feeds are from sub-stations(?) etc. to such buildings or whether a few streets of domestic properties around about are on the same 'V' graded circuit?

[Deleted User]

Miser1964 said:

Anyone know how site-specific the feeds are from sub-stations(?) etc. to such buildings or whether a few streets of domestic properties around about are on the same 'V' graded circuit?

Entirely depends on the system design - things like the capability of the circuit, the size of the load etc.  Both are possibilities accounted for in the plans.

If keeping a protected site on would mean keeping too much other stuff on as well, then they will just turn everything off.  Same if the protected site has enough backup generators. 

Miser1964

I suppose pretty much all hospitals and essential sites like food processing plants take 3-phase, but the sub-station could be used for 230V supplies to houses in the immediate area.

I know it's ££££s to get anything other than 230V single phase installed to a domestic property to run an EV super-charger.

[Deleted User]

Not just the same substation, but the same circuit.

That's just the smaller sites though - the bigger ones have 11kV connections or even higher.

deano2099

EssexHebridean said:

deano2099 said:

EssexHebridean said:

Trapdoor said:

EssexHebridean said:

Hmmm….under those plans we’d have a very chilly Monday and Tuesday with short charged heating overnight on both Sunday and Monday. Not exactly surprised to see that this is massively loaded towards GSH’d homes, but there you go! 

Most GSH will not work in a power cut … boiler firing, pumps and valves all need power.

Yes, I’m aware of this. With GSH though once the outage is over (and indeed if it was overnight would your heating even be on? I don’t think I know anyone with GSH that runs it 24/7 these days!) then you fire everything back up again and hey presto, house backup to temperature reasonably soon thereafter. With storage heating, if the required input has not been there - for example if three hours of the charging time is during an outage - and even more particularly if that has happened on two consecutive nights, then there IS no way of bringing the house back up to temperature the following day, the heat just isn’t there to release. 

Much less likely to require blackouts in the overnight blocks though as usage is low in those periods anyway. And there's always the option to run the storage heater at daytime rates if you really need it. Those with Gas don't have that option.

😂😂 It’s mostly only fairly modern storage heaters have the ability to run on daytime rates - and that is by them working as convention heaters. Our main heater and those that many other households rely on has no such ability - the circuit feeding it isn’t even on other than in the off peak period! It might also be remember that for those of us on E7 our day rate is substantially higher than you will be paying - mine is 44p, I believe there are some folk paying as much as 50p a unit! Hardly an affordable option for many people! 

There's no difference between daytime rate and nighttime rate electricity. It comes through the same wire, it's just the meter records it at a different time of day. If the circuit is on a timer switch as well, turn it off. I can see a potential issue if for some reason the device can't heat the store and release heat at the same time, but in that case it'll be a matter of being smart (charge it for an hour, run it for an hour, repeat) if needed.
I disagree it's not affordable. We're not talking long term here. We're talking essentially a country-wide emergency that may last a couple of days. And even if that happens, it's not likely to effect overnight electric, and even if it does, it's maybe one day. Yes, that'd be an expensive day to heat the house, but it's just one day. It won't cost anymore than buying a battery pack for your phone. 

Essentially with planned rolling blackouts the most useful thing you want are batteries. As batteries allow you to effectively time-shift around the blackouts. Battery packs let you charge your phone and tablet. Emergency batteries let you run your fishtank or router. Storage heaters are effectively very large batteries for heat energy, and will allow you to shift around the heating times.

No, you won't get value for money doing that but nothing in this discussion was about value for money. Best value for money is just shift your sleep pattern and sleep through the blackout whenever it is!

[Deleted User]

deano2099 said:

EssexHebridean said:

deano2099 said:

EssexHebridean said:

Trapdoor said:

EssexHebridean said:

Hmmm….under those plans we’d have a very chilly Monday and Tuesday with short charged heating overnight on both Sunday and Monday. Not exactly surprised to see that this is massively loaded towards GSH’d homes, but there you go! 

Most GSH will not work in a power cut … boiler firing, pumps and valves all need power.

Yes, I’m aware of this. With GSH though once the outage is over (and indeed if it was overnight would your heating even be on? I don’t think I know anyone with GSH that runs it 24/7 these days!) then you fire everything back up again and hey presto, house backup to temperature reasonably soon thereafter. With storage heating, if the required input has not been there - for example if three hours of the charging time is during an outage - and even more particularly if that has happened on two consecutive nights, then there IS no way of bringing the house back up to temperature the following day, the heat just isn’t there to release. 

Much less likely to require blackouts in the overnight blocks though as usage is low in those periods anyway. And there's always the option to run the storage heater at daytime rates if you really need it. Those with Gas don't have that option.

😂😂 It’s mostly only fairly modern storage heaters have the ability to run on daytime rates - and that is by them working as convention heaters. Our main heater and those that many other households rely on has no such ability - the circuit feeding it isn’t even on other than in the off peak period! It might also be remember that for those of us on E7 our day rate is substantially higher than you will be paying - mine is 44p, I believe there are some folk paying as much as 50p a unit! Hardly an affordable option for many people! 

There's no difference between daytime rate and nighttime rate electricity. It comes through the same wire, it's just the meter records it at a different time of day. If the circuit is on a timer switch as well, turn it off. I can see a potential issue if for some reason the device can't heat the store and release heat at the same time, but in that case it'll be a matter of being smart (charge it for an hour, run it for an hour, repeat) if needed.
I disagree it's not affordable. We're not talking long term here. We're talking essentially a country-wide emergency that may last a couple of days. And even if that happens, it's not likely to effect overnight electric, and even if it does, it's maybe one day. Yes, that'd be an expensive day to heat the house, but it's just one day. It won't cost anymore than buying a battery pack for your phone. 

Essentially with planned rolling blackouts the most useful thing you want are batteries. As batteries allow you to effectively time-shift around the blackouts. Battery packs let you charge your phone and tablet. Emergency batteries let you run your fishtank or router. Storage heaters are effectively very large batteries for heat energy, and will allow you to shift around the heating times.

No, you won't get value for money doing that but nothing in this discussion was about value for money. Best value for money is just shift your sleep pattern and sleep through the blackout whenever it is!

There are quite a lot of installations where the circuits to storage radiators are only supplied by the off-peak terminal of the meter, or through a contactor controlled by the meter's timer (not an external timer switch).

Making these radiators turn on outside the off-peak period would require rewiring.

smk77

Trapdoor said:

From my Octopus bill, I’m pretty sure it’s THIS…

My bill is showing I have 3 identifiers so lots of blackout for me. It is showing T, B and C.. 


(new build house 04/22 - guess unallocated yet!)