‘Tight Days’ For Electricity This Winter Says Network Operator as UK Presses on With Dynamiting Potential Backup Power Stations

( Breitbart )

Reports from UK power networks ahead of the winter peak in energy demands say suuply margins should be sufficient but note “tight days” possible, with a reliance on imports as the UK runs down its domestic gas extraction and demolishes would-be backup power plants.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO), the electricity delivery body created by Britain’s left-wing government to “[deliver] our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower”, and the National Gas network both released winter outlook reports on Thursday, each stating they are satisfied they are prepared for the coming months but revealing the potential for problems if foreseeable stressor events occur simultaneously.

Energy margins are “expected to be adequate” this winter, NESO said, while acknowledging “we may still observe some tight days” in early December or mid-January. Yet the model used to predict events assumes any potential events that could erode British generating capacity — such as bad weather taking out renewables — doesn’t also impact the rest of Western Europe, so that the UK’s capacity to import energy through vast underwater power cables will be uninterrupted.

This is short-sighted, increasingly prominent energy analyst Kathryn Porter says, reports The Daily Telegraph, which notes she states that if a period of cloudy, still weather hits northern Europe then “all bets are off”. Porter has previously been particularly critical of the rush for renewables and the impact this had on Spain’s power networks when the entire country was disconnected from electricity for a whole day, saying it went too far too fast and didn’t give the network time to mature the new technology before becoming dependent on it.

NESO stated of such a scenario: “Great Britain has a secure and resilient electricity system… our analysis shows that a combination of factors – including periods of cold weather with low wind, low interconnector imports and high levels of generator outages – would be required for a period of low operational surplus to materialise”. It says the daily chance of this is low, between half a percent and one and a half per cent every 24 hours, but over a 150-day winter season, the probability accumulates.

The same day, NESO’s partner body responsible for the gas distribution system also published a report emphasising that everything will probably be alright, while also revealing the apparent impact of Britain’s left-wing government’s dogged pursual of net zero energy policies on system resilience.