SBR/DSBR needed to bring winter LOLE into line
The loss of load expectation (LOLE) in the coming winter would have been 8.9 hours/year – a margin of 1.2% – if National Grid had not procured backup supplies.
The loss of load expectation (LOLE) in the coming winter would have been 8.9 hours/year – a margin of 1.2% – if National Grid had not procured backup supplies.
There is a raft of options for bringing the demand side into managing the electricity network. They have policy attention, but there is a way to go to turn that into effective action, Flexitrixity's founder tells Janet Wood.
Our energy system is becoming increasingly part of a European market and we expect it to become more so as new electricity interconnectors allow GB to import and export much more power. But do our neighbours share our coming 'margin crunch' and will their needs fit with ours? Sian Crampsie investigated
National Grid is to offer contracts to three power stations to provide additional reserve during winter 2015/16. The plants are Centrica’s South Humber Bank (40MW) and Barry (227MW) stations, and Corby Power’s Corby station (353MW).
Units 3 and 4 at SSE’s Ferrybridge ‘C’ coal-fired power station in Yorkshire have returned to service following a fire in July.
Outages at two nuclear stations and fires at two other power stations have prompted National Grid to hold a tender for Supplemental Balancing Reserve supplies for the coming winter.
We are at a “pretty frightening moment” in energy supply: that was the conclusion of Alistair Buchanan, previously chief executive of energy regulator Ofgem and now with consultant KPMG.
"The risk of disruption to energy supplies this winter is no higher than it has been in recent years," Rachel Fletcher, senior partner for markets at Ofgem, told attendees at the regulator's winter outlook seminar at the end of October.