UK ‘needs to play catch-up’ in global race to rewire electricity grids UK paying for wind turbines to be turned off during windy weather because there is not enough grid infrastructure to carry electricity. Crazy lack of focus on long term. www.theguardian.com/business/202... - ThreadSky

premnsikka.bsky.social • 81 days ago

UK ‘needs to play catch-up’ in global race to rewire electricity grids

UK paying for wind turbines to be turned off during windy weather because there is not enough grid infrastructure to carry electricity.

Crazy lack of focus on long term.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/09/uk-renewable-energy-grid-connection-infrastructure

Comments

seasidegp.bsky.social•81 days ago

It’s as if the social brain of the UK just went into a vegetative state with the rise of neoliberalism. How do we wake it back up and start doing some proper strategic planning for the population again?

callistosolo.bsky.social•81 days ago

I think the frantic forelock tugging by the majority of the UK electorate has caused mass self inflicted brain damage.

jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social•81 days ago

Good point. On the ‘The Rest is Politics’ pod there was an amazing, devastating takedown of PFI in the NHS, delivered almost as an aside by both Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell. But…on we go..with the same nonsense.

seasidegp.bsky.social•81 days ago

Yup, more PFI, more outsourcing to the private sector, more “growing the economy”…

Forgetting the only debt-free money is the money created by government to pay directly for services.

jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social•81 days ago

Neo-liberalism carries with it the cold, utterly irrational fear of anything resembling a Keynesian re-boot, which is kind of what Spain has just pulled off.

martandelus.bsky.social•81 days ago

Much agreed, it's quite puzzling that this is happening, hopefully something will be done. I wonder if the longer term for the UK may involve electrolysis. Our weather could be key to achieving a sustainable energy environment.

https://www.hydroreview.com/hydro-industry-news/pumped-storage-hydro/84-gwh-pumped-storage-project-planned-for-norway/

argyll-loon.bsky.social•80 days ago

Here’s an idea to stop the turnoff of turbines-
If electricity prices were low at point of generation energy intensive industries would establish there increasing economic development in remote communities and compensating locals.
It’s now cheaper to run a distillery in the Cotswolds than Argyll!

singleaspect.bsky.social•79 days ago

That's the whole idea of the new grid opposition, to move people and places to where the energy is instead of moving the electricity

andysmart1948.bsky.social•81 days ago

How naive! Everyone knows 'long term' is code for 'planning' and 'planning' is code for 'communist dictatorship'. Fortunately Labour is clear that the only way forward is 'market Forces' (aka what, a nano second at a time, will make the obscenely rich, even richer)

poodle19631.bsky.social•80 days ago

Do we pay gas powered stations to switch off I wonder? When they build a wind farm, they know the expected up time and base their calculations on that. If they decide to build it, before there is infrastructure to take the power, that's their problem, not ours, yet we have to pay for it.

gillianrodgers8.bsky.social•81 days ago

Is that because foreign owners care more about profit than our bills?

niknakpaddywack.bsky.social•81 days ago

Indeed. We should also legislate for all suitable newbuilds to include solar and massively improved insulation. This is blindingly obvious but is still not done.

sykesmiddleman.bsky.social•81 days ago

WHAT ABOUT BATTERY STORAGE??????

You can move the electricity around the UK any way you want to, but without a capability of storing the surplus energy generated for future use, I.e. night time and dull days, you are n the same position as Poland and Germany

SORT OUT STORAGE

alloutgreen.bsky.social•81 days ago

Darragh & Bert, totally wasted opportunities.

viviennesoton.bsky.social•81 days ago

The National Grid needs a major overhaul and a lot of investment.

therealshuban.bsky.social•81 days ago

Been that way for generations. Labour, Tories, lib Dems... all working for #theman.... the shareholders who run this nation

i-am-roro.bsky.social•81 days ago

Build them in the few spots of outstanding natural beauty that remain neglect to actually make them productive all the while knowing that at some point said place of beauty will have to have towering Pylons zigzagging across the landscape else entire practice pointless

paulmcmc.bsky.social•81 days ago

You can run power cables underground. We have pylons because it's cheaper.

i-am-roro.bsky.social•79 days ago

Cheaper, not better for example after the weekend’s storm vast swathes of the western UK have spent days without power, buried power cables aren’t vulnerable to high winds….

paulmcmc.bsky.social•79 days ago

That's why I said 'cheaper' rather than 'better' ;)

cezarym.bsky.social•81 days ago

alang64.bsky.social•81 days ago

The creation of the National energy system operator should help. NESO is responsible for whole-systems energy planning across electricity and gas, this will include energy storage. Speeding up the implementation is key. Sensible government policies are needed as well.

kompani101.bsky.social•81 days ago

Way too much short-term planning in UK Government. It needs to be planning for the next 25+ years for all utilities, not planning to maximize annual shareholder dividends and CEO salaries.

alang64.bsky.social•81 days ago

That's what the National Energy System Operator will do. Operation of the systems is only a small part of their remit. It's publicly owned so no shareholders are involved

rachwonders.bsky.social•81 days ago

How will people win elections with crazy talk like long term planning?! 🤣 It's a nice idea mind you.

dickwinchester.bsky.social•81 days ago

You can build up the grid infrastructure as much as you like but it still won't stop future storm Daragh's wrecking local connections and cutting off 70,000 consumers for 3 days as it has now in Wales. Expanding the grid does nothing for consumer's energy security or resilience.

monkeymad.bsky.social•81 days ago

I mean Tories had to spend that time tanking the economy from every possible angle and scheduling a single plane to Rwanda

can't do everything at once

craigsmaw.bsky.social•81 days ago

michaellondonsf.bsky.social•80 days ago

Article seems weak to me: ignores the distance between generation & consumption. Please explain, someone. #grid #network

jaykaypee.bsky.social•81 days ago

I wondered why my #octopus tariff didn’t go down much during storm Darragh.

coopalex.bsky.social•81 days ago

Yet another example of the private sector prioritising short term profits over long term investment.
That’s why we need to re-#Nationalise now.

mdhoefsmit.bsky.social•80 days ago

Tell me one thing where the U.K. doesn’t need to catch up?

monty72uk.bsky.social•81 days ago

It's very simple to solve. In most of Scandinavia, they made it illegal to turn off wind turbines. Now during any excess they store it thermally and use it later to heat homes. Here's one in Denmark that provides heat and hot water to 790 homes. #sectorcoupling

irritatedllama.bsky.social•81 days ago

That certainly challenges the big oil narrative about polluting batteries and lack of storage solutions.

monty72uk.bsky.social•81 days ago

We call it sector coupling

callistosolo.bsky.social•81 days ago

The lack of infrastructure investment over the last couple of decades is really starting to bite us on the arse. There has been a staggering and infuriating lack of foresight from govt.

scottishkaren.bsky.social•81 days ago

It’s a private company. Its only focus is profits. Good old British elite. Selling off all the stupid peoples basic services. The stupid people excited at making a few £’s from sale & defend the elites.

nickyzog.bsky.social•81 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/highlandlife10.bsky.social/post/3lcth5ancm22d

badhorse.com•81 days ago

If it was to provide affordable electricity to Scottish families I'd say go right ahead, the scenery is lovely but people have to live. I suspect though that they're to carry power to corporations that give nothing back to our country so get stuffed.

herehear.bsky.social•80 days ago

Scotland has more than enough renewables.
Any further infrastructure in Scotland will 100% be for the benefit of England.
What does Scotland get out of this?
The highest transmission fees in the UK.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23353030.transmission-fees-scotland-charged-much/

badhorse.com•80 days ago

It just makes no sense., I can see them generating power all around us, we have so much we ship it south but we pay more. They are destroying areas of natural and historic importance and nothing for the people.

herehear.bsky.social•80 days ago

We’re energy rich and Scots are freezing.
Our oil paid for the London skyline.
What did Scotland get?

seanconnorswrites.bsky.social•81 days ago

Hydro was the way to go but wind lobbyists won the early round of renewable debate. Hydro gives storage and production on demand. Fully controllable. All you can say about wind production is it will never shut down fossil fuel generation.

mogo-uk.bsky.social•81 days ago

Another example of the ‘who do we blame?’ game.

The problem is, the finger can only point in one direction.

From Cameron onwards, they have to shoulder the responsibility for their complete failure to invest in the future.

Now, after 5 months, people are trying to turn on the new government 😲

thereunderneath.bsky.social•81 days ago

Do you think that’s transferable frustration though for the past 14 years? I think sometimes I have to catch myself doing it because these problems we have need turning around.

It’s going to take time, maybe the reason is it’s like turning round a huge sea freight ship. The turning circle is years?

mogo-uk.bsky.social•81 days ago

Absolutely agree. It’s easy to blame the previous government, for anything and everything, without ever thinking it through.

They left a mess, the rot needs to be:

Slowed
Stopped
Reversed
Replaced
Rebuilt

It’s a 10+ year programme and it’s not just about money.

There are systemic issues.

thereunderneath.bsky.social•81 days ago

Which is only possible if we keep the destructive governance out. Con & RefUK the latter doesn’t have a chance but I’m not going to put money on them removing themselves from a situation where they help fill the numbers.

Lab have to get a second term & I feel like they need to instigate MSM reform.

jameswoodfield.bsky.social•81 days ago

A community battery stores excess electricity collectively, typically from renewable sources, and makes it available to a local community or grid.

It improves energy efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances grid stability by balancing supply and demand.
https://www.energy-storage.news/community-batteries-a-win-win-for-australias-renewable-energy-transition-and-economy/

joseph-yossarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

This is what happens when you have a civil service full of ex-public school Oxbridge graduates who read either English, History or PPE. Only the best people, the cream of the cream.

leplonge.bsky.social•81 days ago

Technological needs compromised by market ideology.

spitfirepilot.bsky.social•81 days ago

Why not mega batteries like they have in South Australia?

tonynicol3.bsky.social•81 days ago

Also a legacy of fifty years of government dithering, and refusing to grasp the nettles of grid improvement and generation investment. Both parties guilty, this is a very long term issue. Interesting article below on the more recent situation, esp. the short-termism

https://storelectric.com/uk-grid-regulation-where-it-went-wrong/

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