Re: 1GW (sic) Battery Energy Storage Systems

On Tue, 26 Nov 2024 19:42:54 +0000, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

On 26/11/2024 03:15, john larkin wrote:

On Mon, 25 Nov 2024 17:55:35 +0000, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
 

>

There is some ageing nuclear still running and large scale biomass
greenwashed wood burning facilities like Drax (sounds like a Bond villain).
>
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160

 
Having electricity used to be normal.

>
Most of the time we still do. But the final leg of the electricity
distribution was sold off and the vulture capitalists found a cunning
way to extract value by ceasing to do any preventative maintenance!

The US "regulated monopoly" scheme, shareholder-owned companies with
guaranted returns and  performance incentives, worked great for 100
years, until the regulation got amped up (pun intended).

The power here is very reliable. Sometimes something local, an old
transformer or something, breaks, but they fix it fast. City-wide
outages are very rare, basically unknown, between earthquakes.

An old wood pole leaned over and broke on our block a couple weeks
ago, and we lost power. An army of PG&E guys and trucks and heavy
equipment moved in and installed a new pole in about 5 hours.

The fix was amusing. I'll post a pic.

>
It meant that when storm Arwen hit the north a single electricity pole
falling over took the next one down and then they fell over like
dominoes (or nine pins). We are OK with solid fuel stove and back boiler
and a generator but anyone who is entirely reliant on electricity for
heating (like our Village Hall) was screwed. My village was only down
for a couple of days more remote places were down for a fortnight.
>
UK electricity generation capacity is somewhat odd, but it has been
completely screwed by the lack of investment by the previous government.
There have been warnings of impending doom from experts now going back
more than two decades Professor Ian Fells at Newcastle for example:
>
2003  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3154001.stm
2014
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-facing-blackouts-by-2014-338175
>
He has an axe to grind for the nuclear industry but what he said in
every case was true and made good scientific and engineering sense.
>
Not by him but the same basic message this year
>
2024
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/14/blackout-prevention-plan-activated-britain/
(sorry behind paywall)
>
Each time we have somehow muddled through by skin of teeth. Paying
people not to *use* electricity at absolute peak time is the latest
wheeze. We are very very close to the wire (pun intended) in the UK due
to decades of under investment in the electricity infrastructure.

Politicians make terrible engineers. And terrible business managers.

>
At least there is some decent gas storage capacity again going into
winter. They had decommissioned it as "unnecessary" prior to the Ukraine
war. Talk about short sighted penny wise pound foolish!
>
https://www.centrica.com/media-centre/news/2023/centrica-bolsters-uk-s-energy-security-by-doubling-rough-storage-capacity/
>
Milder winters due to global warming have helped a bit. It was 10
degrees above the monthly average here not long ago.

One swallow does not a spring make.