Power struggle with Europe as UK grid battles to keep the lights on
Britain’s power grid has repeatedly fallen below its targeted frequency level this year, raising fears that it is struggling to cope with intermittent energy supplies.
It comes amid rising international energy costs and a recent drop in wind power due to particularly still weather. Earlier this week the UK was forced to bring a coal-fired power plant back online to boost the grid.
The grid’s level of frequency dipped to between 49.79Hz and 49.67Hz on 11 occasions between February and June, according to data analysed by The Sunday Telegraph from the Gridwatch database which measures frequency at five-minute intervals.
This is within the legal limit of 49.5Hz but outside what National Grid sets as its own operational limits of between 49.8Hz and 50.2Hz.
Frequency is determined by the balance between power supply and demand, which needs to be continuously matched. The British grid is set to run at 50Hz.
There were national blackouts in August 2019 when a wind farm and gas-fired power plant tripped off, triggering a plunge in frequency to 48.88Hz and other local generators to disconnect. Generators are set to trip if the frequency falls too fast, to avoid damage.
National Grid said it “operates one of the most reliable electricity systems in the world, and frequency deviations outside our required limits are extremely rare”.
Matching power supply and demand can be more challenging when there are more intermittent sources of power on the system, such as wind and solar plants. These green sources of energy also lack the ability of fossil fuel generators such as coal and gas-fired plants to help stabilise the grid even if the generator has tripped, by providing inertia.
Renewable power generated more electricity than fossil fuels in the UK in 2020 for the first time. During the year, 43.1pc of UK power came from renewables and 37.7pc from fossil fuels, with nuclear and imports making up the bulk of the rest. Britain now goes for long stretches without using domestic coal-fired power stations, and officials want to be able to run the grid without gas-fired generation for short periods by 2025.
National Grid ESO, which balances Britain’s electricity supply and demand, has introduced new techniques to help it manage frequency even as the power system evolves, including technology to respond more quickly to frequency changes, and making generators less sensitive to falls in frequency.
Tom Edwards, at Cornwall Insight, said giant power cables connecting the British power grid to the Continent are a growing cause of frequency changes.
“Interconnectors are some of the largest plants that can trip,” he said. “It causes a large drop or rise depending on the direction in which power was flowing. We have seen a number of excursions outside the operational limits of frequency because of interconnectors.”
The power cut in August 2019 was the first in a decade in Britain, affecting more than a million people as well as hospitals, airports, rail and road networks, from the South East to Yorkshire.
Hornsea One, RWE and UK Power Networks were fined £10.5m in total by Ofgem. National Grid was not censured but Ofgem has since recommended that its role balancing supply and demand be handed to an independent body.
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The Sunday Telegraph
When the wind stops blowing, an energy storm brews
It was 3AM on Monday and staff at National Grid’s central control room had a problem. Arrayed before them were dozens of computers tracking the UK’s energy supply and demand. Overhead was a huge screen displaying, second by second, Britain’s whole electricity generating and supply network. The giant bear pit of a room is the nerve centre of Britain’s complex power grid. Its precise location – somewhere near Wokingham – is kept under wraps for national security reasons. That morning, a message flashed up, telling them that a gas-powered electricity generator with a chunky 800MW capacity had to go offline because of a fault.
Such outages, as they are known in the industry, are not uncommon.
But last week, there was another problem to compound it. As weather forecasters had told viewers on the evening news shows a few hours earlier, an area of high pressure was coming in to sit over the UK, temporarily bringing summer back from the dead. While this would give Britons one last chance to break out their sun hats, it also meant wind turbines up and down the land had slowed to a crawl in the still air.
The 20 engineers on shift in the ESO (electricity system operator) control room realised there would be a shortfall of power before the morning rush. They sprang into action.
Standard procedure if an “event” occurs is to opt for the next most cost effective option. And with wholesale gas prices currently at a record high, firing up more gas-powered generators was not it.
The solution was to turn to a rather unloved power source – coal. Having studied weather forecasts for weeks, ESO had already asked EDF to warm up the 55-year-old West Burton A coal plant in Nottinghamshire in readiness. “We could see a while in advance that we’d need to warm some coal units in case we lost other generators on the day,” explained Rob Rome from ESO. Now the order to fire up the station, one of only two remaining coal plants in the UK, was sent electronically from Wokingham. Just in case the message didn’t get through, operators still have a green phone on their desks to send instructions the old fashioned way.
The upshot was that for several hours on Monday last week, coal went from zero to more than 5 per cent of the UK’s energy mix, its highest level since the winter. Wind power dipped to just 2.5 per cent, down from 21 per cent at the same time the week before.
Coal remained in use for several days last week, highlighting the challenges in the UK’s energy system and posing difficult questions for ministers touting the country’s green credentials ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow later this year.
Meanwhile, as wholesale energy prices rise, suppliers are struggling to make ends meet: two smaller energy companies stopped trading last week. So what does the future hold for UK energy, how green can it be, and will consumers simply have to get used to higher prices?
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The Sunday Times
E-car chargers will turn off to prevent blackouts
Electric car charging points in people’s homes will be preset to switch off for nine hours each weekday at times of peak demand because ministers fear blackouts on the National Grid.
Under regulations that will come into force in May, new chargers in the home and workplace will be automatically set not to function from 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm. Public chargers and rapid chargers, on motorways and A-roads, will be exempt.
The government is also taking powers to impose a “randomised delay” of up to 30 minutes at other times to avoid pressure on the grid if there is a scramble among motorists to recharge their batteries at the same time.
There are only 300,000 battery electric vehicles (EVs) on the UK’s roads, but the energy regulator, Ofgem, forecasts this could rise to 14 million by 2030 when sales of new petrol or diesel cars will be banned.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, is worried that millions of drivers will get into the habit of plugging in their car when they return home between 5pm and 7pm, putting Britain’s electrical grid under stress.
From May 30, he is ordering that all new chargers at home and in the workplace must be “smart” chargers: ones that are connected to the internet and power the car battery at times of low demand. They will be set to work only at off-peak times, although the owner will be able to override this default setting.
A draft statutory instrument setting out the plans has been lodged with the World Trade Organisation by the Department for Transport (DfT). It mandates that all charge-points at home or in the workplace must “incorporate preset default charging hours which are outside peak hours”. Ofgem estimates that 19 million home charge-points will be required by 2035.
Industry sources liken the looming problem to daily facing the sort of spike in demand for electricity that occurs during breaks in big sporting events, when millions of viewers open the fridge or make a cup of tea at the same time. The record is the 2800MW surge at the end of the penalty shootout during the 1990 England v West Germany World Cup semi-final, equivalent to boiling 1.12 million kettles.
Sunday Times
UK ministers ‘met fossil fuel firms nine times as often as clean energy ones’
UK government ministers have held private meetings with fossil fuel and biomass energy producers roughly nine times as often as they met companies involved in clean energy production, despite the increasing urgency of meeting the government’s climate targets.
Analysis by DeSmog, the environmental investigation group, of publicly available data shows that ministers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) held 63 private meetings – with one company present, along with ministers and advisers – with fossil fuel and biomass energy producers between 22 July 2019 and 18 March 2021.
Ministers, including the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, and his junior ministers held only seven private meetings with renewable energy generators over the same period.
The lack of meetings came despite the prime minister declaring a push for offshore wind power last October, as a core part of his “10-point plan” for reaching net zero emissions.
As well as the small private meetings, ministers also attended hundreds of other larger group meetings with fossil fuel companies and their representatives. Fossil fuel producers were present at 309 of these, compared with 60 for renewable energy generators.
Ministers had fossil fuel-related meetings at least 473 times, but renewables-related meetings only 317 times over the period, according to the DeSmog analysis. Shell and BP were present at ministerial meetings 57 and 58 times respectively over the period.
Connor Schwartz, the climate lead at Friends of the Earth, said the disparity showed ministers’ attention was not focused on the low-carbon transformation required in the UK, and sent a poor signal ahead of vital UN climate talks, Cop26, to be held in Glasgow this November.
“You can tell a lot about a government based on the company it keeps – this volume of meetings with the fossil fuel industry shows where priorities and loyalties lie,” he said.
“As we head into the Glasgow climate talks, this government needs to end UK support for damaging fossil fuels, not entertain the industry by filling their diaries with this number of meetings, and to the exclusion of the renewable sector.”
A government spokesperson said: “These claims are ludicrous. We make no apology for meeting major energy suppliers and employers during a global pandemic, but these figures are a highly selective and small snapshot of private meetings which misrepresent our wider engagement and priorities.
“In this year alone, we’ve secured record investment in wind power totalling £450m which has created and secured 2,400 jobs. In addition, we have published a world-leading hydrogen strategy, launched a new UK emissions trading scheme, committed to end coal power by 2024 and pledged £1bn in funding to support the development of carbon capture.”
The Guardian
The Big Interview: Duncan Clark, head of UK region at Ørsted
Duncan Clark leads the UK operation for Ørsted, which describes itself as a renewable energy company “that takes tangible action to create a world that runs entirely on green energy”.
The Danish-headquartered company – formerly known as Dong Energy – also states that it is the UK market leader in offshore wind, with about 1,000 such turbines installed in UK waters, which produce enough green energy to power more than four million UK homes a year.
The business, which also says it was once one of the most coal-intensive energy companies in Europe, in January announced its plan to bid in the ScotWind leasing round. “We are a global business, operating in Europe, Asia and the Americas, and the opportunity in Scotland is one that we are particularly excited about,” Mr Clark said at the time.
Read the full interview here
The Scotsman
Climate change warning: Boris’ net zero masterplan could cost UK homes up to £14,000
Britons have been sent a huge climate change warning with claims Boris Johnson’s plans to make the country net-zero by 2050 could cost households up to £14,000.
The Heat and Building Strategy is due to be published and will set out how the Government plans to address potential issues for homeowners, such as electricity being significantly more expensive than gas. The Prime Minister wants to achieve his net-zero target by banning gas boilers in homes and sales of new petrol and diesel cars. When asked about the expense to consumers of scrapping gas boilers, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng recently insisted ministers will “try and help people make that transition”.
But he is “concerned” about a gaping £20billion hole in the country’s public finances that will open up through the loss of fuel duty through the switch to electric cars.
Electric heat pumps are seen to be the most viable alternative, but they can cost anywhere from £4,000 to £14,000 to purchase and install – which is significantly more than the £1,000 average cost of a gas boiler.
Another option is air source heat pumps that draw heat from above – even in temperatures as low as -15C – but even they start from £10,000.
Both of these sources run on electricity, but heat pumps are currently around £400 per year more expensive to run than boilers.
Morgan Schondelmeier, Head of External Affairs at the Adam Smith Institute think tank, warned the Government’s net-zero plans “risk making Britons poorer”, while the cost of replacing gas boilers with more low-carbon alternatives could cost thousands.
He told Express.co.uk: “The Government’s net-zero by 2050 plans risk making Brits poorer.
“Their mandating households replace gas boilers with more low-carbon alternatives could cost each household £14,000.
“This is just one of dozens of policies pushing costs onto households while providing limited benefits to reducing carbon emissions.
“With the economy still recovering from the pandemic, it’s incredibly disheartening to see the Government fall prey to an un-costed and unattainable scheme for yet-to-be-invented hydrogen boilers at the behest of aggressive lobbying.
“The Government should stop focusing on top-down mandates, picking winners, banning and subsidising. They should instead allow the market to find the best ways to reduce carbon emissions.
“This can most simply be achieved using a border adjusted carbon tax, with an accompanying generous compensation to households to cover increased costs.”
Public campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance warned households could see their bills surge by £400 each year, with the total cost of making Britain net-zero stretching into the tens of billions.
They urged the Government not to leave UK taxpayers footing the hefty bill, warning it is “not sensible, nor a vote-winning option”.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told Express.co.uk: “The net-zero target must not see working taxpayers landed with the bill.
“Estimates suggest that some households could see their bills rise by as much as £400 per year
“The costs of net-zero will almost certainly stretch into the tens of billions, if not higher.
“With the highest tax levels in 70 years, family finances are already strained and they cannot be expected to pay more for food, goods and travel.”
Daily Express
SNP delegates call for creation of a national energy company
The Scottish National party’s autumn conference on Saturday called for creation of a national energy company — an implicit rebuke to SNP leader and first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who promised such a venture four years ago but has not delivered.
The online conference backed by 527 votes to six the creation of national company to “set the standard for Scottish clean power production”, prioritise use of Scottish equipment and provide affordable power to “consumers of limited means”.
Sturgeon made the promise of a Scottish public energy company the highlight of her speech to the SNP’s 2017 autumn conference, saying it would secure low prices, particularly for those on low incomes.
However, the first minister’s government has since backed away from the idea, which was not mentioned in its agenda for the next year published on Tuesday. Instead, the SNP’s programme for government promised a “national public energy agency” tasked with accelerating change in energy use, increasing public understanding and coordinating investment.
Speaking for Saturday’s conference motion, delegate Marianna Clyde contrasted the national energy company announced in 2017 with an agency she said appeared to be merely advisory.
“I feel we must do much, much more than simply advise the Scottish public and local authorities on energy efficiency measures,” Clyde said, accusing UK energy regulators of undermining the development of Scottish renewable power with “unfair” connection charges.
“Without access to energy markets, our vast renewable energy resources are rendered somewhat meaningless,” she said.
The Financial Times
How a polluted Scottish city is driving UK switch to electric vehicles
On the eastern side of Dundee’s V&A museum on a promenade that flanks the River Tay, two women with young children in buggies roll over a row of electric vehicle chargers, barely noticing their existence and stopping only to navigate other pedestrians.
Unlike other bulkier on-street chargers, which can draw complaints for clogging up pavements, these “pop up” devices only appear when activated using an app.
“A lot of people walk past they don’t realise they are there,” said Fraser Crichton, corporate fleet manager at Dundee city council, which is involved in a £3.8m project to test 26 pop-up chargers throughout Scotland’s fourth-largest city. A further 28 will be installed in Plymouth on England’s south-west coast by the end of next month.
Whether the UK will have sufficient charging facilities to meet the government’s 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans has recently become a subject of deep concern among MPs and policymakers.
Rachel Maclean, UK transport minister, on Thursday confirmed the government would legislate this year to ensure that all new homes are built with a charging point but EV experts say the bigger hurdle will be providing sufficient facilities for the estimated 8m-plus households that do not have access to a driveway in which to install their own device.
Dundee city council has been investigating how to tackle vehicle emissions for 10 years. In 2019, Scotland agreed a 2045 net zero emissions target, five years ahead of the wider UK deadline.
The city of 150,000, whose topography Crichton describes as “like a bowl”, so smog “sits and can’t escape”, is home to several of Scotland’s streets with the worst levels of nitrogen dioxide, a harmful pollutant linked to cars.
However, with projects such as the pop-up EV chargers, Dundee has become something of a laboratory to learn how cities can meet the 2030 ban.
The council said it had installed sufficient public facilities to charge 4,334 vehicles, enough for 7 per cent of all of the cars and vans on its streets to be electric. The same percentage for the rest of the UK falls to just 1.9 per cent, according to the council’s estimates, based on government data.
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The Financial Times
660,000 jobs at risk as UK’s green investment lags
Up to 660,000 jobs will be at serious risk if the UK continues to fall behind other countries in the amount it invests in green infrastructure and jobs, according to an alarming study published on Saturday.
Coming just two months before Boris Johnson’s government hosts the United Nations Climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, the report by the TUC makes clear that the impact on employment in the UK as a result of jobs moving “offshore” to countries in the vanguard of green investment and technology will be particularly acute in the UK’s industrial heartlands in the north-west, Yorkshire and the Humber.
Separate research by the TUC in June found that the UK is second from bottom in the league table of G7 economies for its record in investment in green investment and jobs – despite Johnson’s claims to be a leading force in the race to save the planet from global warming.
While the UK Treasury is expected to invest only about £180 per person on green recovery and jobs over the next decade, President Joe Biden plans to allocate more than £2,960 per person on a green recovery in the US: jobs and programmes involving public transport, electric vehicles and energy efficiency retrofits.
Relative to population, the UK’s green recovery investment is just 24% that of France, 21% that of Canada, and 6% that of the US.
The study, launched on the first day of its annual Congress, which marks the opening of the political conference season, says jobs in UK sectors such as the steel industry are at grave risk because manufacturing is still dependent on the environmentally damaging process of burning coal at high temperatures. Other countries are blazing a trail in technologies that allow “green” production of high-grade steel without coal and these pioneers will prosper and expand while “dirty” old producers will wither and die.
Last month the Swedish firm Hybrit announced the delivery of its first consignment of “green steel” to the car maker Volvo while another Swedish firm, H2 Green Steel, is planning a hydrogen plant that will begin production in 2024.
The report says that 79,000 jobs are at risk, as other countries race ahead in green development, in the UK rubber and plastic sector, 63,200 in the UK chemicals sector and 26,900 in iron and steel. In total it says that 260,000 manufacturing jobs could be at risk as well as 407,000 in supply chains.
The Observer
Dale Vince: ‘I may be worth £100m, but I’m still overdrawn each month’
Dale Vince left school in Great Yarmouth at 15 and joined the new age community, living in converted fire engines and ambulances. He launched the renewable energy company Ecotricity in 1996 and was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2004 for services to the electricity industry and the environment. By 2017 his company provided power from 75 windmills to 117,000 homes. He has two adult sons, Sam and Dane, and lives with his second wife, Kate, and their son, Rui, in Stroud, Gloucestershire. His first wife, Kathleen Wyatt, who he married in 1981, won a £300,000 settlement about 30 years after they separated.
Read the full article here
The Sunday Times
Nord Stream 2: Gazprom says new pipeline to Germany is ready
The Russian energy company Gazprom says it has completed construction of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.
Running under the Baltic Sea, it will double Moscow’s gas exports to Germany and circumvent Ukraine, which relies on existing pipelines for income.
It still needs to be certified by Germany’s regulator, a process that could take up to four months.
The US fears the pipeline will increase Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.
The loss of transit fees would hit Ukraine’s economy hard.
Work on the 1,225km (760-mile) pipeline took five years, at a cost of $11bn (£8bn).
German businesses invested heavily in Nord Stream 2 and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is running the project.
As well as Germany’s Uniper and BASF’s Wintershall unit, other European companies have stakes too, including Anglo-Dutch Shell, OMV of Austria and Engie of France.
BBC News
Utility Week’s weekend press round-up is a curation of articles in the national newspapers relating to the energy and water sector. The views expressed are not those of Utility Week or Faversham House.