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I just nipped onto Gridwatch (as you do) and saw that gas is currently generating only 2.6GW.
I can't recall it ever being as low as that before - is that a record minimum for gas generation?

It's doubly interesting as the other thermal plants aren't doing much either
Nuclear down a bit at 4.2GW
Biomass down a fair amount at 0.7GW (is often 2-3GW)
And old king Coal is currently zero.

Is the Grid testing running at a lower spinning reserve/ inertia/ frequency response level or something?

dan_b wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 2:24 pm I just nipped onto Gridwatch (as you do) and saw that gas is currently generating only 2.6GW.
I can't recall it ever being as low as that before - is that a record minimum for gas generation?

It's doubly interesting as the other thermal plants aren't doing much either
Nuclear down a bit at 4.2GW
Biomass down a fair amount at 0.7GW (is often 2-3GW)
And old king Coal is currently zero.

Is the Grid testing running at a lower spinning reserve/ inertia/ frequency response level or something?

I think I've seen it in the low 1.x GW's - a high solar/wind day but thats a very situational reading, 2hrs later it could be catering for the evening tea crowds and the average gets blow out of the water.

I think this is the telling one.

I saw something in the news today that the electricity usage in the UK is at its lowest level since the pandemic. Not sure why that would be on a Tuesday in October
I wonder how much this is starting to be influenced by increasing fitment of home PV - as there is no way the electricity companies can know how much people self-generate, so it might look like people are using less, but actually more people are making their own, just importing less.
My guess is that home generation is probably a tiny amount in % terms compared to the total usage - would be interesting to know what the figures are tho

Not just home but business solar too I reckon.

I know that the various grid sites use a calculation of estimated solar generation based upon a variety of factors, but you're right it will appear as a drop in consumption during the daytime - the famous duck-curve. Same with a fair amount of on-shore wind, it's not visible to the National Grid so appears as a drop in consumption on some sites, and is estimated as additional generation in others.

It's still unseasonably warm too so perhaps as well as less gas being burned for space heating, there's less electrical heating demand also?

I think the low demand is based on the last quarter of the year, rather than a Tuesday in Oct. The unseasonable windy July may have helped with unmetered wind. Nowty Towers was very energy negative over the past quarter if I include my solar export and my Ripple GF generation offset.

https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/10/ ... y%20demand.