UK Wind Record

[nowty]

Just a reminder that the latest UK peak wind generation record was achieved between 15:30 and 16:00 on the 21st May 2021 at 17.7 GW. I think the official record is the average over a half hour period. We probably wont break a new one now until the winter storms return. But as more and more wind capacity is being installed, the record will keeping falling.

For future records, the numbers to look out for are around 14.2 GW on gridwatch and 18 GW on energy numbers.

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk (does not include unmetered wind)

https://energynumbers.info/gbgrid (includes an estimate unmetered wind)

[dan_b]

The next big offshore wind farm due to be completed is Triton Knoll - they've hit the half-way mark of installing the turbines on June 8th (45 of the 90x 9.5MW machines) with it all due to be finished Q1 2022. So I guess at least another 400MW of wind to be added in the next 6 months

[Tinbum]

Winds low at the moment hence;

[nowty]

Winds low at the moment hence;

Its as low as its going to go but its a good example, if the grid had a battery which (relatively) rivals Nowty or Tinbum Towers, one day of low generation could easily be accommodated without adding circa 8000 tonnes of CO2 per hour. My calc of CO2 at current 20GW of gas generation based on 400g / kWh.

Its mind bogglingly bad.

[Ken]

Nat Grid forcasting 15GW measured tomorrow https://www.bmreports.com/bmrs/?q=gener ... t/out-turn

[nowty]

Nat Grid forcasting 15GW measured tomorrow https://www.bmreports.com/bmrs/?q=gener ... t/out-turn

But its a weekend with milder temperatures so unlikely to have enough demand to break records, wind curtailment almost guaranteed. It will be interesting to see the Agile prices for tomorrow though.

EDIT - Agile prices still look high even with wind likely to be maxed out, but might price plunge early Sun morning.
Something is very wrong with our leccy market because curtailment is likely to occur because the demand wont be there, partly because the prices are too high, where in reality, it should be be given away for free to avoid the curtailment.

[Joeboy]

Great to see the WT's putting out over 12.5GW's this morning, blowing a hoolie up here. I wonder if the Ripple pour has set?

[AE-NMidlands]

Great to see the WT's putting out over 12.5GW's this morning, blowing a hoolie up here. I wonder if the Ripple pour has set?

I see that wind is at 14.4 GW but gas is still at 4.5, even if wind's contribution is likely to be curtailed... Is this because the grid can't move enough electrons from where the wind is providing them?

[Joeboy]

Great to see the WT's putting out over 12.5GW's this morning, blowing a hoolie up here. I wonder if the Ripple pour has set?

I see that wind is at 14.4 GW but gas is still at 4.5, even if wind's contribution is likely to be curtailed... Is this because the grid can't move enough electrons from where the wind is providing them?

Damn good question. I'd like to know more detail on this too.

[Ken]

The No1 concern of the Nat Grid is reliabity of supply and i am sure they have a scenario for every occurence remembering its the sudden and unexplained failure that can literally cause a black out. To this end they will ensure that there is enough "spinning reserve" inerant in generators spinning and thus haveing stored energy. This energy is not available to any degree in wind and sun and so a certain amount of gas and sometimes coal have to be kept on the supply sometimes subsidised. The NT has recently fitted some synchronous generators which do not produce leccy but just store energy and this will relieve some of the spinning reserve. It is also thought that batts may be able to do this function as well but not yet proved.

This stored energy allows milliseconds for other actions to take place and pevent the frquency dropping out of range and tripping automatic trips and ultimately local blackouts.

A lot of this is going on in Australia where they dictate a min amount of dispatchable power (coal and gas) on the grid and curtail significant amounts of RE

No where near as simple as people first think