UK Wind Record

[GarethC]

I do like the iamkate site someone linked to earlier. Interesting to see how much electricity emissions have fallen. Wind power is going to have had a great year. With new capacity coming online regularly, it's going to be fun to watch the records continue to fall. Don't need all that much more before renewables will provide more electricity than fossil fuels.

[MrPablo]

Agreed, I was looked at the iamkate site earlier this week, happened to spot more power was being generated by solar than gas and coal combined, even in the depths of December.
It'd be interesting to see what could be done with further energy saving / management measures such as https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022 ... c-lighting

[GarethC]

Gridwatch recorded 16.97GW an hour ago, which is a record on that site. Was anyone watching energy numbers?

[dan_b]

I think what's also very interesting to note is just how incredibly low gas is at the moment - it's below 2GW. Has it ever been that low?
Coal at 0.6GW (so one unit somewhere) and even the dreaded Drax Biomass is down to just 0.4GW. We're importing another 3.5GW from the continent, and exporting 1GW to Ireland. and with nuclear at full chat too (5.7GW) I can't see how the spinning inertia reserve generation can go very much lower - and it's fair to say the vast majority of the Uk's electricity supply is currently zero carbon.

What's interesting also is with it still being relatively mild, and Europe having a lot of wind power plus having secured quite a lot of gas supplies (and filled up storage), the wholesale price of gas now is lower than before Russia invaded Ukraine. These high wind days are pushing wholesale electricity back down a little bit too. Maybe, just maybe, us consumers will start to see falling domestic energy prices at some point? Or is that wishful thinking.

[Joeboy]

Gridwatch recorded 16.97GW an hour ago, which is a record on that site. Was anyone watching energy numbers?

Co-incidence, just asked that question a couple of hours ago. 21GW is the most seen on energy numbers so far. I did see 20.3GW earlier today.

[Joeboy]

I think what's also very interesting to note is just how incredibly low gas is at the moment - it's below 2GW. Has it ever been that low?
Coal at 0.6GW (so one unit somewhere) and even the dreaded Drax Biomass is down to just 0.4GW. We're importing another 3.5GW from the continent, and exporting 1GW to Ireland. and with nuclear at full chat too (5.7GW) I can't see how the spinning inertia reserve generation can go very much lower - and it's fair to say the vast majority of the Uk's electricity supply is currently zero carbon.

What's interesting also is with it still being relatively mild, and Europe having a lot of wind power plus having secured quite a lot of gas supplies (and filled up storage), the wholesale price of gas now is lower than before Russia invaded Ukraine. These high wind days are pushing wholesale electricity back down a little bit too. Maybe, just maybe, us consumers will start to see falling domestic energy prices at some point? Or is that wishful thinking.

A lot has changed this year. At the beginning of the Ukraine war I said that history might show Putin as an inadvertant catalyst for change in the world of RE. OK, I've fancied the words up a little as it's Hogmanay but the idea stands.

Interesting perspective now on the Nordstream pipes. By severing them there's no temptation to going back to the old gas supply route in Europe which would refill Putins war coffers. That in itself will give further impetus for Europe to install vast amounts of RE?

This wee energy website from the detested Drax was on Ripple community page for anyone interested?
https://electricinsights.co.uk/#/homepage?&_k=bcqggz

[GarethC]

It surprises me how often the wholesale price of electricity has been negative recently. Who can take advantage of that?

Also weird how it sometimes flips quickly from negative to £200 per MWh. Weird market.

[Tinbum]

Gridwatch recorded 16.97GW an hour ago, which is a record on that site. Was anyone watching energy numbers?

Co-incidence, just asked that question a couple of hours ago. 21GW is the most seen on energy numbers so far. I did see 20.3GW earlier today.

I saw 20.6 at one point.

[Adokforme]

It surprises me how often the wholesale price of electricity has been negative recently. Who can take advantage of that?

Also weird how it sometimes flips quickly from negative to £200 per MWh. Weird market.

If you are with Octopus on, I believe, the Agile tariff then you can charge your batteries, use appliances and get paid for doing so!

[dan_b]

During the early days of lockdown, wholesale electricity was going negative a lot - so much demand disappeared from the grid and we had a period of sun and wind. Octopus Agile was all the rage back then. But that was before this recent energy price gouge situation we've now got. As you say it's all quite weird, but I guess kind of inevitable when we've had huge shifts in demand, huge shifts in generation driven by conditions as renweables penetration continues, the French Nuclear fleet outage, and then Putin.

It surprises me how often the wholesale price of electricity has been negative recently. Who can take advantage of that?

Also weird how it sometimes flips quickly from negative to £200 per MWh. Weird market.