Grauniad: "Government's plan for secure power generation 'unfit for purpose'"

Mar 31, 2016 9 Replies
M

"A £2.8bn government scheme funded by energy bill payers which aims to keep the lights on in Britain has been condemned as wasteful, expensive and 'unfit for purpose' in a damning report.



The claims from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) comes on the day that one of the UK?s biggest coal-fired power stations, Ferrybridge, formally closes, with several others threatening to follow.



There was also a new warning from a leading academic and adviser to energy regulator Ofgem that Britain?s electricity supply is facing 'crunch time' this coming winter"


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B

Surely if done properly, keeping a few blokes to run up the old coal fired stations at short notice should both fix the short term issues, but still keep pollution down during the times that the power is not required.

With yesterdays news that the board of EDF is in meltdown mode as to whether to take the risk to sign up and build the nuclear station here or not, then it surely makes sense to have a back up plan. After all wind water and solar are so fickle that you just could not rely on them for power. Brian

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J

Have you any idea what it takes to "run up" a coal fired power station?

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M

Indeed Brian, and it's just been announced today that the closure of Fiddler's Ferry has been delayed a year to provide backup capacity for next winter.

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Finally some sense dawns.

En el artículo , Brian Gaff escribió:

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T

Time for DRAX to negotiate similar?

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M

En el artículo , The Natural Philosopher escribió:

I wasn't aware it was slated for closure, especially as it's burning "green" (ha!) biomass?

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J

Assuming it's been kept in a maintained 'cold standby' condition, some

24 to 48 hours at best, AFAICR.
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T

lots of coal?

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J

ITYM "And, lots of coal?" :-)

I'd assumed that condition was a "Given". Pity I never thought to tag that statement onto my original one. :-(

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