OT: Grid on point of collapse as system buy price breaks £1.50 per unit barrier

except every airline in the business...

thought the distinction of CCGT/OCGT was whether

Nah. Its not comnbined turbines, its combined cycle.

Steam plant is expensive. A couple or RR trents and an alternator are dead cheap in comparison. But efficiency is around 37% as against CCGT

55%+ so the economics are there for them to be used in anger when prices are very very high only.
Reply to
The Natural Philosopher
Loading thread data ...

I now see that the forecast capacity margin for two days ahead is -710MW.

Minus....

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

ICTs all on max import (3.3GW)... Hydro max output (.97GW)... Pumped storage 50% max (1GW out of 2...).... Nuclear flat out at over 8GW.. Bit of slack in coal and gas but its damned tight with demand going up to nearly 50GW..

OCGT just coming online now...100MW so far out of a possible 700 odd.

Solar panels. zero output. Windymills. 2.87GW. If it had been calm in Scotland...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The firm I used to work for used a lot of electricity to power it's various bits of kit (BIG high pressure pumps, rotary driers etc) had it's own coal-fired generating station in the 1930's.

formatting link
As the company expanded, it relied more and more on the National Grid, and the old coal-fired station was phased out. But as a safety precaution, in 1962 they installed a gas-turbine generator in case of power cuts etc. This was powered by a Bristol-Siddeley Proteus gas turbine linked to a generator, producing about 3MW. They would test-run it once or twice a year; it sounded like a banshee and everyone for a mile around knew when it was running.
formatting link

Reply to
Chris Hogg

I've not poked my nose outside today yet, ISTR they were forecasting wind this week, this week it hasn't arrived and they're now forecasting it for next week instead.

This afternoon, actual demand was ~1GW higher than predicted demand, overcast so not much solar, hence them having to break out the big carrots, looks like they'll need more for Thursday ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

That's quite a big gap! I think I will go and check my generator set.

Today's load curve doesn't look all that different to yesterday's - why are they struggling all of a sudden. Did winter come as a surprise?

Reply to
Martin Brown

It's a bit colder and less windy and overcast too.

The curve shape is the same, but its a GW or so higher.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The Republic of Ireland has some Peat fueled power stations with mechanical stripping of peat bogs on a large scale and around 500 hundred miles of a dedicated narrow gauge railway system to transport it to the plants. Hardly any power is exported to the UK mainland though with the flow over the connector being almost always being the other way. But if we can't let them have any I suppose they will have to run them harder. They were due to close around 2019 but the operators now wish to keep them going for longer and various other factions don't.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

Is OCGT "Oil"?

Reply to
Tim Watts

Yes, I remember seeing about them

Seems we've been pulling, rather than pushing lately (not at full tilt though)

Reply to
Andy Burns

Nope. we have no viable oil plant left. Its open cycle gas turbine

A jet engine strapped to an alternator via a gearbox.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

We looked at some low pressure gas turbines with heat regeneration which achieved about 16% conversion to motive power, the aero derived ones which ran higher pressures were rated at ~33% and at the time big diesel could do 40%, what are the comparable figures now?

IIRC a traditional steam turbine was turning a similar 33% into electricity.

A colleague went on to work on solid oxide fuel cells in co cycle with a gas turbine and it was expected to achieve 70% conversion heat to electrical power but has remained vapourware for more than a decade now.

AJH

Reply to
news

En el artículo , Andy Burns escribió:

One of the Irish interconnectors doesn't work properly. They're replacing it.

formatting link

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

The other one is buggered too, apparently ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

And predicted to get colder too.

Now that the peak has passed they had better start pumping the pumped storage overnight if they expect to survive tomorrow's evening peak.

I presume the lack of spare French base nuclear capacity at the moment plays a part in this situation. They satisfy their own demand first.

Reply to
Martin Brown

37% for an OCGT.

CCGT is maybe 60% when fully warmed up.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Oh, if you ant a good larf. just read the Grauniad!

formatting link

A thinly disguised puff piece for a crappy Danepak company that has pushed itself up a blind alley.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

En el artículo , Andy Burns escribió:

Wonder what ABB did? Connected a black wire to a red one? Got the phase timing wrong?

I had a bit of a google but didn't turn anything up.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Thank you - I was wondering as people mention "oil" from time to time.

Reply to
Tim Watts

It amuses me the way Poulsen (Dong's CEO) expects to produce 5GW. I bet that doesn't take into account the capacity factor, but is just peak output. Also, the way he thinks that batteries are going to be able to store masses of surplus wind energy in the not-too-distant future, when the link-out to battery storage technology is decidedly down-beat and pessimistic.

From that link: 'The biggest problem is energy density' and 'researchers have struggled to increase energy density and meet strict safety requirements', 'The more energy you put into a box, the more dangerous it will be', ' thermal management is crucial. If a battery heats up beyond 80C, the components start to decompose. That?s when it can explode'. And all that negativity from the Grauniad, so in reality things can't be looking good (but we knew that anyway).

formatting link
.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.