OT - Gridwatch - coal giving its all?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Use of metal oxide burning reactions produces an almost pure CO2 (Nox and nitrogen free) exhaust but even then you have to scrub for S02 and of course CO2 if you actually give a damn.

[David]

Gridwatch seems to have 10 GW as "against the stops" and into the amber at around 8GW. Which was more or less where it was (didn't note the actual number) at the time. I tend to view "into the amber" as "almost against the stops".

Certainly far more coal than we usually see, especially as gas is usually a lot cheaper and quicker to wind up.

I think the note about the spike in gas prices because of the coming cold snap may explain why it is suddenly economic to burn coal instead of gas.

Perhaps also to get the less used plant up to speed so there are no nasty surprises if they are called on to deliver at full output.

Next couple of weeks are looking pretty icy. Wonder how good solar panels are at shedding snow?

Cheers

Dave R

[Chris Hogg]

So European gas has become expensive, but we're still importing electricity from Europe. I'm not sure I see the logic of that. I would have thought we'd be running our coal-fired stations hard and exporting the electricity to Europe.

I did wonder whether it was one or more coal-fired stations running down their coal stocks prior to closure later this year and selling off their electricity at knock-down prices. Which raises the question as to what does happen to coal stocks when a power station closes? I can't see them carting off what remains to another station; hardly economic, I wouldn't think. Do they just run it down gradually until there's nothing left and then close, dribbling the electricity into the grid for what they can get for it as they go?

[Roger Hayter]

No gaseous products of combustion?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Those stops are - as 'The other Mike' points out - somewhat arbitrary and represent 'the most coal power ever seen on BM reports'

I've seen 25GW back in 2011, but the most last year was 11.4GW and we lost another 2GW last year I think.

We are not yet in blackout territory, but a cold sunless period with one or more power staions out of action aross Europe could make things marginal.

Except right now it isnt that cheap for some reason.

The coal power stations have a certain amount of running hours left. If the spot price is high enough they will be put online.

I havent checked BM reports for that. I should.

:-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

We do when there is a shortfall, but primarily Germany and France export and they are not gas - they are coal and nuclear by and large.

Coal power stations have their running hours pre-ordained, and so know pretty much how much coal to stock for the end of working life.

I would imagine they run them until they run out of coal just shy of the working hours limits :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

hahahah

Tell that to all those backward third world countries like Great Britain burning wood for fuel...

[Cursitor Doom]

I can only suggest you take a look yourself tonight at around the same time as the reading may well repeat itself.

[Cursitor Doom]

There is *always* some big, environmental scare they try to frighten us into paying higher taxes over.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Sure I will, But I don't expect to see any issue. The code is categorical. If it aint in the database it wont show on the (currrent) website

[The Natural Philosopher]

All government is a self legalising protection racket...

[Cursitor Doom]

I've got nothing to gain by lying, NP! If it wasn't showing as 4MW I wouldn't have remarked on it.

[Cursitor Doom]

"Thou shalt not steal" - unless you're the government and you exempt yourself. T'was ever thus.... :(

[Andy Burns]

I think we've got about 14.5GW of coal plant that isn't mothballed.

[Andy Burns]

You sure you didn't see the red "day divider line" at midnight, and think it was a spike of PV?

[The Natural Philosopher]

There is a difference between 'you saw' and 'it was showing'

-

[David]

9.48 GW at the moment.

Well into the red.

Just sayin :-)

[Tjoepstil]

yes but the red is somewhat arbitrary...

[Chris Hogg]

TNP will correct me if I'm wrong (he created Gridwatch, after all, so he should know), but AIUI the coloured zones on the dials are a little arbitrary, and don't indicate maximum available capacity in every case.

[Tjoepstil]

precisely.

with coal and nuclear closing left right and centre, mothballed plant and plant on very low readiness its hard to establish what the real capacities are.

I adjust the scales periodically to reflect the actual maximum data