What happened to the grid?

D

Dave Liquorice 18 years ago

At 1138 (+/- 5 min) the voltage here (East Cumbria fed from Penrith) suddenly dropped to 200v and shortly after that it was coming and going quite frequently. Off for several seconds back for a few tens off again etc.

Reported to United Utils who where experiencing a lot of calls... They called back a little while ago to check the power was back and stable. When asked what the problem was they said it was not with them but with National Grid. Any one know what happened? The National Grid website has an "incidents" page for gas but not electricity.

Vote

R

Rod 18 years ago

Funnily enough, we were out for a walk around the block at that time. Bloomin' alarms sounding in several houses. Realised that some external "security" lights were on (despite daylight). Got home - microwave showed a power cut had occurred. Must have been a bit before 11:55 (by when we knew the supply was working) so 11:38 sounds good. High Wycombe area - so a long way away.

Vote

J

js.b1 18 years ago

Powercut in the NW, Cheshire.

11:38am from alarm logs (+/- 1 min). 11:53am back on sometime before.

Seems very widespread.

Vote

T

Tim S 18 years ago

snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com coughed up some electrons that declared:

No outage in teh Tunbridge Wells area...

Vote

M

Mary Fisher 18 years ago

I've noticed nothing in Leeds, Yorkshire - but I've not been using any power today until ironing this afternoon. There were no alarms sounding and we're the only house without one :-)

Mary

Vote

B

Bob Eager 18 years ago

Off at 11:37:59 here. On again about 12:45.

Herne Bay, East Kent!

Vote

B

Bob Eager 18 years ago

formatting link

as if they lost two power stations and did some distributed load shedding to keep the frequency up.

Vote

A

Andrew Gabriel 18 years ago

Looks like emergency load shedding* due to losing two power stations at the same time...

formatting link

No outage in teh Tunbridge Wells area...

Checking on various remote computers I manage, no outage in any of Fleet Hants, Reading Berks, Dunstable Bedforshire, or Islington London.

Load shedding -- switch off large areas and/or consumers to preserve the rest of the supply when there's insufficient power being generated to meet demand.

Vote

A

Andrew Gabriel 18 years ago

at 11:45 that there was a shortage of 1.5GW. Wholesale electricity price is currently 4 times what it was at same time last week, presumably due to generating plant being unexpectedly down, and other generators have jacked up their prices accordingly to fill the gap.

Looks like the risk of further load shedding is still there...

2008-05-27 15:09 From : Power System Manager - National Grid Electricity Control Centre NOTIFICATION OF ISSUE OF GB TRANSMISSION SYSTEM WARNING DEMAND CONTROL IMMINENT In accordance with OC7 of the Grid Code a GB Transmission System Warning 'Demand Control Imminent' has been issued by National Grid effective from 16:00 27/05/08 The situation will be reviewed again by National Grid at 17:45 hours and an update issued Notification Issued at 16:09 hrs on 27/05/08 Issued by Lewis Gent National Grid Electricity Control Centre

Vote

R

Rod 18 years ago

Aren't power stations just a bit too big to just lose? Have they sent anyone to find them?

Vote

B

Bob Eager 18 years ago

Friends of the Earth probably 'liberated' them...

Vote

B

Bruce 18 years ago

Well, it is called a "National" Grid.

Vote

R

RW 18 years ago

Someone forgot to put a shilling in the meter again !

Vote

D

Dave Liquorice 18 years ago

Our power outages wern't long enough to be load shedding as such, only a few seconds each. More like long switching gaps or as the voltage was low protection kicking in.

That threat seems to have receeded now.

Vote

M

Mike Dodd 18 years ago

Stranger things have been lost before:-

formatting link

Vote

R

Rod 18 years ago

Vote

N

nightjar 18 years ago

1.2GW of which will be from Sizewell B having an unplanned shutdown.

Colin Bignell

Vote

M

Mogga 18 years ago

Something happened today From a thread here

formatting link

we nearly get a brown out today ? Sizewell B nuclear power station tripped losing 1200 mw off the grid . System buy price shot up to £300/MW. Grid issued a warning that demand reduction may be required.

imagine it was an expensive day for soon to be sold Nuclear company with results published tomorrow.

2008-05-27 15:09 From : Power System Manager - National Grid Electricity Control Centre NOTIFICATION OF ISSUE OF GB TRANSMISSION SYSTEM WARNING DEMAND CONTROL IMMINENT In accordance with OC7 of the Grid Code a GB Transmission System Warning 'Demand Control Imminent' has been issued by National Grid effective from 16:00 27/05/08 The situation will be reviewed again by National Grid at 17:45 hours and an update issued Notification Issued at 16:09 hrs on 27/05/08 Issued by Lewis Gent National Grid Electricity Control Centre

formatting link

Vote

T

The Medway Handyman 18 years ago

Nothing in Medway.

Vote

Z

zaax 18 years ago

Sizewell B has blown up

formatting link

one is to take pill B unless your in area A2C in which case you are to take pill C with 1/2 of pill A. This is plan B

Vote

What happened to the grid?

Join the Discussion

Didn't find your answer?