Potential for power blackouts in less than 3 years

[booksforsale]

An interesting thread, I wonder how the potential crisis would pan out of if the profits from our bills didn't need to go to shareholders.

[tidewater50]

We have a whole house generator, that runs on natural gas, no electricity needed. If the power goes out for more than 20 seconds the whole house generator kicks in. They cost around $10,000 but they are worth it, if Ice Storm hits no worries, it ran once for 6 days before electric was restored, we were the only people in our area with normal electric. Peace of mind knowing you will have heat, not water, electric when disaster strikes.

[tonyreddevil]

good product but you have to have the money

[damian_steele]

UK seeks emergency electricity supplies

Emergency supplies of electricity are being sought by the National Grid for this winter because of the threat of shortages of output from the UK’s coal, gas and nuclear power stations.

National Grid said on Tuesday it was extending its search for additional sources of temporary supplies, blaming emergency shutdowns at two nuclear power stations operated by EDF of France and unexpected fires at two key coal-fired stations during recent months – Ironbridge in Shropshire and Ferrybridge in Yorkshire.


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[sidthelamp]

UK seeks emergency electricity supplies

Emergency supplies of electricity are being sought by the National Grid for this winter because of the threat of shortages of output from the UK’s coal, gas and nuclear power stations.

National Grid said on Tuesday it was extending its search for additional sources of temporary supplies, blaming emergency shutdowns at two nuclear power stations operated by EDF of France and unexpected fires at two key coal-fired stations during recent months – Ironbridge in Shropshire and Ferrybridge in Yorkshire.


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Ive just posted a thread on how the EU will get us out of this situation

[westlondoncarparts]

Sid, I am one of the few British people who has always been heavily in favour of the EU and its predecessors on the basis that it has been the world’s biggest healing project and would put an end to centuries of constant wars and military conflicts in Europe. I have posted elsewhere on this Forum about the current situation in Ukraine. The EU and the USA were behind the regime change in Ukraine and behind the breaking of Ukraine as a sovereign nation that is now taking place. This Ukraine situation means that the EU has gone beyond its original vision of respect for all nations and is now empire building in a way that damages rather than creates additionality.

I cannot tell if the new thread that you posted is meant to be 100% factual and straight comment or whether it is tongue in cheek.

But what I say here now is unfortunately true. The EU is the very last organisation that the British can rely upon to help secure energy supplies. David Cameron and the EU still do not get the fact that if they keep trying to bully Russia into interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine in the same way that the West does, they will push President Putin too far and he will send his military in to protect the people in Eastern Ukraine from being killed by their own Government and will cut off the oil and gas to the EU in retaliation for all the childish sanctions that the EU is putting up against Russia.

The situation is now so serious that the United Nations estimate that one million people have had to flee for their lives in the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk as the Ukrainian Government shells residential areas and as the Ukrainian President says that his military will take the eastern cities block by block if necessary. The situation is now so serious that even the BBC cannot ignore it anymore and has belatedly started to report on it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29029060

Having gone on holiday twice during the summer rather than being behind his desk trying to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine, David Cameron’s latest bright idea is for the EU to ban Russia from using the international banking settlements system SWIFT which is based in the EU. The SWIFT operators will have to comply with EU sanctions against Russia and if this sanction goes ahead it would prevent the Russians from making international payments through SWIFT. I dread to think what reaction will come from Russia if the EU cripples Russian international trade by preventing it from using SWIFT.

I presume that there must be a sound case for the EU reducing energy consumption by limiting the power used in things like vacuum cleaners and hair dryers and washing machines and dish washers and so on, but in the present situation with Russia such actions are more like the proverbial bolting down of the deck chairs on the deck of the Titanic to prevent them sliding off as the ship goes down. There is now very serious threat to the continuity of gas and oil supplies to the EU from Russia. Not much point worrying about how much energy vacuum cleaners use if there are extensive power shortages because President Putin has turned off the gas and oil pipes into the EU. A very deep recession will result from the collapse of trade between the EU and Russia that will be as profound or more profound in its effects as the financial crisis a few years ago that we are still recovering from.

The most constructive thing that David Cameron could do for however long he remains in office is to be nice to Alex Salmond because Alex Salmond has the gas and oil.

[sidthelamp]

Sid, I am one of the few British people who has always been heavily in favour of the EU and its predecessors on the basis that it has been the world’s biggest healing project and would put an end to centuries of constant wars and military conflicts in Europe. I have posted elsewhere on this Forum about the current situation in Ukraine. The EU and the USA were behind the regime change in Ukraine and behind the breaking of Ukraine as a sovereign nation that is now taking place. This Ukraine situation means that the EU has gone beyond its original vision of respect for all nations and is now empire building in a way that damages rather than creates additionality.

I cannot tell if the new thread that you posted is meant to be 100% factual and straight comment or whether it is tongue in cheek.

But what I say here now is unfortunately true. The EU is the very last organisation that the British can rely upon to help secure energy supplies. David Cameron and the EU still do not get the fact that if they keep trying to bully Russia into interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine in the same way that the West does, they will push President Putin too far and he will send his military in to protect the people in Eastern Ukraine from being killed by their own Government and will cut off the oil and gas to the EU in retaliation for all the childish sanctions that the EU is putting up against Russia.

The situation is now so serious that the United Nations estimate that one million people have had to flee for their lives in the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk as the Ukrainian Government shells residential areas and as the Ukrainian President says that his military will take the eastern cities block by block if necessary. The situation is now so serious that even the BBC cannot ignore it anymore and has belatedly started to report on it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29029060

Having gone on holiday twice during the summer rather than being behind his desk trying to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine, David Cameron’s latest bright idea is for the EU to ban Russia from using the international banking settlements system SWIFT which is based in the EU. The SWIFT operators will have to comply with EU sanctions against Russia and if this sanction goes ahead it would prevent the Russians from making international payments through SWIFT. I dread to think what reaction will come from Russia if the EU cripples Russian international trade by preventing it from using SWIFT.

I presume that there must be a sound case for the EU reducing energy consumption by limiting the power used in things like vacuum cleaners and hair dryers and washing machines and dish washers and so on, but in the present situation with Russia such actions are more like the proverbial bolting down of the deck chairs on the deck of the Titanic to prevent them sliding off as the ship goes down. There is now very serious threat to the continuity of gas and oil supplies to the EU from Russia. Not much point worrying about how much energy vacuum cleaners use if there are extensive power shortages because President Putin has turned off the gas and oil pipes into the EU. A very deep recession will result from the collapse of trade between the EU and Russia that will be as profound or more profound in its effects as the financial crisis a few years ago that we are still recovering from.

The most constructive thing that David Cameron could do for however long he remains in office is to be nice to Alex Salmond because Alex Salmond has the gas and oil.

good evening Rob

i did read your thoughts on the Ukraine in another thread, coupled with your thoughts in this thread im in total agreement

my thread i posted earlier on vacuum cleaners was not meant to be tongue in cheek apart from the title, its a rare event you would catch me running around with a vacuum cleaner , on the rare occasion i have, i noticed are 23000 hoover [ watts ] did a reasonable job, how can the eu justify a reduction to 900 watts by 2017 is just staggering , i can well imagine any energy saved will be offset by the need to do the job again , let alone the increased time professional users will have to spend ie builders ,carpenters ect, in fact after seeing the panic buying of hoovers over the last few days, there will be probably a net increase in power consumption as these brand new models bought on the strength of the ban will be in circulation for many years coupled with the double time involved with the lesser powered models we can expect a very big risk of increased power consumption , ,

[damian_steele]

Emergency measures to prevent blackouts this winter as power crunch worsens

National Grid resorts to extra measures to keep the lights on after series of power plant failures this summer


Emergency measures to fire up mothballed power stations could be used to keep the lights on this winter, after a series of power plant fires and closures left Britain more vulnerable to blackouts.

National Grid announced on Tuesday that it would begin recruiting idle or mothballed power plants, which would be paid to ensure they could fire up if needed as a "last resort".

The Grid had said in June that the emergency plan to boost power supplies would not be needed this year. However, it has resorted to using it because five of the power plants it had expected to be running this winter are now shut down or are in doubt.

In June, energy regulator Ofgem estimated there would be between 2.7 gigawatts (GW) and 5.4GW of spare operational power plants on the system – a capacity margin of between 5pc-10pc over and above peak winter demand.

But the situation has deteriorated as 3.67GW of power plants are now in doubt or shut down as a result of a series of incidents – threatening to wipe out the spare margin unless Grid recruits extra plants.

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[damian_steele]

Britain will struggle to “keep the lights on”

..... unless the Government changes its green energy policies, the former environment secretary will warn this week.

Owen Paterson will say that the Government’s plan to slash carbon emissions and rely more heavily on wind farms and other renewable energy sources is fatally flawed.

........

He will also suggest that home owners should get used to temporary power cuts — cutting the electricity to appliances such as fridges for two hours at a time, for example — to conserve energy.

FULL STORY

[squern]

I listened to a programme on the BBC World Service last night.

The premise was that the oil price is falling dramatically, despite problems in the Middle East and against expectations.
Usage in the developed world is dropping.

Similarly, countries are buying less gas from outside their borders, using less and feeling the benefits of renewables as they come on stream.

The Chinese are working on solar panels which can be produced for a tenth of the previous cost, and intend to develop even more solar energy farms than they have now. They will probably be exporting solar-powered energy before long.

The Australian government has woken up to the fact that they have one of the sunniest countries in the world, and is exploring solar power.

If you believe the Global Warming crowd, we will all use less power to heat out homes in the future, which will save enormous amounts of power.

None of this is mentioned when the scare stories about power are put out, often by those looking to make a profit from the ensuing panic.

The fact is, our power usage generated traditionally is falling globally and will continue to do so. At the same time, the generation of power is undergoing the biggest changes for centuries, and will continue to change to suit our needs.