8 ms·

We've gone over a month without burning any coal, but then the Ukraine war happened and we were at risks of blackouts. That 1.1% is likely heavily concentrated

We've gone over a month without burning any coal, but then the Ukraine war happened and we were at risks of blackouts. That 1.1% is likely heavily concentrated as a much higher percentage on a relatively small days over winter and/or where wind levels were low. We probably want to be sure if gas imports are heavily hit again or a major interconnector goes down we'll be fine before entirely demolishing it.

dubcanada 3y ago
Could you not just keep gas as a backup? I don’t see why you need both coal and gas?
- cfn 3y ago
  I suppose gas and coal are sourced from different places and that may give some resilience to the system. They also serve very different functions in the grid. Coal is for baseline and gas is for peak.
  - tomatocracy 3y ago
    These days, it's nearer the other way around in the UK - gas is closer to baseload (sort of) and coal has a profile closer to a peaker (especially when turning up/down rather than on/off).
  - Reason077 3y ago
    Coal is very much used only for peak in the UK in recent years. The remaining plants (in fact, there’s only one still in service now) are kept on standby during winter and activated only when demand is forecast to exceed supply (plus a safety margin). Gas is now more of a year-round flexible baseload, taking up the slack whenever demand is high and/or renewables production is low. Nuclear is now the only true baseload in the UK - always generating more-or-less the same output except when they have to be shut down for maintenance, refuelling, or decommissioning!
- Reason077 3y ago
  There was an issue with gas in the 2022/23 winter as the Russia-Ukraine war affected supplies and caused prices to skyrocket. More coal than usual was burnt because of this. But it's a moot point now: coal-fired plants have continued to close in line with UK government policy, and the last remaining one is scheduled to close in September.

dubcanada 3y ago

Could you not just keep gas as a backup? I don’t see why you need both coal and gas?

cfn 3y ago
I suppose gas and coal are sourced from different places and that may give some resilience to the system. They also serve very different functions in the grid. Coal is for baseline and gas is for peak.
- tomatocracy 3y ago
  These days, it's nearer the other way around in the UK - gas is closer to baseload (sort of) and coal has a profile closer to a peaker (especially when turning up/down rather than on/off).
- Reason077 3y ago
  Coal is very much used only for peak in the UK in recent years. The remaining plants (in fact, there’s only one still in service now) are kept on standby during winter and activated only when demand is forecast to exceed supply (plus a safety margin). Gas is now more of a year-round flexible baseload, taking up the slack whenever demand is high and/or renewables production is low. Nuclear is now the only true baseload in the UK - always generating more-or-less the same output except when they have to be shut down for maintenance, refuelling, or decommissioning!
Reason077 3y ago
There was an issue with gas in the 2022/23 winter as the Russia-Ukraine war affected supplies and caused prices to skyrocket. More coal than usual was burnt because of this. But it's a moot point now: coal-fired plants have continued to close in line with UK government policy, and the last remaining one is scheduled to close in September.