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Energy nationalism and interconnectors: the next power threat? | Nils Pratley
Climate & EnergyThe Guardian13 Aug, 11:15 pmAtlasHour
Climate & Energy

Energy nationalism and interconnectors: the next power threat? | Nils Pratley

Solar eclipses are far easier to manage than Europe’s cross-border electricity politics In the end, the solar eclipse did not cause the electricity grid to flicker. The early drop-off in solar generation was manageable, just as the National Energy System Operator (Neso), the state-owned body responsible for keeping the lights on, predicted. Gas-fired generators still had to be paid nose-bleed prices to fire up, and power via high-voltage interconnectors to continental Europe was also expensively sourced. But the system worked. A summer of heatwaves, however, has highlighted European grids’ reliance on those interconnectors – including seven between the UK and the continent – in an age of extreme weather and greater use of intermittent renewables. On Thursday, another low-wind “heat dome” day, a fifth of power to the British grid was coming from the continent at 10am. Cables from France alone were meeting 11%, or 3.54 gigawatts, of demand, or more than twice as much as the output at that time from the UK’s entire fleet of windfarms...

Source-linkedAtlasHour DeskThe Guardian13 Aug, 11:15 pm

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Solar eclipses are far easier to manage than Europe’s cross-border electricity politics In the end, the solar eclipse did not cause the electricity grid to flicker.

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