Gridwatch Overnight Tonight 14/06/18

[nowty]

How low is gas going to go overnight with storm Hector boosting wind generation ?

Gas currently 7.7GW @ 22:40 with wind at 7.6GW.

With about 5GW of demand to drop off and wind probably going over 10GW gas is going to be near zero in the small hours.

And tomorrow its still going to be windy with quite a bit of solar so maybe another record gas low in the daytime too.

[dan_b]

Gas has dropped to 6.1GW (22:50) but there’s still 0.5GW of coal on the grid?  Weird!  Mind you Biomass has dropped back to 1GW too - it’s normally almost always higher than that

[knighty]

coal 0.26
nuke 7.3
gas 4.73
wind 7.68


12.46am

:-)

[MeatyFool]

Coal .48
Nuke 7.54
Gas 3.78
Wind 7.62

03:06!

Meatyfool..

[oliver90owner]

I think they would keep some gas running at all times.  Wind generation may well need to be curtailed for this to happen but they need some form of frequency control and fast response generation, should the high winds speed close down a large wind farm, for example. 

Pumped storage would be filling on cheap energy and would not wish to generate at such periods.

It is a balancing game - whether to keep gas as spinning reserve only or to make some power.  It costs money to maintain the grid in a state of readiness, one way or another.

[oliver90owner]

Doubtless(?) some journalist will soon be spouting about a new record for wind production - continuously exceeding gas generation for more than eight hours...

[brackwell]

Wind was probably curtailed last night  https://www.bmreports.com/bmrs/?q=generation/windforcast/out-turn

Prices went negative and the French and Dutch interconnectors went negative.  https://www.bmreports.com/bmrs/?q=eds/main

The lowest i have ever seen the gas go was  1.2 Gw about 5yrs ago and coal went about the same.   Interesting they are keeping the coal spinning in rediness but they get special payments for this.

[dan_b]

Wind definitely curtailed - this from EnAppSys on Twitter

As the wind generation builds this evening it is highly localised with 5GW in Scotland stuck behind the various Scottish constraints. Almost 3GW being bid off at an average of £70/MWh and Foyers and Cruachan absorbing power for free. enrenew.netareports.com/#gbwindbylocat… ^PH

[GarethC]

So when more inter connectors are built, international and to Scotland, there will be much less curtailment in times like this?

[M]

So when more inter connectors are built, international and to Scotland, there will be much less curtailment in times like this?

Yep, and the steady deployment of storage and EV's that should prove to be very complimentary and timely.

[M]

Just updated Gridwatch and coal has gone zero.

[linesrg]

So when more inter connectors are built, international and to Scotland, there will be much less curtailment in times like this?

As I've recently commented I understand the need for more interconnectors but have a different view when it might mean having one as little as 0.6km from our house!!!!!!!

Have charged the Zoe here at home overnight - a mere 38.7kW.

Regards

Richard

[nowty]

I'm guessing that wind must have been curtailed because it only peaked in the early hours at around 8GW, hardly up from earlier in the evening. Gas bottomed out just under 3.5GW.

Octopus Energy has an Agile tariff which occasionally (like twice per year for a couple of hours) pays the customer to use energy. I wonder if last night was one of those times.

I still reckon we might break a weekday record this afternoon if the sun comes out.

[dan_b]

They could have done with the Western Link being up and running at full capacity last night - that was the whole point of that link wasn't it, to reduce/avoid curtailment ?

[dan_b]

This is frustrating and never noticed this before, but the Crown Estate Asset Map for UK wind doesn't actually include the Scottish windfarms.

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/en-gb/our-places/asset-map/#tab-2