UK no coal record broken

[Philip R]

I know it is a contradiction. I am in favour of closing down the coal generation but not to demolish the plants after shutdown, Keep them on care and maintenance until we are not totally reliant in imported gas. Remember, a load of nuclear will go in the next few years and this has to be replaced with something when there is no wind and no sun, in part anyway.
 

[dan_b]

I saw a video clip on Twitter yesterday of one of the mothballed German nuclear power plants having its cooling towers demolished.  This to me seems completely insane to be permanently destroying that capacity when they're still burning so much lignite. 

But I think the sooner we don't have coal as a "get you out of jail" option the better - it will force other options to become more prioritised.

[Philip R]

Phillipburg NPP. Some of my former colleagues visited there when it was operating. They said it was the best power plant they had visited, based on its visible maintenance and condition. No oil leaks no steam or water leaks ( Hiss and P**s, what we called it my former work site.)

You are right, absolutely insane, treasonable in my book, but hey ho, that is  my opinion. Germany will shut the rest down next year!!

Got to remember. Mrs Merkel was born in W. Germany, emigrated to East Germany as a child. Studied some peculiar course on Communist ideology at university and speaks good Russian. I believe she has operated very cleverly and has effectively put Germany at the Mercy of Russia by increasing its dependance on Russian gas.

[dan_b]

UK has passed the mathematically satisfying-sounding 1000 hours of zero coal generation.  42 days, 12 hours and counting...

[M]

Cheers. Perhaps meaningless, but 1,000hrs does sound great to me. Not far off a full calendar month (of May) now, and 50 days straight. So many little PR positives just to show folk what can be achieved.

[oliver90owner]

I reckon it’s time for this thread to hibernate until at least November.🙂

[dan_b]

Yes probably a good idea- can’t see coal coming back anytime soon

[dan_b]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Just before midnight tonight (29th May, 2020), Britain will have been coal free in its generation mix for 50 days.

Record no coal run continues ...

[oliver90owner]

In that case it was seven whole weeks yesterday🙂.

[dan_b]

Ok. Who broke it?
Coal is back on the grid. 13MW but there nonetheless.

[Nickel2]

At 22:30 last night renewables total was at around 12.5% of total generation.
At 04:00 today, wind + solar was at 2.9% of total generation.

The figures show that we aren't ready to ditch the dino yet, and need to keep spinning reserve. With no wind and no sun, (fog) They are probably just warming up the coal-fired to make sure it is there if push comes to shove.
N

[pdf27]

Ok. Who broke it?
Coal is back on the grid. 13MW but there nonetheless.

Coal generating between 21:40 and 23:05 last night for a total generation of 36 MWh? Gas was relatively low at the time, so it looks like some sort of test rather than actual generation.
In fact, can any coal plant generate that little power burning coal? From memory they have relatively low power gas or oil burners for starting up which can take them to about this level, so it isn't impossible that they didn't actually burn any coal last night.

[M]

Ok. Who broke it?
Coal is back on the grid. 13MW but there nonetheless.

Coal generating between 21:40 and 23:05 last night for a total generation of 36 MWh? Gas was relatively low at the time, so it looks like some sort of test rather than actual generation.
In fact, can any coal plant generate that little power burning coal? From memory they have relatively low power gas or oil burners for starting up which can take them to about this level, so it isn't impossible that they didn't actually burn any coal last night.

Thanks for posting that, I was wondering about a gas burn too. Shame about the record, but the shorter it is, the easier to beat next time and get some more good PR.

[dan_b]

After a bit more digging on Twitter it seems this was a single unit being tested after annual maintenance and wasn’t called for by National Grid for balancing.  So there you go.  Coal goes back to sleep, the clock resets and we wait to see how long until the next test!

[Philip R]

Back in the noughties, I monitorred a generator short circuit test at Aberthaw power station  during commissioning of a new generator stator.
The boiler was running on diesel oil and tallow, from a Welsh animal food processing company. Remember seeing a small group of burner running on a video screen in the main control room. No anthracite coal was used during this as the load was very low.
When you run a big unit like this at low load, the excess steam is being dumped into a dump flash vessel, to ensure the steam reaching the turbine is not wet. Also to ensure the low forward power relays do not operate. these are to stop the generator running as a motor and turning the turbine, you do not want blade rock in the LP turbines, especially at 3000RPM.

The test may have been carried following a shutdown, to test the pressure circuit. out to test various safety devices including the boiler safety valves, the turbine overspeed bolts, the onload valve tests on the turbine steam valves. Thus ensuring the unit can be bought to power quickly when  needed and not faffing around for most of a shift getting the statutory and routine testing done.
Philip R