Guido
warned that the publicly owned National Energy System Operator was a poor model for Andy Burnham’s plan to set up yet another state-owned energy body, announced in his Labour conference speech. Multiple “
highly unusual”
events in the grid control room occurred over the past few weeks:
NESO’s
response describes emergency assistance as a
“precautionary measure” and
“an established tool.” In the same post, it admits
“our control room temporarily increased flows across parts of the network above normal constraint limits.” Billpayers are footing the cost for this consistent inability to predict energy demands on the grid. Balancing power distribution across Britain
cost £47.9 million last Wednesday alone, including £1.6 million for a single half-hour. September’s £505 million was the highest monthly figure on record. Around 9GW of wind was paid to switch off while NESO bought power from France – a scramble to avoid blackouts. Burnham’s answer is Great British Grid – another publicly owned grid company, to confuse the process even further.
It isn’t even winter yet…