Breitbart.com wants us to think that Great Britain is going to freeze to death this winter because chasing after green energy sources has meant shuttering that country’s coal fired power plants. Without the guaranteed electricity of coal, GB is going to run out of electricity, and all heck will break loose, apparently. And, oh my gosh, that followed the billions of dollars (er.. pounds) that GB invested in wind turbines and the like. Those windmills surely won’t be enough to power the country through the winter.
These wires bring us the power to stay warm |
Turns out the story is nowhere near as bleak, and that Great Britain plans to fall back on other electricity sources should the weather be bad. (according to Reuters)
What happened is that the National Grid Plc released a report about how they’ll keep the lights on and electricity flowing over this winter. The primary cause for concern is that, yes, they’ve shut down several coal fired power plants. That means the winter-time margin of excess electricity over demand is expected to fall to 4.1 percent, compared to a 5 percent excess the year before.
Yes, indeed, Great Britain expects to have an excess of electricity throughout the winter of 2014 above electricity demand. The margin will be slightly lower than last year, but it’s still an excess of electricity.
The risk in predicting the future is what happens if it doesn’t turn out as expected. What if the winter is colder than expected, or some of the wind turbines break, or something? Will Great Britain face an electricity crisis? That is what those fear-mongerers at Breitbart.com want us to believe.
According to the Reuters report, the National Grid paper discussed a wide range of fallback plans in case something unexpected happens. Plans the Breitbart people either ignored or hyped out of proportion.
Again, the National Grid expects there to be an excess of electricity, but just in case it’s needed:-
they plan to encourage utilities to restart “idle” power plants, if needed
a demand-response plan will compensate offices and factories for voluntarily cutting back electricity demand if the grid is overstretched
three power plants are on “standby” in England and Scotland – if needed
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