Renewables Heatwave Trouble Points to Britain's Blackouts Future

Too much solar power in the day, too little wind in the evening

A series of events in recent weeks has set alarm bells ringing about the fragility of our electricity system.

On Wednesday, the National Energy System Operator, NESO, issued an Electricity Margin Notice (EMN) to the market, giving participants the opportunity to make any additional generation or flexibility available during the forecast period. It said its forecasts indicated tight electricity margins during Thursday evening’s peak period, which it laughingly blamed on extreme temperatures across Europe reducing the availability of some generation.

In fact, the reason was very simple – lack of wind power during the hot weather.

EMNs used to be extremely rare, but this is the third issued this summer already. In the past our grid was largely centred around reliable baseload and dispatchable power. It was predictable and could easily be ramped up in times of emergency, such as lightning strikes. But now the system is over-reliant on weather-dependent renewables.

Two weeks ago, during the June heatwave, NESO was forced to import electricity from Europe, following another power supply warning. It paid 10 times the normal price for these emergency supplies from the Netherlands. To supply us, the Dutch ramped up their gas power plants – so much for Net Zero!