Lull in wind power sparks National Grid energy warning: National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) warns that electricity may be in short supply over the next few days because of  an ‘unusual lull’ in wind power.

The organisation has forcast tight margins on the UK’s electricity system from 15th -18th October, observing that low levels of wind, generational outages & the balance of imports and exports are to blame for the approaching power shortage.

Weather forecasts predict wind levels will stay low until 19th October – today’s peak capacity of wind on the grid is expected to reach 33%, falling to 16% tomorrow and 9% the day after – by the 19th this is likely to rise to 51%.

There are also a sum of coal- & gas-fired power plants partially or wholly unavailable due to unplanned outages, in addition to planned outages at the Dungeness and Hunterston B nuclear reactors.

The UK’s four interconnectors are working but the amount of energy available from France is decreased because of  “a series of issues” across the French nuclear fleet.

National Grid ESO has not yet issued a Capacity Market Notice, which warns that the 500MW buffer as well as calculated demand is in danger of being breached – this happened in mid-September.

By alerting the market of shortages and calling for additional capacity from sources such as distributed generators, as well as incentivising large users to reduce consumption which can help keep the electricity system balanced.

Lull in wind power sparks National Grid energy warning