
U.K. National Grid status - cormullion
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
======
nnx
Interestingly, there is also a version to watch French's grid
[http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/france/](http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/france/)

It looks like France is exporting to neighbouring european countries
(including to the UK), the equivalent more than the UK's total current nuclear
supply (~7.89GW).

I had no idea it was possible to transport such power by submarine link (2GW
power to the UK).

~~~
debrice
Somehow ironic that Germany stopped their own nuclear plant to buy energy to
France (mostly nuclear)

~~~
chestnut-tree
Also interesting to note is that the UK and Germany top a list of the EU’s
most polluting coal-fired power stations. These were the findings from a
recent report by environmental campaigners. The report called "Europe’s dirty
30" looks at CO2 emissions from coal power plants in the EU.

From the report:

 _" Germany and the UK are the self-declared climate champions of the EU.
However, Germany uses more coal to generate electricity than any other EU
country, while the UK comes third in absolute coal consumption for power after
Poland;"_

Here's the 10 most co2-polluting thermal power plants in the EU according to
the report

    
    
      1. Bełchatów, Poland
      2. Neurath, Germany
      3. Niederaussem, Germany
      4. Jänschwalde, Germany
      5. Boxberg, Germany
      6. Drax, United Kingdom
      7. Weisweiler, Germany
      8. Agios Dimitrios, Greece
      9. Brindisi Sud, Italy
      10. Lippendorf, Germany
    

The full ranking of 30 power plants is in the following report (3.1 mb)
[http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/dirty_30_report_finale....](http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/dirty_30_report_finale.pdf)

Or you can read the summary from this Guardian report
[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/22/germany-u...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/22/germany-
uk-poland-top-dirty-30-list-eu-coal-fired-power-stations)

~~~
jahewson
I'm not sure I understand what the point of that list is, Drax is the UK's
largest coal-fired power station, of course it emits the most CO2! Were it
replaced by two power stations of exactly half the capacity it wouldn't be in
the list anymore, yet the end result would be the same.

------
mpunaskar
I work on collecting (ETL) data of European power data sources and supply them
to clients via web service (in almost real time). For the client i work on -
wrote cloud based distributed ETL system to collect data from approx 100
importers and exporters of power, gas, wind, nuclear. Its quiet possible to
collect this data in real time as EU regulations asks each of them to provide
data on their websites. For some of the websites - i use selenium which is
much better than using webrequest via http/s

~~~
eisa01
Do you have a link with more information about the service?

~~~
mpunaskar
My client argus media sells this data via product called fundalytics. Get in
touch with sales.

We scrape power and gas data from various sources - we are also working on to
get fertlizers , bio fuels and other data from across globe.

------
Silhouette
Fascinating, thank you for sharing.

As I write this, it appears that the UK grid is running around 30GW, of which
about 55% comes from local fossil fuels, 29% nuclear, nearly 10% imported from
France and Holland, and a mere 5% or so from the major (non-nuclear) renewable
sources.

There is an interesting note that coal (only 15% right now) is still the
largest contributor to the UK grid overall, but used more in winter because
running hours are restricted for environmental reasons so they do more in
winter when it's more profitable.

I am surprised (and, honestly, disappointed) to see that so little of the
total is still drawn from clean, renewable sources after all the concern about
both fossil fuel supplies and environmental effects in recent years. Having
just been on holiday to a country not a million miles away where they have
essentially no native fossil fuels and so almost everything is run on
relatively clean renewables, it's clear that we still have a long way to go.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Which country runs almost entirely on renewables? I am assuming nuclear is not
a renewable in this case?

~~~
Silhouette
Iceland. Its unique situation gives it a lot of geothermal, but there's quite
a bit of hydro as well. Of course most of us are in much bigger countries,
often with higher population densities, and not sitting on such convenient
geography, but it was more the different mindset that I noticed than any
specific technology.

Try and put up a new onshore wind farm anywhere in the UK, and every NIMBY and
countryside group for a hundred miles will turn up to complain. Propose a new
nuclear power station, and it'll be 200 miles, even though not far away in
continental Europe there are nuclear power stations that could pose just as
big a threat here if anything catastrophic happened. No doubt the same people
will be the first to complain if they can't afford a guaranteed 100%
electricity supply and have to put up with rolling blackouts in a decade or
two. (If you're in the UK, I encourage you to do the maths and consider the
geopolitical situation; that isn't as implausible a future as we'd all like to
believe.)

Meanwhile, it looks like Wikipedia has several whole articles about the
remarkable achievements of the Icelandic in this area (though I think the
figures we heard while there were actually slightly better than even what is
cited there):

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Iceland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Iceland)

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Technically true, bu this is a bit like "Single German City runs entirely off
bio-mass". My favourite author on this (David McKay -
[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/cif-
green/2009/apr/29...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/cif-
green/2009/apr/29/renewable-energy-david-mackay)) is clear on the need for
making the sums add up at scale.

------
vilqqu
State of the Nordic Power System (Click 'Table' for more information):
[http://driftsdata.statnett.no/Web/map/snpscustom](http://driftsdata.statnett.no/Web/map/snpscustom)

The data seem to be a few minutes old, and doesn't have history (which would
be nice).

~~~
kalleboo
It's interesting to see all the export/import flows, like exporting to Germany
yet importing from DenmRk. I guess it's due to price sifferences?

~~~
miahi
The imports and export are changing all the time, depending on the production
or demand of each country, to keep the production and consumption in balance.
It's sometimes easier/faster to import power when you need it (when there is a
demand spike) than start your own generators to match the demand with internal
production. Then when the other country has a demand spike, you pay them back
with your production. In many cases no actual money change hands, these are
kept as "power debts" that will be paid later.

It can also be easier/cheaper to import power for one point near the border
than transport it from farther production facilities.

------
coob
CCGT = Gas, in case anyone was wondering.

~~~
CHsurfer
It's actually specific to combined cycle gas turbine plants where the waste
heat from the GT is used to generate steam and eventually additional energy.
This is opposed to simple cycle GTs where the mechanical output gas turbine is
the only source of energy to the grid.

~~~
philjohn
Sounds like the "big brother" of the condensing gas fired boiler you find
being fitted in the UK these days.

------
brownbat
UK's load balancing has some quirky features that always fascinated me, like
the fact they require a unique calibration for the end of each episode of
Eastenders, right after which millions of households put the kettle on.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/people/teatime...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/people/teatimebritain.shtml)

------
wglb
The frequency one would scare me a bit--it is 49.960 as I see this. So long as
you can control the entire grid from a central point (not possible in North
America, I think--much more complex) it is probably ok.

Otherwise, a generator that lags in phase becomes a motor.

~~~
abritishguy
They have isolators to stop that from happening - the generators can't draw a
current.

~~~
wglb
No, electrically generators and motors are the same circuitry. If you have two
generators hooked to the same output line, and one gains a few degrees of
phase angle on the other, the one lagging draws power from the leader in
proportion to the phase angle difference.

~~~
abritishguy
Yes but with a bit of electronics you can stop this from happening. Source:
Institute of Physics.

~~~
wglb
Curious what electronics will prevent a flow of AC electricity.

~~~
abritishguy
This is what is used in the UK:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronization_%28alternating_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronization_%28alternating_current%29)

------
cfontes
This is awesome, thanks.

Is it actually up to date and accurate?

I wonder if wind player a major role somewhere where they really have a lot of
turbines. Like Netherlands or Germany perhaps.

Would be really interesting to be able to compare different countries with the
same sort of data.

~~~
Arnt
FWIW, wind power occasionally peaks above 80% of total electricity usage in
Denmark. Long-term average is 25-30% and rising IIRC.

~~~
wcoenen
It's important to note that wind power in Denmark only works at that scale
because they can export it to Norway and Sweden. Those neighbors can absorb
variable power output while load balancing their grid with hydroelectric dams.

Hydroelectric is currently the only economical "grid-scale battery", and it is
not available everywhere.

[http://www.theoildrum.com/node/1735](http://www.theoildrum.com/node/1735)

------
regularfry
More data than you could possibly want, if your browser can cope with it, is
published here:
[http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm](http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm)

------
thisjepisje
Here's a nice video about the UK national grid:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_ZySE_jg8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_ZySE_jg8)

------
billpg
One data point I'd like to see is the wholesale cost of electricity throughout
the day.

(Very interesting page. Thanks.)

