Airstrip One News on Nostr: One of the hidden horrors of Net Zero is the need to pay out very large sums of money ...
One of the hidden horrors of Net Zero is the need to pay out very large sums of money for things that were previously free. A recent Government data release reveals an eye-watering case in point.
Back in the olden days, coal fired power stations naturally stabilised the grid. Huge rotating turbines essentially acted as a store of energy – ‘inertia’ in the jargon.
If a power station tripped off the grid, this ‘store’ prevented instantaneous collapse of the whole grid, allowing corrective measures to be put in place.
Paying gas-fired power stations to switch on is expensive, so grid managers have set up a programme to reduce the costs. This mostly involves paying gas-fired power stations to tick over in the background.
It also involves building flywheels as standalone sources of inertia. They don’t generate any power – we just pay them to sit there, spinning away, so that there is some inertia around in case there is a problem.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1850829480568279477.html
Back in the olden days, coal fired power stations naturally stabilised the grid. Huge rotating turbines essentially acted as a store of energy – ‘inertia’ in the jargon.
If a power station tripped off the grid, this ‘store’ prevented instantaneous collapse of the whole grid, allowing corrective measures to be put in place.
Paying gas-fired power stations to switch on is expensive, so grid managers have set up a programme to reduce the costs. This mostly involves paying gas-fired power stations to tick over in the background.
It also involves building flywheels as standalone sources of inertia. They don’t generate any power – we just pay them to sit there, spinning away, so that there is some inertia around in case there is a problem.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1850829480568279477.html