From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Joe Public
Pure gasoline accounts for 43% of the UK’s main power consumption. As compared, renewable power solely provides 4%.
Our reliance on gasoline although is way better in winter months:
https://www.gov.uk/authorities/statistics/total-energy-section-1-energy-trends
And in the event you have a look at hour-by-hour information, the peaks are better nonetheless, because the Nationwide Grid chart beneath reveals:
https://mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.internet/
This graph is for yesterday, Dec tenth. Demand for gasoline ramps up from round 310 mcm at evening to 430 mcm within the early night. One mcm = roughly 11 GWh.
So a price of 430 mcm/day equates to 4730 GWh, or 197 GWh per hour.
Whereas provide stays comparatively fixed, these peaks in demand are met by decreasing what is called the linepack – successfully the quantity of gasoline inside the gasoline distribution community. This, in fact, is one thing that the electrical energy grid can’t do.
As compared with the day by day peaks and troughs of gasoline, electrical energy storage is miniscule. Pumped storage capability is 2.8 GW, with the most important, Dinorwig, rated at 1.7 GW with storage of 9.1 GWh. Battery storage is way tinier nonetheless.
Based mostly on the decline in linepack, we would wish about 70 mcm every day to high up at peak demand – that’s 770 GWh.
In any occasion, the entire electrical energy storage we have now will all be wanted simply to steadiness peaks in electrical energy demand.
But our policymakers proceed down the street of electrification, seemingly oblivious to the realities.
