National Grid seeks back-up supplies
I read this as code for the fact that a confused energy policy has left us scraping the barrel….
The UK power industry has provided more electricity generation after a request from the National Grid.
There had not been a risk of electricity supplies being disrupted, it said.
National Grid earlier issued a Notification of Inadequate System Margin (NISM) as a result of multiple energy plant breakdowns.
“The market duly responded to this signal,” the company said.
The National Grid described the NISM as “one of the routine tools that we use to indicate to the market that we would like more generation to come forward for the evening peak demand period”.
An additional 500 megawatts had been requested between 16.30 and 18.30 on Wednesday
The company last issued a NISM in February 2012, and before that in 2009
When a notification is issued, generators with spare capacity can respond quickly, ramping up supply within the system
The National Grid said that if this failed to happen it had standby contracts with some gas-fired stations.
It also has “demand side management” contracts with businesses, which allow the grid to ask them to reduce energy consumption at specified times.
“More generation came forward and about 40 MW of demand side balancing reserve was ordered so the NISM has been withdrawn,” National Grid said.
The National Grid plans to increase significantly its use of demand side management to keep the system in balance.