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Business Mayor
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Can Britons be persuaded to switch off when the wind doesn't blow?
At home in Sunderland, north-east England, Walt Scales and wife Alexis try to finish their washing and cooking by 5pm. Ovo Energy, their electricity supplier, enters them into a prize draw for cutting usage from the mains supply between 5pm and 7pm on weekdays. For the retired bus driver, who switches to a small household battery for essentials in the evening, the benefits are more than financial. 'It means we can relax totally from 5pm, so it's kind of enriched [our lives]. There's more time for each other,' he said. The couple are responding to a push by energy companies and officials to encourage households and businesses to change their habits and adjust electricity use according to supply, as part of the government's goal of decarbonising the electricity system by 2030. This could mean avoiding peak times, such as the teatime rush, or using more power at times of high wind. Along with zonal electricity pricing, it is one way to lessen the amount of new grid capacity that needs to be built and potentially keep costs down. New tariffs, trials and schemes are under way around the country, and the National Energy System Operator wants to see up to five times the current level of flexible power demand in order to meet the national 2030 clean power target. But NESO concedes there are a 'broad range of views' about the feasibility of that goal, which will require technological and commercial developments — and big changes for consumers. 'I think it [demand flexibility] has to happen,' said Laura Sandys, chair of the Green Alliance and board member at EV charging company Ohme Global. '[But] it's probably the most complex part of the jigsaw. This is all about customers.' Walt Scales switches to a small household battery for essentials in the evening © Ian Forsyth/FT Consumers have been encouraged to use electricity outside of peak hours for decades, through 'Economy 7' tariffs offering cheaper power at night, or lower network charges for factories outside peak times. But the idea is taking on more importance given the effort to shift away from fossil fuels, which involves moving from petrol cars and gas-fired boilers to electric cars and heat pumps powered by renewable electricity. Electricity supply and demand have to be matched second by second to maintain system stability. But unlike coal and gas-fired power plants, wind and solar farms depend on the weather and cannot be so easily controlled in line with consumer needs. Demand needs to adjust instead. Excess power can be stored in the form of batteries or hydropower plants, ready to be discharged when needed. But officials believe households and businesses adjusting their behaviour could also help, by, for example, charging electric cars when it is sunny and windy, or turning down industrial freezers when it is not. This is the second part in a series on the future of Britain's electricity grid Spreading demand across the day could also cut the investment required in electricity networks, since they would not have to cope with such heavy peak loads. British wind farms often have to switch off if they are producing more than consumers can use at that time, owing to a lack of grid capacity. 'Flexibility services are crucial for transitioning to a net zero network,' said Northern Powergrid, which serves swaths of northern England. The Berkshire Hathaway-owned company has been offering up to £900 per megawatt hour — more than 10 times the typical rate for electricity bought a day ahead — for business and household consumers to shift their consumption when needed. UK Power Networks, which serves London and south-east England, said it had 100,000 'assets' registered on its network whose demand can be increased or reduced as needed. The network companies' offerings come on top of NESO's national voluntary 'demand-flexibility service', under which households are paid to cut electricity use if a shortage looms. Introduced at the height of the energy crisis in winter 2022, the scheme was initially popular, but critics fear the recent removal of a guaranteed payment level will dent enthusiasm. 'Customers [need] to see and feel good value from doing this,' said Kieron Stopforth, head of flexibility at Octopus Energy, the UK's largest household energy supplier. 'A bit of funding early on can help seed growth.' Octopus and other companies offer or are developing time-of-use tariffs where prices incentivise consumers to respond to constant fluctuations in supply, boosted by market reforms and the rollout of smart meters, which are in about 60 per cent of homes. Combined with plans for regional electricity pricing, the tariffs could lead to consumers in Scotland charging their cars very cheaply when it is windy in the North Sea. The time-of-use model has many enthusiastic proponents. 'Essentially, my fuel for the car is two pence per mile,' said Tesla owner Iain Turner, a customer of Octopus's Intelligent Go tariff. He also sets his washing machine, tumble dryer and, in the summer, swimming pool pump to come on at night. 'About 50-60 per cent of my electricity is now at a cheap rate,' added the Colchester resident. Yet there is also the risk of consumers missing out on benefits if they are less engaged, or get caught out by surge pricing, the flip side of some tariffs offering ultra-cheap electricity at certain times. 'Overall we see [flexibility] as an opportunity for consumers,' said Andy Manning, head of energy systems transformation at consumer watchdog Citizens Advice. '[But] it needs to be underpinned by effective protections [for them].' Industrial users' appetite for shifting their electricity use varies. Some factories are already running power-hungry machinery during brief spells of negative electricity prices triggered by surges in supply. But dialling up and down is not always suitable because it can damage equipment. Getting users on board is not the only challenge. A study in November of 900 homes, 408 of which had electric vehicles or an electric vehicle charger, showed their electricity demand peaked in the middle of the night when cheap overnight tariffs kicked in. 'There's a certain critical mass where you've created a peak somewhere else through herding behaviour,' said Claire Rowland, at Energy Systems Catapult, a government-backed research and technology organisation, that carried out the study. Iain Turner sets his car, washing machine, tumble dryer and swimming pool pump to come on at night © Daniel Jones/FT Trials are also under way to see whether households can be flexible about when they run heat pumps. That could involve switching them on a few hours before they come home and then off during peak times, relying on the home to hold warmth for a few hours. In a survey at the end of a trial run by National Grid and others last year, known as Equinox, about half of the participants reported discomfort 'sometimes' for themselves or other household residents from using power more flexibly. But almost all — 91 per cent — said this was 'mild'. The University of Wales Trinity St David, Lampeter, has installed technology that automatically turns down electric heating in students' rooms when the local network provider is looking for electricity savings. Dan Priddy, head of sustainability at the university, said it might be rolled out further, but noted 'we wouldn't want it to come on midway during a washing [machine] cycle'. Voltalis, the French company behind the technology, has said it plans to invest £1bn in Britain by 2030, following market reforms last year that allow aggregators to be paid for saving, rather than generating, electricity. Randall Bowen, managing director in the UK for Voltalis, said: 'The opportunity is greater in the UK than we've seen in other countries.' Despite many uncertainties Scales, whose prize draw entries could win him a year's worth of free energy, is happy to be at the forefront of a changing system. 'I never stop talking about it,' he said. 'It's important that people pay attention to national consideration.' Data visualisation by Janina Conboye
Straits Times
08-05-2025
- General
- Straits Times
Cause of Heathrow shutdown fire still unknown, initial report says
People work at an electrical substation, after a fire there wiped out the power at Heathrow International Airport, in Hayes, London, Britain, March 21, 2025. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes/File Photo LONDON - The cause of the fire at an electricity substation that forced Britain's Heathrow Airport to shut down for almost a day remains unknown, the National Energy System Operator said in an interim report on Thursday. The closure of Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe, on March 21 cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers. It also raised questions about the resilience of Britain's infrastructure. NESO, which manages the country's electricity network, said it would produce a final report on the outage in June, with recommendations on the resilience of energy systems and plans for response and restoration. The police said in March the fire was not suspicious. London Fire Brigade and National Grid Electricity Transmission continue to conduct forensic investigations into the cause of the fire, NESO said in the interim report. The outage prompted scrutiny from the government, airlines and passengers, who asked why all of Heathrow's four terminals had to shut and why it took 18 hours for power to be restored. Heathrow said it hoped the final report would provide answers on the cause of the fire. "Further clarity on how the fire started and why two transformers were subsequently impacted can help ensure greater resilience for the UK's energy grid moving forward," the airport said in a statement. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
BBC News
06-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Heathrow Airport: Interim report on power outage to be published
Report on Heathrow power outage to be published 6 minutes ago Share Save Share Save PA Media A fire at a nearby substation caused the power outage An interim report into the power outage that shut Heathrow Airport will be published on Thursday. The airport was closed to all flights until about 18:00 GMT on 21 March due to an "unprecedented" loss of power caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation, which started the previous night. Some 200,000 passengers were affected. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) was ordered by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to investigate what happened and provide its initial findings within six weeks. The NESO North Hyde Review Interim Report will focus on "establishing the timeline and sequence of events of the outage". It aims to "explain the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders involved, and outline areas of further investigation required to deliver the final report by the end of June 2025", NESO has said. Last month, MPs were told Heathrow Airport had been warned about its power supply in the days before the incident. Nigel Wicking, chief executive of the Heathrow Airline Operators Committee, which represents airlines that use the west London airport, said a "couple of incidents" had made him concerned. He told the Transport Select Committee that he spoke to the Team Heathrow director on 15 March about his concerns, then to the chief operating officer and chief customer officer on 19 March. He said: "It was following a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft of wire and cable around some of the power supply that, on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. "That obviously made me concerned and, as such, I raised the point I wanted to understand better the overall resilience of the airport." PA Media Some 200,000 passengers were affected as flights were grounded throughout Friday Heathrow insisted after the hearing that Mr Wicking was referring to matters which had "no relation" to the North Hyde substation that caught fire. An airport source said: "To draw a comparison between these incidents is irresponsible." Mr Wicking said the shutdown cost airlines £60m to £100m. Heathrow is Europe's largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Related internet links Heathrow Airport
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Interim report into Heathrow power outage after fire to be published
Interim report into Heathrow power outage after fire to be published An interim report into the power outage caused by a substation fire that shut Heathrow Airport will be published on Thursday. The airport was closed to all flights until about 6pm on Friday March 21 after a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation, which started late the previous night. This disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys. Stranded passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 (James Manning/PA) In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the National Energy System Operator was ordered by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to investigate what happened and provide its initial findings within six weeks. The interim report will focus on 'establishing the timeline and sequence of events of the outage, explain the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders involved, and outline areas of further investigation required to deliver the final report by the end of June 2025', NESO said. ADVERTISEMENT Last month MPs were told Heathrow Airport had been warned about its power supply in the days before the incident. Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators Committee, which represents airlines that use the west London airport, said a 'couple of incidents' had made him concerned. He told the Transport Select Committee that he spoke to the Team Heathrow director on March 15 about his power concerns, and the chief operating officer and chief customer officer on March 19. He said: 'It was following a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft of wire and cable around some of the power supply that, on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. 'That obviously made me concerned and, as such, I raised the point I wanted to understand better the overall resilience of the airport.' North Hyde electrical substation (Jonathan Brady/PA) Heathrow insisted after the hearing that Mr Wicking was referring to matters which had 'no relation' to the North Hyde substation which caught fire. ADVERTISEMENT An airport source said: 'To draw a comparison between these incidents is irresponsible.' Mr Wicking said the shutdown cost airlines £60 million to £100 million. Heathrow is Europe's largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024. This was thought to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010 when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow. In April that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The NESO North Hyde Review Interim Report will be published at 7am on Thursday.
Rhyl Journal
06-05-2025
- Rhyl Journal
Interim report into Heathrow power outage after fire to be published
The airport was closed to all flights until about 6pm on Friday March 21 after a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation, which started late the previous night. This disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys. Stranded passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 (James Manning/PA) In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the National Energy System Operator was ordered by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to investigate what happened and provide its initial findings within six weeks. The interim report will focus on 'establishing the timeline and sequence of events of the outage, explain the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders involved, and outline areas of further investigation required to deliver the final report by the end of June 2025', NESO said. Last month MPs were told Heathrow Airport had been warned about its power supply in the days before the incident. Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators Committee, which represents airlines that use the west London airport, said a 'couple of incidents' had made him concerned. He told the Transport Select Committee that he spoke to the Team Heathrow director on March 15 about his power concerns, and the chief operating officer and chief customer officer on March 19. He said: 'It was following a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft of wire and cable around some of the power supply that, on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. 'That obviously made me concerned and, as such, I raised the point I wanted to understand better the overall resilience of the airport.' North Hyde electrical substation (Jonathan Brady/PA) Heathrow insisted after the hearing that Mr Wicking was referring to matters which had 'no relation' to the North Hyde substation which caught fire. An airport source said: 'To draw a comparison between these incidents is irresponsible.' Mr Wicking said the shutdown cost airlines £60 million to £100 million. Heathrow is Europe's largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024. This was thought to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010 when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow. In April that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The NESO North Hyde Review Interim Report will be published at 7am on Thursday.
