Dials and graphs

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Mar 2013, 11:29

Right now the UK electricity generation comprise 5.27GW of wind and 7.72GW of nuclear, 9.29GW of gas and 18.24GW of coal

A windy day and gas is expensive.

http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Mar 2013, 11:45

If you look at the graphs carefully, particularly the second row - the weekly figures, you'll see the reduced supply from gas yesterday, coal going flat out and the shortfall made up, rather luckily, by a windy day. Things would have been a lot worse yesterday and today without that 5GW of wind.

Post by **adam2** » 23 Mar 2013, 13:02

This is a good illustation of the fact that wind is not a complete answer, but is undeniably a substantial help.
Had it not been windy, even more of our very limited gas reserves would have been burnt in power stations leaving less for the inevitable calm weather.
Gas is not going to suddenly vanish, but I predict that it will soon be too costly to burn regulary in power stations for base load power.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Mar 2013, 13:45

I love the retro, almost steampunk, look of that dashboard

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Mar 2013, 14:25

You've been listening to Radio 4 too.

It's completely steampunk.

The user display is a simple PHP script. The dials and graphs are built up by overlays of 3D modelled bezels and needles, and the graphs generated by the background processes. Source code is freely available of any or all of the site (with site specific information removed) on request.

Tarrel · Post by **Tarrel** » 23 Mar 2013, 14:47

One thing I find interesting about those charts, is how high the base load is, i.e. at four o'clock in the morning. It's around 60 percent of peak demand, at a time when most people are asleep, under several layers of insulation, requiring little in the way of heat, light or communication.

Surely one way of addressing our energy supply/usage problems would be to take a look at this baseload and find a way to reduce it? I'm guessing much of it will be street lighting, unnecessary lights in shops, industrial processes and several million fridges and freezers humming away.

Post by **adam2** » 23 Mar 2013, 14:59

A fair bit of the nightime load is probably off peak space heating, water heating, and other loads being used when power is cheaper.

My Mothers home is an extreme example.
Laundry is done overnight to save money.
Water is heated overnight likewise.
The main living room is heated mainly by a wood stove, but the early morning chill is dealt with by a 3KW electric heater that runs for the last 40 minutes of the off peak tarrif.

Some industries run 24/7, and might actually use more power at night.

A few buildings run large air conditioning plant at night, and store the cold for use the next day.

An increasing amount of power is used 24/7 by all the emergency lights, smoke detectors, and RCDs that the elfansafety insist on. Such items do not use much power, but it adds up due to the substantial and growing numbers in use.

And of course the iron losses in all those grid transformers are 24/7 loads, and therefore a greater perecentage at night.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Mar 2013, 15:22

Just noticed that the Dutch interconnector is running at its maximum of 1GW. Most of that is probably wind generated so we are actually looking at over 6GW of wind. Domestic wind has now been running constantly at over 5GW for almost 2 days so I guess that's a new record. It must be about 14% of total demand.
And just when it was most needed.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Mar 2013, 17:31

Actually I hadn't been listening to R4, but there you go.

For night load, don't forget 660MW of street/road/motorway lighting (the latter 2 very 20th century retro).

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Mar 2013, 17:33

Tempted to sneak a look at this during Earth Hour, see if it goes down at all. Of course, for that I'd need to fire up some electric...

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Mar 2013, 18:05

RenewableCandy wrote:Actually I hadn't been listening to R4, but there you go.

Here's your chance: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01md9fj

stumuzz · Post by **stumuzz** » 23 Mar 2013, 18:17

Very interesting link Biff.

Thank you.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Mar 2013, 18:32

stumuzz wrote:Very interesting link Biff.

Thank you.

Which, the radio programme on steampunk or the dial thingy about electricity generation?

stumuzz · Post by **stumuzz** » 23 Mar 2013, 20:46

The dial thingy

odaeio · Post by **odaeio** » 24 Mar 2013, 05:59

Now if someone would be kind enough to use this template for gas........