PowerSwitch

This is hilarious, nay even totally bonkers!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... rexit-deal

"A flotilla of barges would be sent to the coast of Northern Ireland with energy generators after Brexit to keep the region’s lights on in the event of no deal, according to reports on Wednesday.

The scheme, which has been described as “potty� by business leaders in Northern Ireland, is said to be part of contingency planning by Whitehall mandarins in case the UK crashes out of the EU, smashing Ireland’s all-island electricity supply in its wake.

........ According to a leak to the Financial Times, the plan would involve bringing back equipment from military zones such as Afghanistan to build up capacity in the Irish Sea.

Thousands of electricity generators would have to be requisitioned at short notice. "

Totally potty.
I see no reason why Brexit, even without a deal, should have any significant impact on electricity supplies in Northern Ireland.

There are cable links to both the Irish Republic, and to the mainland UK, and there is no reason to suppose that these will be cut off. Any anyway, these links have been known to fail, which reduces operational flexibility, but has not had any serious consequences.

Furthermore, Northern Ireland generates most of its electricity within its own territory.

Talk of rationing, or of 3 day weeks and the like is silly, it wont happen except as part of any generalised shortage that also affects the mainland UK.

And in the unlikely event that mobile generating plant was needed, I would expect that this would be hired from Aggreko or one of their competitors, and would be placed on land.
No need for requisitioning or for barges.

I find it rather worrying that emergency contingency planners could come up with such a nonsense, assuming the report is accurate. It makes me wonder had how practical a whole range of contingency plans actually are. Of course this is difficult to judge as they are all probably kept under wraps and stamped "Top Secret".

The notion of refueling large numbers of relatively small generators bobbing up and down on barges and connecting this platform to the shore is pure Laurel and Hardy.

It certainly sounds ridiculous.

The only conceivable way a story like this could have any credence would be if (a) NI receives the bulk of it's electricity from Ireland and (b) Ireland and/or the EU have threatened to cut off NI's supply in the event Brexit occurring not on their terms. Which, if true, would be tantamount to an act of war.

I was going to ask about this after the female conservative MP mentioned generators on last Thursday's question time.

The thing is. It sounds ridiculous, and probably is. But this is being reported all over the place as a serious outcome of a no-deal Brexit.

This is the government's intention.: No-deal is the worst-deal.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/sh ... -stockpile

Not a good way of persuading NI to join with the Republic to form a united Ireland.

Snail wrote:But this is being reported all over the place as a serious outcome of a no-deal Brexit.

This recent spait of leaks and reports of no-deal planning is pure propaganda to frighten the folk at home to support the government proposed deal and/or to convince the EU that the UK is taking no-deal seriously.

Little John wrote:It certainly sounds ridiculous.

The only conceivable way a story like this could have any credence would be if (a) NI receives the bulk of it's electricity from Ireland and (b) Ireland and/or the EU have threatened to cut off NI's supply in the event Brexit occurring not on their terms. Which, if true, would be tantamount to an act of war.

Yes.
NI does not receive that much electricity from the Irish republic.
There is an interconnector from the mainland UK into Northern Ireland and another interconnector from a different part of the mainland UK into the Irish republic.
In both cases, the usual flow is INTO the island of Ireland.
I see no reason why we would shut down the supply into Northern Ireland.
If the Irish republic refused to export to Northern Ireland, we COULD refuse to supply them, in retaliation.
And we must remember that both interconnectors are of limited capacity, and have previously failed without any serious consequences.

Northern Ireland is very vulnerable to any shortage of natural gas, but that is true of the whole UK, not just NI.

BTW, this foolishness is being compared to "operation blackcurrant"
A Royal Navy operation in 1947 that used moored submarines to generate electricity for ports and coastal towns.
This reduced demand on the grid which was badly affected by severe weather holding up coal deliveries.
It worked fairly well, but demands were much lower in those days and a lot of local distribution was still DC, as used on the submarines.

The only other case of using a vessel to supply significant electric power to shore facilities was in the great Auckland power failure.
The MV Rotura was used to supply the port and some other loads. IIRC, the gas turbine driven generators on the ship were synchronised with the very limited grid supply, a considerable challenge.

This was on the BBC TV news this evening.
I still consider any serious consequences to be unlikely.

adam2 wrote:BTW, this foolishness is being compared to "operation blackcurrant"
A Royal Navy operation in 1947 that used moored submarines to generate electricity for ports and coastal towns.
This reduced demand on the grid which was badly affected by severe weather holding up coal deliveries.
It worked fairly well, but demands were much lower in those days and a lot of local distribution was still DC, as used on the submarines.

The only other case of using a vessel to supply significant electric power to shore facilities was in the great Auckland power failure.
The MV Rotura was used to supply the port and some other loads. IIRC, the gas turbine driven generators on the ship were synchronised with the very limited grid supply, a considerable challenge.

Black Current