UK Pays Record Sums to Balance Grid as Transmission Falls Behind
Qatar Offers Lebanon 2 Gas Plants and 20 Years of LNG Piped Through Syria What I Cover Irina Slav has been writing about global energy markets since 2007, covering the oil and gas industry, energy security, commodities, and the… The UK is among the most ambitious states when it comes to a transition to a net-zero economy.
Also, the UK is struggling with some of the highest electricity prices in Europe—and is paying significant sums to maintain grid balance, even when its wind installations are generating plenty of electricity.
Normally, the cost of maintaining a balanced grid, meaning stable and secure supply of electricity, is the highest when the weather affects alternative energy sources.
In winter, for instance, solar panels do not generate as much as they do during the summer, and with insufficient baseload backup, the UK needs to boost imports and pay the price.
Also, winter is the so-called dark doldrums season for wind, meaning less wind and lower wind speeds.
This also increases demand for imported electricity for the UK, leading to a fatter electricity bill.
However, it seems that fatter electricity bills for the UK could come even with abundant domestic electricity generation—because the electricity generated cannot get to where it is needed.
Bloombergcalledit “bottlenecks” in a recent article detailing an occurrence that highlighted one of the inherent drawbacks of alternative energy, namely, the fact that wind and solar capacity needs to be built where there are suitable weather patterns and not near demand centers, which is where baseload capacity gets built, shortening the distance between demand and supply points.Related: China’s Solar Exports Keep Falling as Beijing Mulls Export Controls However, a baseload power plant, whether coal, gas, or nuclear, can be built almost anywhere, as long as there is a river nearby.
In this respect, baseload generation capacity is a lot more flexible.
With wind and solar, the installations need to be put up in locations that get a lot of wind and, respectively, solar.
Given the conversion factors of both, especially solar, compromise on the location would automatically turn into compromise on the amount of generation.
In other words, wind and solar are much more geographically bound than baseload power plants.
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