Something odd is happening with the national grid. Details are emerging about potential failures by the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the government-owned body charged with keeping the power on.
The stability of the national electricity supply is paramount. Unplanned power cuts or voltage drops are not just inconvenient – they are costly and potentially life-threatening.
Two reports have just been published into events this June. One was the result of an independent investigation into whistleblower allegations of corporate interference in operational decisions on 23 June. The other was an Ofgem preliminary technical report on how the grid coped during the heatwave.
The allegations of interference were not substantiated, but the investigation turned up significant issues with record keeping and procedures that NESO management has agreed to rectify.
More important was the finding that five network constraints (physical limitations on the system) had been breached with no options to mitigate them, as well as confusion about the potential impacts.
This is serious: respected industry consultants Watt-Logic question whether NESO can claim with any certainty that the grid was secure if its engineers cannot say what a fault would do to the grid at any moment.
Ofgem has been unable to confirm that the electricity supply was secure – and it is still investigating what NESO did during the heatwave.
• A longer version of this article is on the web at www.cpbml.org.uk