Monday 28 November 2022 03:05 PM National Grid will NOT activate its emergency winter plan for the first time trends now

National Grid has warned that there could be blackouts this winter if gas power plants are not able to keep running due to the energy crisis.

The electricity systems operator said it is still unlikely but winter could see the first planned blackouts, which the grid calls rota load shedding, since the 1970s.

To try to avoid this happening they introduced the Demand Flexibility Service. 

In jargon it means domestic users, plus some businesses, will be 'incentivised for voluntarily flexing the time when they use their electricity'.

In English, this means paying them to run power-guzzling appliances and machinery outside peak times, so the lights don't go out. 

Most demand happens during peak hours of between around 4pm and 7pm when people get home from work, put the kettle on, switch on their ovens and sit down to watch TV.

The scheme gives money to people who simply use less power at this time. The overall amount of electricity that people use does not have to reduce if they just change their usage to other times of the day.

For instance, electric cars could be unplugged during these hours, switching the dishwasher on could wait until 9pm and you could put the washing machine on earlier in the day or during the weekend. 

To qualify households have to have a smart meter. The request to use less power comes via their provider. 

Engineers working on the energy grid need to make sure it is 'balanced' at all times.

This means that the amount of electricity being put into the grid by power plants, wind farms and others should match the amount being taken out by households and businesses at any given time.

The grid plans for when it thinks demand can be high so it can ask generators to meet that demand.

But if there is ever an imbalance where demand is higher than supply or supply is higher than demand, it can cause major breakdowns in the grid.

Britain has one of the most reliable power networks in the world and unless cables are cut by storms or other accidents outages are rare.

But problems with France's nuclear reactor fleet and a spike in demand caused by the first real cold snap of autumn means there is a pinch.