davezawadi:

I have talked about this before on the forum and elsewhere. If one looks at the grid status at the moment it is about 27% wind and 24% gas turbines. The wind is gusty and so the peak capacity from it may be 50%, as there is no particular mechanism to control the output from a synchronous wind turbine.  This puts a huge problem on the grid and stability is simply not possible, leading to automatic shutdowns. . . 

Mitch:

. . . maybe there's some post event questions to ask about what the sequence of load shedding is (dropping domestic consumers seems far more preferable than dropping hospitals and national infrastructure. . . 

AJJewsbury:

. . . It would be interesting to know how the grid "decided" which parts of the network to shed load from - in some ways the choices made (e.g. rail traction supplies) might not have been optimal from the bigger picture point of view. . . 


. . . I wonder how things might have been different if everyone had had smart meters installed - in theory then the grid could have responded by directing , via the smart meter network, low priority appliances to shut down - so spreading the load shedding almost invisibly across the whole network possibly avoiding the need for complete power cuts for anyone. . . 

Harry Macdonald:

"dropping domestic consumers seems far more preferable than dropping hospitals and national infrastructure"

I suspect the grid management can't differentiate. Either a whole town goes or it doesn't.

Alan Capon:

The decision of which bits of network to shed is made by the DNOs, although the “how much” at what value of frequency will be set in the Grid Code.