It is alleged that on June 23rd 2026 with temperatures hitting 34°C, the UK grid came close to shutting down as it fell out of safe operating parameters several times with zero backup supplies, whistleblowers reveal.

This is something that I have raised before when there were calls for more HGVs to be made BEVs, which thankfully at the moment has not happened yet.

If this problem was caused through the addition of fans being used in attempts to get some cooling across the country, then it does, in my view, raise serious questions about the future being electric.

Very important that the Battery Farms get build so that the renewable generated electricity can be stored for when needed rather than turbines being closed down. 2 new offshore windfarms in the Moray Firth hjave just been granted licences. The North & South Caledonia windfarms. Estimated to be able to power 2 million households. So all the households there are in Scotland. Amazing how many windfarms there are in Scotland all able to power every household in Scotland. Substations need built but are not getting planning. Pylons are required bit planning is being blocked. New Hydro Schemes were being blocked and now developers are saying not economically viable because of The UK Government and how they support the energy required. They would rather it is bought in from overseas, and not locally overseas, but from the EU or European Countries other than Scotland.

Edited Saturday at 20:134 days by Evolution13

PS. So maybe this week more drilling and extraction of Oil & Gas in the north sea will be approved. So more Oil & Gas to be exported. No refinery in Scotland anymore so this oil and gas will make no difference. If there is gas going to come ashore they best get building storage facilities.

16 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

It is alleged that on June 23rd 2026 with temperatures hitting 34°C, the UK grid came close to shutting down as it fell out of safe operating parameters several times with zero backup supplies, whistleblowers reveal.

This is something that I have raised before when there were calls for more HGVs to be made BEVs, which thankfully at the moment has not happened yet.

If this problem was caused through the addition of fans being used in attempts to get some cooling across the country, then it does, in my view, raise serious questions about the future being electric.

The UK Grid needs to evolve as all Grids need to throughout the world due to massive home generation and also massive home battery storage.

If there is any Black Outs or Brown Outs one will soon see which homes and businesses have invested in resilience by their lights still on.

UK home generation is now estimated at over 3 GWs though this is of course dependent on good solar input.

Storage, business and home, is over 10 GWh by many estimates and that figure is expected to increase several fold over the next 4 or 5 years.

Projects like the Great Glen, 30 GWh, will add to Dinorwig's 9 GWh plus other slammer plants to increase resilience.

Of course their are "Preference Trips" in place which trip out some business and loads such as street lights to maintain supply to homes and hospitals which could be running breathing assistance equipment though hospitals should have emergency gennies which I expect are being replaced with battery systems as a matter of course.

Electricity is the only way forward though backup to Grid supplies are needed of course, even if that is ICE as no one if their right mind should object to ICE, or gas turbines as with power stations, being an emergency backup for a few hours.

A while since i had such a horror of a session trying to charge anywhere. b

This was Edinburgh city. Hermiston park and ride. 5 rapids. 1 occupied. 3 out of order. Last 1 i tried was working. Not taking charge place Scotland anymore. Not taking a Credit card. WattStop App required Samsung phone only for that. I had a Sony But it is by Fuuse. So Electroverse card worked. Max charge speed 30kW. It was roasting . Had allready driven 2 hours. 2 dogs and grand daughter with me and 2 hours more to go. Peed me right off. I would happily have been paying £2 a litre and getting 30 mpg than paying 61 pence a kWh.

Edited yesterday at 21:201 day by Evolution13

I see that we are finally going to get the 5% VAT on domestic electric removed; however, that is still only pocket money a year for most people. What I found interesting, however, was the irony; this was something the leave brigade promised would be able to happen once we left the EU. I seem to recall it later becoming a promise to make it happen if we left, as they were unable to do while we remained.

It only took 6 years to deliver and will help a bit; but sadly nothing is planned for doing something similar with public charging systems, though.

This weeks eFIXX video highlights the real dangers of Chinese-made 13A sockets with a warning that using a particular one could result in death. Even the country's premier brand, MK, has, I think, contracted their manufacturing to China and they are also advising not to use one of their own sockets because of safety issues.

There is also a dedicated section on home EV chargers that may interest some of you.

£1 a week average saving per household for 26 weeks over winter on elsctricity. Obviouly lowest users not even £1. Standing charge even without vat might be over £3.50 a week. Mine is. Luckily i have tariff capped till next June on ev smart meter tariff on dual fuel. Public charging today i was £17.50 for about 120 miles. 20% vat. Yestrrdsy 190 miles from £3.50 of home charging.

18 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

£1 a week average saving per household for 26 weeks over winter on elsctricity. Obviouly lowest users not even £1. Standing charge even without vat might be over £3.50 a week. Mine is. Luckily i have tariff capped till next June on ev smart meter tariff on dual fuel. Public charging today i was £17.50 for about 120 miles. 20% vat. Yestrrdsy 190 miles from £3.50 of home charging.

Yeah, the VAT cut is just window dressing.

25 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Yeah, the VAT cut is just window dressing.

Not to those who already embrass the renewables move but also those in some places, brother lives one the birder between Essex, Cambs and Suffolk border.

Like others on Briskoda there is no gas in his village and fortunately when his house wax biult they decided to go to Heat Pump tech rather tgan dirty heatjng oil. His saving thru the winter will be very significant, probably more than £20 each month in the depths of winter ie over £100 in Q4 to Q1 next year.

The VAT drop on electricity so 8p per KWh becomes 7.6 p per KWh brings in virtually level with gas so fas will be my energy of choice to heat water. I will be looking to switch which energy source I most use from gas to electricity due to the VAT cut on electricity so not the £45 saving kn average household, it would be more like £60 all things being equal but my switch to choosing to use electricity to geat water rather than fas j reckon will mean more like a hundred pound a year less paid in VAT so quite significant now I am a retired person.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by lol-lol

10 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

His saving thru the winter will be very significant, orocabky more than £20 each month

In VAT?

I definitely don't want a heat pump.

27 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

In VAT?

I definitely don't want a heat pump.

His bills are huge in the winter as he only has electricity, works from home most the time and its quite a large house. Think he said over £400 a month of electrcity. House was designed with Heat Pump as the inbuilt system, think there are more stream lined systems now with smaller hot water tanks as his is huge and all the gubbins does occupy one small room.

I am looking for a more portable system which I can take with me but only does one large room so as with my solar arrays I can take with me when I move.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by lol-lol

40 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

His bills are huge in the winter as he only has electricity, works from home most the time and its quite a large house. Think he said over £400 a month of electrcity. House was designed with

Jeez... That's mental for a system purposely designed for a heat pump... I'm similar (5 bed detached built 1958, with house occupied all day and me often WFH) and my combined gas and electric is £230 a month tops.

What is the name of this village where it is either electric or oil then?

Why on earth does your brother not switch over to storage heaters and get considerably lower monthly running costs?

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Graham Butcher

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

Jeez... That's mental for a system purposely designed for a heat pump... I'm similar (5 bed detached built 1958, with house occupied all day and me often WFH) and my combined gas and electric is £230 a month tops.

Charging an electric car probably the biggest difference. But then they are not paying couple hundred quid a month as a cost at the pumps.

They are not the most adapt at tweaking their life style to the Octopus Cosy tri-rate tariff I got them on to but better than a single rate tariff. Each to their own most just want to live life and not chase down every Watt which is fair enough but full marks for using a tariff which is 100% renewable.

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

What is the name of this village where it is either electric or oil then?

Why on earth does your brother not switch over to storage heaters and get considerably lower monthly running costs?

House is rented so Heat Pump setup it is. No solar or batteries which would be good. Perhaps he would be allowed to have one or two plug in solar systems when there legal in a few weeks but probably I would wait until Easter to do that.

3 hours ago, lol-lol said:

His bills are huge in the winter as he only has electricity,

The future for most when gas is gone

44 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

The future for most when gas is gone

With all the new wind farms coming online, more people generating their own the supply should be outstrippind demand and more instances of very cheap or negative priced electricity.

Does also depend if these data centres buy up huge amounts of power and drive up prices on the other side of the coin.

2 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Charging an electric car probably the biggest difference. But then they are not paying couple hundred quid a month as a cost at the pumps.

Eh??? You keep telling us EVs are dirt cheap to run... And if he's working from home a lot he surely wouldn't be paying a couple of hundred a month on fuel for ICE cars.

So basically Heat Pumps are bloody expensive to run is what you're saying.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by skomaz

1 minute ago, skomaz said:

Eh??? You keep telling us EVs are dirt cheap to run... And if he's working from home aot he surely wouldn't be paying a couple of hundred a month on fuel for ICE cars.

So basically Heat Pumps are bloody expensive to run is what you're saying.

One of his kids has an EV not him, he has a hybrid. Charges most days, well across the night.

1 minute ago, lol-lol said:

One of his kids has an EV not him, he has a hybrid. Charges most days, well across the night.

So a hybrid with a 'small' battery charging at night on a cheaper tariff wont be making a £200 odd difference a month... Maybe few quid according to the figures you keep telling us?

So as previously stated... the heat pump is bloody expensive to run. End of story...

17 minutes ago, skomaz said:

So a hybrid with a 'small' battery charging at night on a cheaper tariff wont be making a £200 odd difference a month... Maybe few quid according to the figures you keep telling us?

So as previously stated... the heat pump is bloody expensive to run. End of story...

No no you misinderstand. One daughter has a full BEV and charges it overnight most nights. Brov has a hvbrid, not a PHEV one so does not charge it off home lecky. Expect thd BEV does take a few quid of lecky each night as the Cosy tariff is price optimised for the house not the BEV.

I have charged there several times too but do not start charging until after 1900 hours as electricity is very expensive between 1600 and 1900, like 40p per KWh due to the tea time peak prices.

One has to be disciplined with these Times Of Use tariffs but with the removal of 5% VAT even bigger savings for charging in the more expensive times !

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by lol-lol

5 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

No no you misinderstand. One daughter has a full BEV and charges it overnight most nights. Brov has a hvbrid, not a PHEV one so does not charge it off home lecky. Expect thd BEV does take a few quid of lecky each night as the Cosy tariff is price optimised for tgs house not the BEV.

I have charged there several times too but do not start charging until after 1900 hours as electricity is very expensive between 1600 and 1900, like 40p per KWh due to the tea time peak prices.

One has to be disciplined with these Times Of Use tariffs but with the removal of 5% VAT even bigger savings for charging in the more expensive times !

A bit if a faff though.

1 hour ago, Stonekeeper said:

The future for most when gas is gone

Personally I don't see petrol, diesel or gas going anywhere anytime soon. It is / was demonised for an agenda by those that will cash in big time by those with their vested interests.

But like I have said before, I don't hate electric cars, I just hate the fact that they are trying to remove people's choice, end of.

11 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

A bit if a faff though.

Yes a bit of a faff or just remember the rules not to charge between 1600 and 1900, cost in my area is and eye water 38.34 p per KWh, so that would drop to 36.51 so nearly 2 p a KWH cheaper.If one can be faffed and at least set up a program to start the charge at 2200 hours when the electricity is currently 12.54 which will drop to 11.94 p per KWh when the VAT comes off in 70 days times. The bits between 1900 and 2200 and 0000 and 0400 are at 25.56 p per KWh so the fairly normal rate for most people.

Problem is that when charging with a Granny cable one is only getting 3.7 KWs and so one tend to put the EV on at 1900, it is what I do when I am charging there, and just let it carry on until full. When I am visiting I usually do this but my 65 KWh battery in the Scenic will take 12 or 13 hours on the 3.7 KW and still not be quite fully charged but good enough that I can then get to one of my offices and charge up there for a punitive rate. The car charging might be better on Octopus Go or Intelligent Octopus Go but 6 hours at only 3.7 KWs would probably not be enough for the BEV and is not right for the house.

I give money to my brother to compensate him. People can rent out their chargers via an Ap, like CoCharger and sell their electricity, drive space to charge other people's EV on their drive using their electricity. Less than £1K a year does not need to be declared on Self Assessment, more than that it becomes a deduction off ones

tax free earnings. I am oft visiting my brother either as I am off to Felixstowe port or to do my Self Assessment as that is his business now as he is an ex HMRC OFficer like me but he was Revenue whilst I was Customs. Perhaps we will see even more private drive charging of EVs when VAT goes to Zero on 1st of October. Might be good to have access to that list just incase the public chargers are full or not working. Some of the charging may come from home batteries charged up when electricity was negative so a very health margin ! https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-allowances-on-property-and-trading-income

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by lol-lol