The guys and gals who keep the lights on working nights sometimes in the worst weather are often forgotten. Thank you to all of them. Also I only realised recently that that the London tunnel runs directly under our workshop!

@rcpmac

Жыл бұрын

You are remembering them everytime you pay the utility bill

@jericoba

2 ай бұрын

Yes, another group of invisible workforce that is essential to the society. They definitely deserve praise.

Love these sort of videos. Helen just makes the content so easy to digest and even dummies, like me, can easily see how amazing the electrical systems are.

The grid is currently large enough, our maximum demand has shrunk from about 60 Gwatts to 45 Gwatts in the last 20 years. The local area network (33Kv to 415v) on the other hand is far from capable of a significant increase in ev and heat pump expansion. Increasing it's capcity involves lots of road digging to install larger capacity cables, replacement of the very many transformers that supply the consumer. It will take a lot of time and money to match government targets.

@s6missile

Жыл бұрын

Totally agree, it is the local infrastructure that will be the problem in the future. My local County hall wanted to install car chargers but could only have 2 as the 11Kv transformer wouldn't take extra load. The 11kv switch burnt out some years ago ha ha.

@antontaylor4530

7 ай бұрын

As someone who's been involved in an off-grid install or two (father-in-law's entirely off-grid solar PV/battery powered cabin and my brother's house is 90% solar PV/battery powered, only needing the grid in the darkest months of the winter) I can tell you that the grid really shouldn't be upgraded. It's unneccessary. Micro-generation is a much more inteligent way to generate renewable energy. Imagine every rooftop in the country having solar heating and PV/wind turbines, backed up with a small sodium ion battery (which are cheaper than Lithium, with double the cycle life, they just take up more space). You're off-grid capable but still grid-tied. Now, when you want to charge your car, the energy comes locally - from your rooftop and battery, but also from your neighbours. Very few homes would need the grid for more than excess energy export. Those without a driveway could charge via a local lamp-post charger, and be charged via their home. Every home, every factory, every supermarket, every office should have microgeneration. The grid would not need upgrading at all, as most of your power would be made on site, with only the most power hungry homes and factories/offices needing to put a significant load on the grid. Well, maybe a few larger connections for motorway chargers might be needed, but that's about all. And even those could use sodium ion battery packs to minimise peak loads. And it's more than capable of supporting those loads as is. The main reason why I don't see this in our future is profit margins for large power, oil and gas companies getting in the way.

@iareid8255

7 ай бұрын

Anton, fine if you want to rely on your own generation. Not fine if you need large amounts of power reliably at all times. You cannot run a grid on renewables alone , it just does not work.

@antontaylor4530

7 ай бұрын

@@iareid8255 That's nonsense. Understandable that people believe that, since there is so much misinformation running around, but Norway already does it. And have done for decades now. General Electric have stated publicly that their UK wind turbines have over 99% availability, and are only turned off for maintenance or to prevent overloading the grid. Meaning that it would take a relatively small battery for the UK to transition to 100% wind power. The UK's existing fleet of electric cars, if used as vehicle to grid storage, would be enough. The fossil fuel industry wants you to believe that renewable energy is a pipe dream. That's just marketing nonsense from dinosaurs who want to sell us liquified dinosaurs. Renewable energy is not just feasible, it's the cheapest way to make energy. Even if you don't care about the planet, you should want as much of it as possible as it would mean lower electric bills.

@iareid8255

7 ай бұрын

Anton, Norway is one of the very few countries with substantial hydro electric capacity, a far better source than intermittent wind. You claim what I write is nonsense, but your offering is not even in this world. Wind turbine measured availability is in the order of 35% on average in the U.K.. There is no possibility of using battery power as back up, none at all. It is not even possible to run a grid on wind power as it is uncontrollable , like driving a car with no throttle. And is is very expensive, I can only assume you read what rubbish the media publish or broadcast. What I write is not from the fossil fuel industry but my experience in the electrical generation industry.

More videos like this please. The cars are great, but there is a great deal more to the whole sustainability effort. A bit techy, but Helen, did you find out the cross sectional area of that DC feeder cable?

@maxtorque2277

Жыл бұрын

1.4 GW @500KV is 2,800 Amps. At a 1.5A/mm^2 that's requires a 49mm diameter conductor (no skin effects for DC transmission). At 1.78X10-8 OhmMeters for copper, and 720 Km long cable the end to end resistance is 6.48 Ohms, giving a power loss of 50 MW (70kW / Km!) and a transmission efficiency of 96.3% Hope that helps 🙂

@Captck

Жыл бұрын

Got to say, I agree with this! I have loved this channel for years, but it needs more balance these days. So many car reviews for vehicles that I, nor many people watching, would ever realistically be able to afford. We get that electric cars are the future, but more education on other factors in this wide sector are greatly appreciated. It's been said many times before, but also more series like the Maddie goes electric one, would make the channel much more accessible to 'normal' people too.

@solartime8983

Жыл бұрын

​@@maxtorque2277 Thanks for min. size Max! Would you increase to 50 mm for a little less V.D. & sea floor temp. changes?

Thank you Fully Charged Show. Excellent video. Love to see all the infrastructure work that's going on in London and the plans for future investment in the grid. It's good to know there is some sort of plan, albeit a long term one. I miss Photonicinduction.

I love videos like this that renew my faith in human ingenuity. It’ll be engineers and scientists that save the world - not the bloody politicians!

@dalroth10

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree Gavin!

@BixbyConsequence

11 ай бұрын

Same as it ever was.

My favourite Helen episode to date. And I think we should all applaud the efforts of the National Grid, not just with powering our world today but planning for a sustainable tomorrow. It's such a shame that we don't hear more such positive and encouraging news. Thanks to the Fully Charged team for cheering me up (I have a horrible case of man flu).

It gets even more interesting when excess wind energy is exported to Norway and stored in a pumped hydro system, turning a Norwegian fjord into a battery. Interconnectors will go a long way to solving the intermittency of renewable. Great video!👍

@shonunezekiel

Жыл бұрын

@@garysmith5025 yes - naturally pumped by solar power producing evaporation, and then precipitation upstream ;-)

Thankyou for this film, not often a I see such an important and interesting one. I live in the countryside and have been told that all of our power infrastructure is going to be replaced due to its age and for a redesign. I do hope Helen is going to make another film about the new style national grid pylons and the new ways that we shall be using the grid connection to our homes/businesses. A local engineering firm in Tewkesbury is having its roof covered in solar PV panels, I don't know if they will export the power or just use it on site. I am going to rewire my house, out buildings and garden to accommodate: an electric car; 3-4 PV arrays mounted on low rise outbuildings; battery storage ; phase changing/ water heat storage storage and possibly a ground source heat pump. I would be interested in knowing more about what my house may be connected to in the future. What will be the new do's and don'ts for household grid connectivity and usage.

From Norway: That extra cable FROM Norway to UK and the one to Germany tipple the electric energy price for us. And remember we use electric energy for cooking and mostly making hot water and for heating via heat pumps. And a lot of industry and energy intensive production is suffering. I have had 10 -16 gr C in the living room if i don't use my clean burning wood-stove. So now every Norwegian with a wood-stove is burning wood if they can get it for free. Every plan for new green industry is on hold on the south part of Norway. The energy flow is very asymetrical. Mostly from Norway to UK and very very little from UK to Norway.

@kindsomali

Жыл бұрын

They don't mention transfer of pricing here which from a norwegian perspective is quite horrible. In this system the consumer suffers. It is a cheap way to bandaid damages done by countries that privatised their utilities while the profits are siphoned to the fat cats.

As usual Helen does a great job bringing the "Big Picture" to us. I am also interested in the other side, or it it end?, of this story where the grid operators are working to allow V2G and more widely dispersed "Micro Grid" technology to allow consumers to use electricity that has been generated closer to where they are. Was it just me or did this video sort of end abruptly? I guess I'm used to "If you have been ... Thank You for watching!". 😀

@logicalChimp

Жыл бұрын

Agreed on the ending... it felt like the last ~30s may have been cut off

Back in the CEGB days - mid 1980s, when the National Grid control centre was in Park Street opposite what is now Tate Britain, I used to work there. I made some of the software that was on those screens, forecasting electricity demand. All written in good old Fortran. CEGB was a great place to work.

I had no idea the Interconnector was 5 miles from my front door! Will have to drive past it one day just to say I have done so. Great video, really interesting.

@mev202

Жыл бұрын

Careful as you drive past, your hair will stand on end, but it is easy to spot as there are loads of balloons stuck on the outside of the building. Lol

What a brilliant, well presented video!! We should all be very, very grateful that we live in a country with such an incredible organisation as the National Grid doing what it does!! Truly mind boggling statistics and extremely impressive infrastructure, which allows us all to enjoy the benefits of a stable supply of electricity.

Excellent video will be sharing and I would defiantly like to see more episodes like this with Helen, just as Robert did once!

@logicalChimp

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely - these are the videos I subscribe to FC for, more than the car reviews :)

@Taz1451

Жыл бұрын

Defiantly

Another great report Helen, please do more of them we do not see you enough, for all the doubters that think electric vehicles will crash the grid they need to see your reports

Excellent video! Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to learn more about the grid :)

Great video thanks. It's very difficult finding out about National Grid's strategies for the changeover so it's very welcome to get a brief snapshot of the work being carried out. More please!

An interesting point that was skipped in the video is that high-voltage DC transmission lines are more efficient than AC, yes, but where it _really_ matters is for underwater (especially saltwater) transmission as shown here. High-voltage AC transmission lines lose energy through coupling to the surrounding environment as the voltage switches back and forth, and the more conductive that environment is, the worse those losses are. They're pretty manageable when the cables are in the air (since it's a very good insulator so it doesn't couple heavily to the cables) but in salt water that's a different story, so you see much more common use of high-voltage DC for underwater transmission lines where the extra conversion costs at either end become worthwhile at much shorter transmission line lengths.

Great video. Thank you for showing the fantastic things that important people spend their lives doing for our betterment.

Great video with a surprisingly positive presenter. Here in Thailand we build (the Chinese did the construction) about 8-10 hydro-electric dams down the mighty Mekong river which travels through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We are more concerned about cooling things than heating. Ha ha ha. Best wishes from a new subscriber in Bangkok.

The National Grid level of planning and operation is impressive but the real fly in the ointment is distribution. As was briefly stated in the video the National Grid hands over to multiple distribution networks to get that power to the consumers ... and this is where the problems really exist. There's no point having a fantastic Grid if we can't get the power to streets, houses and motorway service areas in the quantities required. I predict that a video focussed on these issues may not paint such a rosy picture!

My impression the last few years or so, is the National Grid have been super excited about the electrification of transport and housing. Constant energy needed. They never turn anything down. Balance is always efficient.

Great info Helen and the Fully Charged people.

Great video, as the ones from Helen usually are! The main problem with all the interconnectors is that they are highly vulnerable to sabotage by submarines in the event of war, as Russian subs are known to have mapped the UK's undersea cables. That said, if war were to break out with Russia, I expect power cuts would be the least of our worries.

It's safe to say the "average man in the street" has absolutely no idea about the level of infrastruture and projects that are routinely furnished by our network providers. In fact, despite the fact we can clearly bring 1,400 million watts of power over 720 Km of underwater cable, operating at half a million volts and 3,000 amps, apparently EVs won't catch on because it's quite clearly "impossible" to get a cable 1.5m across a pavement to our cars safely....... ;-)

Phenomenal. Absolutely fascinating. 👏👏👏

Great video, sadly it just goes to show though the difference that the capitals infrastructure compares to the rest of the uk. At the moment it is predominantly just adding/ patching onto an already overloaded system. My town as an example did have some provisions for growth as it has goals to become a city. Sadly I think we are getting close to the maximum now though 😢

The NG control room reminded me of Mission Control - I had a chance to visit during a work experience stint at school in the late 90s 😁

LOVE IT! Keep episodes like this coming please!

More on the infrastructure, purleez. How about (another?) look at the large windfarm to grid links?

Thanks, very informative, I never knew the interconnector used DC. Better tell all the EV haters who repeatedly spread the idea that the grid cannot cope.

One Caveat... too much optimism can stop us making the hard decisions because it makes us think everything is going in the right direction and it isn't, at least not fast enough. But interesting on the tunnels ... lower cost higher speed tunneling technology is key (and not just for London!) It will help with transport and infrastructure, it's another strategic technology we need to put on a "war footing" just like nuclear(relearning "old" nuclear and doing "new") and developing technology for energy storage + renewables etc. Cheap fast tunnels are for example critical to making heat pumps more practical with district water tunnels deep underground to supply heat pumps in high density areas.

Filled a hole in my knowledge, thank you. Any chance of getting a peep at the DC to AC conversion at that scale sometime?

@mickinmerton8053

Жыл бұрын

I agree, something on DC to AC conversion would be interesting. I believe that this is done by semiconductors these days (used to be electro-mechanical). Semiconductors to handle 1Mw are mind boggling although I suspect may not make good video 🙂

Please please please FC can you do an episode on Tidal Lagoons. Why aren't they being implemented in the UK when we have the 2nd largest tidal ranges in the world. Essentially a very large battery with on demand response. With guaranteed and predictable 4 tidal ranges per day. Every day. 365 days a year.

@klaxoncow

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I'm surprised that Fully Charged has not gone to talk with the folks who're wanting to develop the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project. Swansea Bay has, if I recall correctly, the second largest tidal range on the planet and there's plans to build a tidal lagoon there. Whilst those plans have been up and down - they looked for government support and failed to get it from the Tories, but they did pick themselves back up to secure more private investment to do it regardless - and there have been some interesting "blue sky" concepts involved - such as wanting to build a "dragon island" inside the lagoon that would have houses and industry, with solar, and a data centre that would be underwater for cooling - which might not actually make it to reality, but they generate interest and do make you think about what's possible. Tidal lagoons are also interesting as a renewable technology, because you get 4 generations every day - two tides, and it's possible to generate from the tide coming in and going out - which is absolutely like clockwork. With solar and wind, the weather plays a part. But, with a tidal lagoon, it's guaranteed generation 4 times a day, every single day. it's also different from damming up a river. With a tidal lagoon, the tide still comes in and out - but it's simply delayed. So, the tidal lagoon closes and the tide comes in, and now you've got a height differential between the lagoon (low) and tide (high). You let the water into the lagoon and generate electricity. Then, once the tide's in, you close the lagoon again and now the tide goes out. Once more, you've got a height differential - the lagoon is high, the tide is out - so you release the water from the lagoon and generate electricity. And there are two tides a day, so you can do this 4 times every day. What's interesting about this is that it doesn't stop the water, it just delays it. And only within the lagoon area. So its environmental impact is much less than dams and barriers - for example, there's no reason why it should affect bird migrations, bar that there's a delay on the tide being in and out inside the lagoon itself. But the tides do still go in and out, to the same degree - all the lagoon is doing is delaying that tide inside the lagoon, to get that water level differential that allows electricity to be generated when the water is released into and out of the lagoon area. It's a really, really interesting "green" technology, because it's not intermittent like solar and wind - the schedule is as regular as clockwork, and can be predicted centuries in advance - and it's more environmentally kind than dams and barriers (indeed, birds might actually flock to the lagoon, as it gives them more hours when the tide's out to look for food, as the tide will be out outside the lagoon and then, shortly afterwards, the tide's out inside the lagoon, so they get longer to rummage around for food. Instead of damaging their habitats, it could actually improve it for them). (Speaking of which, one idea I had that's not been floated (pardon the pun) about the tidal lagoon is building a fish farm inside of it. Because another thing we humans are terrible for is over-fishing the sea, but a fish farm within the lagoon can supply fish, leaving the ocean around it to replenish naturally, as we're leaving that alone. It's a more dependable and less dangerous means to fish. You wouldn't cut off a big section of the bay just to do this, perhaps, but if it's happening anyway, then I feel it makes sense to site some fish farms within the lagoon.) This is a really interesting project. And though Swansea Bay has been targeted for this project - because, as I say, the bay has the 2nd biggest tidal range on the planet, so it's the obvious first choice to go for - the UK is an island and there's plenty of places all around the coast that could house tidal lagoons (there's already a second one being proposed for North Wales). So you cover the technology with Swansea Bay, but if it works - and it'd be hard to see how it couldn't work - then we'll likely see this multiply all over the UK coast. And, as I've ranted myself about this, I'd love to see Robert ranting about how the idiot Tory government wouldn't back the project, even though it's, to my mind, the most sure-fire bet you could ever make. After all, what's the odds that the demand for electricity is going to disappear? Yes, exactly zero. So you've definitely got customers for your product. Meanwhile, what's the odds that the Moon will magically vanish for no good reason? Yes, exactly zero. But that's all you need - the Moon and the rotation of the Earth - to generate your energy. If I had the money of Elon, then I'd invest in it without blinking. Because it's impossible not to get a return on investment - the only question is "how long?" but there's zero question that, eventually, you're getting your money back.

@deansh8506

Жыл бұрын

@@klaxoncow yes I agree. Many areas around the UK can be used and as you suggested North Wales was another one talked about. There was even talk of the severn estusry being used as a natural tidal lagoon with the land formation acting as a natural dam for a tidal lagoon. Imagine a land bridge going across from Cowbridge in South Wales to Minehead in Somerset. With multiple generators across this land bridge. The generating power would be enormous. Have a Google of other Severn Estuary projects being mentioned. I'm sure a few I read said Seven Estuary alone could produce around 10-12% of our electricity needs. Guaranteed renewable predictable energy 365 days a year. I think private investment will look into this technology in the near future. I'm just hoping Fully Charged can bring the idea forward and make people think. One last thing you are correct. The Swansea bay tidal lagoon bid failed due to the Goverment not agreeing to the strike price that the company was seeking. Looking back now I bet the Government are kicking themselves now as it looks like an absolute bargain with the way Electricity prices have shot up in the past year. And will also continue to be high for the foreseeable future.

@mralistair737

Жыл бұрын

Tidal lagoons are horrendously difficult to implement, because you need to allow boats and fish to keep moving, but stop the tide. and although they are regular, you are only moving water an average of 10m max... so they need to be huge. You might get one or 2 schemes to work, but it's almost impossible to scale up to be more than a rounding error in the UK grid capacity. and since everything is in salt water, they are going to be a bugger to maintain.

11:31 That central conductor is what, 40mm in diameter so the cross-sectional area is about 1250mm², and it can carry 2800a (1.4Gw/500KV) for 700km with low loss. Dividing by 100, 12.5mm² should be good for 28a. That's about an 8 AWG wire, which my chart says I should only use for a length of about 6 meters before upgrading to 6 AWG. 700km? What major concept am I missing?

Great overview - thanks Helen. However could you explain why the Norwegian government put on hold plans for a second interconnector at Peterhead - NorthConnect.

Expanding the grid opens many possibilities to make the overall grid greener and more robust.

Love all these videos from fully charged. Just an aside; I thought AC was better at traveling distance and DC was OK for smaller distances - thus the need to keep cables short as possible when using DC charging etc. Am I wrong there? It seems the engineer explaining things at 9:21 suggested the opposite! She said; "The DC system; the direct current, is actually a lot more efficient over long distances; You get very, very minimal losses, but when it connects into land it must then change into AC to be able to connect into the grid system" I thought all long distance connections were via AC and the voltage was transformed down as it got nearer the end user. Did I get my 'wires crossed'? She sounded very definite so perhaps I'm missing something.

@CoughSyrup

Жыл бұрын

Its... complicated. For medium to long distances, AC is used because the line losses are acceptable and stepping down the voltage to the end consumer is simpler and requires less infrastructure--just a transformer. For very long distances of 1000 km or more, a very high voltage dc line will have less transmission losses and smaller diameter cables can be used. A medium to low voltage DC line over long distances is less efficient. Converting the high voltage DC into the much lower voltage that can be safely used by consumers without converting most of it to waste heat (like placing a giant resistor in line would do) is more tricky. Consuming the DC power efficiently is also a complicated matter. Converting to AC sidesteps these issues for the price of some conversion losses.

@andymccabe6712

Жыл бұрын

Soo...the woman actually DOING the job knew what she was talking about!! Expert 1 KZread 0 What a shocker......!

It's all very impressive but when it comes down eventually to my meter box and our 90's installed looped supply it all goes wrong. Nearly a year since I started the process of getting a home charger installed. Communication between Installer - Supplier - DNO has been painfully slow. The meter tails have been upgraded and the un looping has been signed off. But we are are still using public chargers that in our area either don't work at all, or some lads in VW Polo's that park up in the bays with bonnet's up talking about induction kits and begrudge having to move so I can charge the car. Then the advertised rapid charge rates never actually come to fruition. I understand battery temps, state of charge etc but if you advertise 150kW CCS and I get 43kW on average even with no one else on any of the bays. The future is bright thank god I commute every day on a motorbike.

@williamarmstrong7199

Жыл бұрын

A lot of incorrect procedures and systems were used when these were nationalised companies. I am but 50 meters from a sub station yet everyone on one side of the street is on a single cable looped from house to house. On the other side of the street they are on another phase, but looped house to house as well. Under my front garden we found a 3 phase 440 volt cable 150cm under the surface (supposed to be a minimum of 1 meter down) and below that... 100mm below it.. instead of 300mm and a concrete cap (missing) an 11,000 volt 3 phase interconect between substations. This is the problem with nationalised insustries.. corners are cut because there is never any oversight on what they are doing. This was installed in the 1930's

@theelectricmonk3909

Жыл бұрын

@@williamarmstrong7199 In fairness, it can be a problem with privatised industries as well, just look at the water companies & their discharge of record levels of untreated sewage into rivers, for "reasons". IMHO I wouldn't want to go back to "the electricity board" - I'm old enough to remember what they (and the GPO & the old rail network) were like; but there's no doubt that some additional regulation is required in various areas, including the electricity companies. National Grid, on the other hand, seem to just quietly and competently get on with their work - which I guess is why we never read about them in the pro- or anti- privatisation newspapers...

@heslop1brian

Жыл бұрын

Many local connections will need to be replaced, the 80A or 100A supplies were installed with diversity in mind, never expecting them to all be used heavily at the same time, to save on cost of cabling, much like broadband has contention ratios.

Ironically, the grid in the Netherlands shockingly overbooked. Upgrading the grid to support a massive EV fleet, is going to cost many, many billions. Applications for solar panel permits are already being denied out of fear the region there will start to black out. Contractors have to hold off building new housing because they can't be connected to the grid, out of same fear. Energy corporations were warned years ago.

Thank you for a really interesting presentation.

Really enjoyed this episode and learned a lot, plus great to see stuff we don't normally see (Helen is the best!), but... (sorry, there is a but), this episode is far too short! And - it doesn't answer the question of the title directly (it's more an explanation of what the grid is). I was hoping for expert views, convincing arguments (and some stats to back them up) on why the grid won't "melt" if we all get EVs and heat pumps. Even as an electrification enthusiast (I have EV, solar & heat pump), it's an act of faith that, "the grid says it can cope", so it's all going to be ok! Was hoping for a bit more meat on the bones here. Part 2?

@mikebrett3002

Жыл бұрын

You might find exploring the KZread channel "Plug Life Television" helpful on why the Grid won't melt.

@robertduncan5912

Жыл бұрын

@@mikebrett3002 Cheers, will do.

@andymccabe6712

Жыл бұрын

Er, isn't your only ACTUAL option to carry on with your life assuming the Grid WILL cope - as there's nothing you can do anyway..!? We're going down the path we're going down...come what may..!!!!

very interesting show, love it

Really fascinating stuff!

is there a link to the 17 projects the NG person spoke about?

Very nice but at the local level most of our cables have been in the ground over 60 years, the local sub stations are elderly, most properties need rewiring as they're still on rewirable fuses and are the cables in up to the job , they were never intended for all electric homes with electric showers and induction hobs. At the national level we need a new distribution network not to mention a fleet of nuclear power stations to keep the lights on when the wind isn't blowing.

Great educational content from you all! This should be on the BBC

@geetee4037

Жыл бұрын

No, they'd try to balance it with coal production to please the idiots who voted for Brexit and will never give up their 20 year old diesel car.

Impressive, peek behind the scenes thank you A++++

The greatest thing about the future of electric cars is that they are independent of the grid, like Aptera or Sion's solar powered cars. Cannot wait for the next generation of electrical cars to hit the streets. Very exciting times!

07:00 1.4 gigawatts! That's enough for the DeLorean with 0.29 to spare…

Helens videos are the best. Always.

This is one of the most interesting videos you've ever made

This was a WOW episode. Thank you

This is great. More stuff like this!

This does feel like a promotional video for National Grid

The UK-Norway interconnector supply from Norway is not guaranteed, as has been stated many times now by the Norwegian government. It is also expensive energy, as although it is mainly hydro, it is sold at the prevailing market rate, which includes Norwegian domestic demand, along with Germany and Denmark. The UK is just another bidder for Norwegian energy helping to inflate the price and profits for Norway.

Great video! What about the rest of the country? Other cities?

Very impressive! Fantastic machinery.

An interesting video, thanks for sharing.

What about having a DC network for rapid charging, easier to transfer electrons with thinner cables

Really interesting video, keep them coming and thank you

Brilliant!

Most of the video showed us that the grid exists. At the very end, there was a vague reference to "plans for the future". It would have been good to say something about the expected size of the future load compared to the present day, and how we would get from here to there. There are a lot of doubters out there, and it would be nice to be armed with facts to deal with them.

Unbelievable but true - We could convert EVERY SINGLE VEHICLE to Electric and we would still be using less electricity than we did in 2012 - Fact. Whilst we use more gadgets - Led and Solar lighting and changes to LED/LCD, plus reduced power available in vacuums, washing machines, hair dryers - pretty much most heavy consumers have been limited by either design or legislation. Net result has been a massive reduction overall in our power use.

Oh wow this great video 😮

Great video 👍🏼

Fully charged show any details on the the converter hall would be appreciated if really like to know how thay are converting that amount of energy from DC to AC is it via solid state semiconductors and how thay operate or big DC motor's and generators

@ianmason.

Жыл бұрын

It's solid state. It's exactly the same basic technology that converts the DC battery voltage in a EV into the AC that the electric motors driving the EV along need, just on a much, much, bigger scale.

Super cool!

Actually, in AC, the electrons only jiggle a bit in the cable. they only travel a few millimeters at most. Electrons are not the energy carriers in electricity, the electromagnetic field is. It's just that the electrons have to be there for the field to have perturbations to be able to transport energy. Another thing to wrap your head around: Electrons flow from - to + , but the energy really flows from + to - !

I love love love these infrastructure videos!

Amazing to get a glimpse of the Norway interconnect. Tesla won over Edison mainly due to AC being more efficient to transport over long distances compared to DC, guess they didn’t test 400,000 Volts DC transmission lines 😮😄

@peteinwisconsin2496

Жыл бұрын

Not quite. What Tesla showed was that high voltage/low current distribution was more efficient than Edison's low voltage system and with the technology of that day, AC was easier to raise and lower in voltage than DC. In this 21st Century, with the advent of power Mosfets, IGBTs, etc., both AC and DC distribution systems both have their uses today. In the US, 750,000 volts is high voltage DC and we even have 1,000,000 volt DC lines.

@rpgfightin4ever

Жыл бұрын

also the damn plug can go either ways with AC. With DC it's only one polarity, so it would be like usb always wrong side in. Yes, seems people were smarter in the old days.

@arnekvinge6073

Жыл бұрын

My bee there is only one DC cable. I think the ions go thru the sea.

Solar, wind, battery and gravity storage (dams) at nation, local and customer level will ensure abundant energy for the future.

Must be an amazing engineering balancing act in London when you think of all the sewers, the tube, these power lines, gases lines with the weight of all the building & roads above.

@mickinmerton8053

Жыл бұрын

I agree. There must be many stories about hitting unexpected old infrastructure, bombs etc.

Never mind the cars, when we are no longer allowed to have natural gas boilers and cannot afford electricity because the prices have gone through several roofs, all this infrastructure is great but at the other end of it you need generating stations that are NOT reliant on the wind blowing or the rivers running at sufficiently high flow, when the weather has become drier and drier. What then? We are continually being warned that the power grid is stretched to its limits and we are years behind on construction of nuclear plants. This is all style and no knickers!

I read a report recently that said by 2025 , 20% of the world’s electricity will be used by the internet So even if they produce enough we may see the end of off peak prices. Southern Ireland is already struggling to meet demand and mainly due to internet companies being there

Would have liked seeing the thyristor packs in more detail.

Thanks Helen.

Helen is just fantastic at taking complex subjects, and not dumbing it down, but explaining clearly what they are about. Another excellent video, but.. I was not thanked for watching.... ;-)

Im really interested in how many of the plethora of EVs has the VTL capacity? I think it should be regulated for all new EVs.

I think it's obvious the grid will cope providing the people operating it anticipate and adapt to changing electricity use. Likewise if governments start insisting that new commercial and residential have solar panels on their rooftops and over parking spaces that can be used for charging parked vehicles.

Very interesting topic, but it doesn't explain why the electricity is far cheaper in Norway, when it's the same source as we use.

The interconnects are for energy trade not security of supply. Ps: sabotage of sea cables is a happening as well.

I really hope every Daily lies (Mail and Express) "news" paper reader watches this video.

@briankavanagh7191

Жыл бұрын

William, don't be silly, this would blow the minds of mail and express readers also talk TV presenters🤯

@gingernutpreacher

Жыл бұрын

I would only buy those if I ran out of tollet paper but I regularly have a power reduce time with octopus energy so it's not a unreasonable concern decade's of underinvestment France (macro) has thetened to cut us off we need a lot more storage like pumped hydro

@ibleedswede

Жыл бұрын

@@briankavanagh7191 they don't have minds to blow.

@aaronbounds1336

Жыл бұрын

Not sure what that is, exactly, but I bet it's comparable to Fox "news" (opinion and blatant falsehoods presented as fact) here in the US. Such unhelpful rubbish.

@stephendoherty8291

Жыл бұрын

Why, they need it to be in cartoon pictures to explain

Not in Australia. We are hopelessly behind by more than 2 decades. We shut down all of our factories & manufacturing over the past 30 years and we still cannot barely power our homes and businesses. It is pathetic. Great video, but here in Australia we have got no idea. Our new government is a joke and the previous government had no idea. For me I have got 13.2kw solar and 2 x Powerwalls. The coming years are going to be a genuine problem in Australia.

Good video lots of info, makes me a bit concerned though the fact that the entire country is controlled by one facility which distributes to all substations. If that facility breaks down we are all left in the dark literally.

@logicalChimp

Жыл бұрын

They have fallback control center(s)... and the grid can operate without oversight (for a period... but if something goes pear-shaped, then without a control centre it won't be rectified before the grid trips, as it did a couple of years ago)

Fabulous episode, thank you!

Why focus on the National Grid? Their systems are the transmission part of the UK total grid, being under 4%. And designed to supply industry as well as domestic (always more than domestic demand alone). The remaining 96%+ of the system is built and maintained by the Distribution Network Operators (DNOs); the DNO stuff is mostly hidden yet the National Grid's stuff is very visible as their cables stride across the country. National Grid are a company and speak for the National Grid's 4% of the whole system. DNO networks (local grids) are not part of the National Grid. Q: Can the DNO systems, which deliver 230V to your house, cope? UKPN (UK Power Networks, the DNO for Kent, Kondon, East Anglia) build networks to traditional gas-heated homes to supply c. 1.5kW per home continuously. So for a 100 homes group, supplied by a single 230V network, a 150kW system would be installed. That's for estates built up to say 2020 (what happened after then... I am not so sure, as I retired). Guess where the problems are? Well, not in the National Grid's 4%. Good luck trying to charge as many EVs as cars on that 150kW system. Well that's c. 130 EVs wanting to charge at 7kW. So they don't all charge at once? Then we get into maths and simulation (my job). Answer: Can't do it, even with Smart help. HP's are the final straw; new local networks please! This has been pointed out many times from 2012, eg. the DS2030 report published in 2012, commissioned by ENA and written by EATL.

Why dont we have more energy storage in the uk ? Like they did in australia?

@davidpowell8249

Жыл бұрын

Well we could have built the tidal lagoon in Swansea, but it was blocked by the Tories who raised to fund it despite the independent report they commissioned, and that they said they would advise by, recommending it. Tidal lagoons could have contributed a sizable amount of storage. There was also a site in Exmoor, which could have housed a second pumped storage facility the size of Dinorwig, but as far as I'm aware, no-one is even considering it. So in short, lack of political will by multiple successive governments, Tory, Labour and the LibDem/Tory coalition.

The kids in the cobalt mine will be delighted

Always like to see Helen talking tech. I'm curious to see how they convert 1.4 jigawatts of DC into AC. That's one big inverter. Going to need some very big IGBTs for that baby and with water cooling I shouldn't wonder.

@xxwookey

Жыл бұрын

Yeah. I'd like to see a bit more explanation of what we are actually looking at in that hall. That rack of kit separated by insulators may be the 'very big IGBTs' in question, for example, or it might have been something else. Someone nerdy like Tom Scott must have made a video on this?

@warren1134

Жыл бұрын

She said the DC goes into the valve hall. Maybe it's old school 🤔

@xxwookey

Жыл бұрын

@@warren1134 Heh - scary big valves!

@therookienomore88

Жыл бұрын

There’s gotta be a flux capacitor in there

@gonzo_the_great1675

Жыл бұрын

I worked on part of the channel power interconnector in a past life. It was made up of stacks of GTO thyristors, to share the voltage. All controled with fibre optics. (Just pulse triggering, not data.) The higher the voltage you need the more switching slabs you stack up.

Love these videos. Could you maybe make one to explain why the governments, especially the Scottish government are paying wind farms stupid money in compensation to stop generating when demand is low. I think it’s a national scandal that no one seems to be bothered about.

@logicalChimp

Жыл бұрын

Nah - it's not a scandal. The nature of the RE contracts is that they guarantee a 'minimum payment' (which is far less than the cost of generating power from e.g. gas)... but if power demand falls so low that RE power has to be disconnected to keep the grid stable, then the RE generators still get paid (up to that minimum value). The purpose of that style contract is to encourage companies to actually build RE power (because the cost of energy is so much lower - the only reason our bills remain high is because the gov haven't done anything to fix how the 'market price' is calculated... basically set by the most expensive power - gas - rather than as an average of all power produced, etc). As / when the grid adds more storage, during periods of low demand instead of paying RE companies to disconnect, the grid will be able to use the 'excess' power to fill the storage... and during periods of excess demand, use that storage to fill in, instead of paying for gas-generated power, etc... but we don't - yet - have sufficient storage.

This is truly inspiring content; thanks 👏 There's too much ignorance in today's dumbed down society who simply expect their narcissistic existence to operate at the flick of a switch without regard to the infrastructure

The tunnels are the right solution, obviously far better than non stop digging whenever something needs updating or repair. I hope the tunnels are meant to take more than power, though. About the cable to Norway, it can easily send power both ways, but IRL it’s a one way road. Power goes from Norway to England, where the price was much higher, meaning that it’s gotten as expensive in Norway. I’m Norwegian and think power has been too cheap in Norway, making people wasteful. Using Norwegian hydropower to replace dirty European power is good, but don’t pretend it goes both ways.

I am coming to Farnborough.

Have the interconnects on the south east and west side of Scotland been upgraded so that the excess offshore wind from Scotland be exported to the demand in England?

@Lewis_Standing

Жыл бұрын

No SEGL1 to Durham is set to be built in 2024 completed 2027. SEGL2 to Yorkshire set to be built 2024 till 2029.

@andymacleod2365

Жыл бұрын

@EVdoctorLewis thanks for the information, I can not understand why upgrading these interconnects has had such a low priority.

@Lewis_Standing

Жыл бұрын

@@andymacleod2365 I think it might be quite complicated. Going in the sea avoids landowners making planning difficult for pylons or buried cables but the burying in the seabed might be complicated and there's planning stuff re biodiversity on the seabed too. If you Google the project names a big pdf from national Grid comes up with some explanations.

@andymacleod2365

Жыл бұрын

@EVdoctorLewis the 2 interconnects that I'm speaking about overland, the cable has sufficient capacity to carry more power, but the transformers are undersized. The powers that be would rather see England with power cuts than upgrade these transformers as Scotland has more green power than it can use.

Thank you

excellent film

And if you couple this with homeowners and business being able to incorpoerate solar panels into their infrastructure (homes and buildings) along with battery storage you can take stress off your grid, power your home, charge your car with locally created and/or stored energy. If you also enact VPP (Virtual Power Plant) where each homeowner shares their energy on demand with their neighbors it will reduce stress on the national grid as well. There are so many things that can be done. But I'm getting tired of the weak argument about how the grid can't handle "all these electric cars". It's so frustrating dealing with people who don't understand that we've been increasing demand for electricity well before the up tick in EVs and we've been able to support this demand. Now while much more infrastructure planning and implementation needs to happen we have to acknowledge that the grid will and is growing year over year to meet various demands. hopefully we can put that question to bed about being able to support an electrified future.

@protectiongeek

Жыл бұрын

There is an issue with videos such as this in that they give a 'helicopter view' of the 'grid'. Yet again, the supply networks are presented in a homogenised manner that fails to recognise the different challenges presented in transmission and distribution. Videos are made about big sites like the interconnector converter station so the audience can oo and ah at the technology and perhaps rightly so, for they are impressive engineering feats. Improvements to local DNO networks are probably not so engaging. In terms of off-peak electrical energy consumption, there is significant capacity in the transmission networks to cope - for now. There are some big transmission network projects underway and in planning to allow large renewable generation sites to be connected. We will still have difficulties for some time, though, when you consider that the generation fleet occasionally gets close to available capacity when we have weather in the UK that results in cold air temperatures and little wind - that's why we've seen recent initiatives like the Demand Flexibility Service to try and reduce demand at peak times. However, for the vast majority of people, it is the limitations of the low voltage network right outside their door that present one of the greatest challenges in moving their energy consumption from direct use of fossil fuels to electricity. The LV networks were never designed to accommodate either the levels of energy consumption (eg EVs and heat pumps) or generation, principally from solar PV. Upgrading these networks is a lot more difficult simply because of the localised disruption it would cause - and that's before you consider the cost. It's all very well making aspirational statements about sharing your energy with your neighbours but if we assume almost everyone shares that aspiration, where does the energy go, exactly? For example, a nice, sunny day with a row of houses all fitted with 3kWp solar PV generation and no load in each house apart from maybe a fridge-freezer. Community energy storage? I think you will find that it will be some time before the question of how do we support an electrified future is finally and satisfactorily answered.

This seems so much nicer than the US grid