National Grid | Fully Charged
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- Опубликовано: 1 май 2012
- Robert Llewellyn visits the National Grid to find out what it's all about!
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The National Grid is a high-voltage electric power transmission network, connecting power stations and 340+ substations ensuring supply and demand is in the balance. Nigel Williams speaks to Robert Llewellyn about how the National Grid works in Great Britain, and what challenges it faces with the rapidly changing world.
Fully Charged is an online show hosted by Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, Carpool), sponsored by British Gas: Looking After Your World. During this series, Robert will discuss why we need to change how we think about energy consumption now. He will be taking a look at the newest electric cars available on the market [Volvo, Ford, Peugeot, Renault & Nissan] and also different forms of renewable energy [Wind and Solar]. 
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Would be nice too see a new video on the national grid and see how much it's changed since this video!
Yes, wind was almost non existing and solar wasn't even included. We need an update.
Wind is doing fantastically well at the moment.
Coal Capacity would be down
@@AbovetheanklesCoUk1 32% yesterday
Any change of a re-visit in 2019 please? As per 2:12 coal was 19GW or about half of the UK generation, this summer it has quite often been 0%. Also post the August power cut would be great to see some stats from that day.
It would be interesting for Robert to go back today and see what's changed in 5 years.
SilentS this videos was posted in 2012 , your comment was 2018 , mine is 2019 obviously so already far over the five ....but I do wonder upon the differences
This link shows the current UK demand, it's interesting to see how much it has changed since this video www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
8 years on...
@@yarkmates3409 well I'm here in 2021, so...
@@sonyakhalfina7219 so......... What's changed?
this is actually really freaking interesting, I would love to hear more about our infrastructure
I love how his tie appears to be an afterthought.
Hi Bobby... just re-watched this after five years and it's striking how much the numbers have changed since! Any chance of you doing a follow-up visit to update us? I'm particularly interested in the context of stuff like the Electric Nation smart charging trial project, which I'm just in the process of joining
Very insightful. Great interview with quality questions and answers. Thanks
@ 2:09 Wow...44% coal & 0.7% wind! Today Coal doesn't even get near double figures and wind is routinely more than double, sometime triple, that of coal today. Solar hit it's record this year with 24.3% in March!!!
Would be really interesting to see an update on this video.
gridwatch.co.uk
It's about 1% wind and 50% gas rn. wind is just too unreliable.
I absolutely loved this interview. It wasn't too enthusiatsic, not too pessimistic. He just said it the way it was. Simple unbiased facts.
4:05 "Integration with Europe is an issue" - well, he predicted Brexit. Hats off.
Brilliant episode. It would be great to see an update!
Very informative video! Thanks for the great content, even from 6 years ago! Keep up the great work.
This was extremely interesting. Great information and insightful questions from Robert!
Not even 5,000 subscribers? C'mon, people. Let's spread the word about Fully Charged!!!
There's a balance point with distance where for the same size of conductor you can economically transmit more power with dc than ac, you have to bring in the cost of the convertors at each end. The main difference - with dc the volts are always there, with ac it's a rms value so you have to insulate for the peak, but don't get the full benefit
Myles Dyer brought me to this video and I'm extremely grateful! I can't wait for the future look into tidal energy and I'm also looking into jobs at the national grid now.
Keep up the great work producers of this series!
This is brilliant! It's great to see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on to keep things working. I worked at a power station for a few years, and even we didn't get to see much of this bigger picture.
this is a video that should be a prerequisite for all new subscribers to watch... im sad that its taken me this long to know that this video was made. what a great video!
This was a brilliant episode Robert. Fascinating...really filled in some blanks I had about the UK power grid.
You asked great questions and I thought the fellow you interviewed did a marvelous job as well.
Thanks again.
Robert, this was your absolute best video I've seen so far, and I can't believe I've seen it only now.
It's because we are pretty awesome ;)
Working with NG is great though in all honesty, we all love our work and know that we have some amazing challenges ahead of us! I, for one, am very much looking forward to what's coming over the next few years!
science lesson gang
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This video deserves way more views! Super interesting!
Yep, even in summer
That's amazing, so very different to what we see over here! We get a very steep rise in the morning, flat for most of the day, another rise in the evening and then a nice steep drop-off when everyone goes to bed!
Wonder what the differences are which contribute to such a massive difference in energy usage over the day
Brilliant episode again. Experts have been getting better and better as the series has gone on.
This was so interesting! Really fantastic seeing the details and the inside of something that I have never seen. When people throw around complaints and comments about the grid it now makes a lot more sense having seen the control centre. Really great episode, thanks! :)
As below, please do again with same guy and same figures for comparison
Nigel Williams made some good predictions. As I write at the start of 2020, the SMMT say there's about 275,000 EVs on the road, and if the current trend continues, there will be about 365,000 by the end of 2020. Nigel's predicted 500,000 by the end of 2020 being in the right ball park.
Just watched this. Brilliant. As so many others have requested, a return visit would be fascinating - just to see the change in RE vs coal etc.
Really enjoyed this episode, well done & thank you!
Never seen the innards of the national grid before, amazing to see real time numbers for energy generation, and also learn of the practical issues with supply & demand. The control room looked somewhat similar to a financial stock exchange! Most interesting!
Anyway, having popped a few replies down here, I just wanted to say thanks to Rob for coming over! Looks like you enjoyed yourself, shame I didn't get a chance to meet you in person... maybe next time.
Will you be able to get in and do an updated video of this and also discuss in more detail the impact of half hour readings from smart meters, micro generation and vehicle to grid will have on the national grid.
Interesting. Nigel Williams knows his stuff and gives very clear information. Please can we have a National Grid update interview?
That was a fantastic episode. I understood almost all of it!
Excellent segment. Please visit Mr. Williams again for a 2019 update. Thanks.
Robert your channel is fascinating. Keep it up!
Wikipedia has an article called "Cost of electricity by source", where Coal and Natural Gas seems to be the two cheapest sources in general. There are several sets of numbers that vary somewhat due to them being from studies in different countries and plant variations, etc, etc.
Stilll, it's a good read. :)
Close to 9 years since this has been released when I am watching.
Very good question. I've seen other documentaries on the national grid that show there's also an issue around how long it takes to turn a particular type of power plant on or off... (A coal plant taking about 2 hours, nuclear can take a day or more, and gas can be turned on within about 5 minutes) - but as to cost, gas seems to be the most expensive by far, and unfortunately, I think coal still remains cheapest overall.
Please can we have an update for 2020 showing how the generation mix has changed. Thanks!
Thought this wouldn't be for me (not known for an interest in elec gen) BUT loved it. interesting and well presented. more of same please! This channel is MUCH better than TV... Just followed you on twitter so I can stay up to date. Marvellous. Keep on keeping on.
Robert! We need to have an update!
We all want to know how much difference has happened in 8+ years!
Please please please do this interview again so we can see how things have progressed with the grid
Brilliant show Robert. You are really covering lots of bases. I am really looking forward to what you have next. Keep up the great work.
Nigel suddenly has a pair of glasses on his head at 3:02 haha
great video by the way, very interesting
How more iconic do you need!!
Robert LLewelyn (hope Ive spelt that right),,,
Thank you - inspirational and unbelieveable
One of the advantages of PV is that its peak output is well-matched to peak demand, in most places.
PV, in sufficient quantities, does a great job of leveling the midday peak, when utilities would be forced to bring their most expensive and inefficient peaker plants online.
Great, informative video thanks.
Although, when using a multicamera set up you really should white balance your cameras properly so you can properly match the colours in post.
great video! lots of nice info on the screens so..
great stuff as ever, hope it never gets dumbed down or drawn out for tele.
Wouldn't happen to be a stone's throw away from where you filmed Scrapheap challenge? ;) Snuck into the set when I randomly discovered it. Very cool.
Brilliant episode!
Very good episode. Thank you!
Very informative many thanks for this video👍
great vid!
funny that the grid control room looks just the same like over here
be good to have an updated video. great vid
Robert, this is a super video. As an electric car owner it tells me that overnight charging is the way to go to fill in the "bath tub" of demand. It also tells me that electric vehicles are not going to cause a melt down of the grid as so many doom-sayers predict.
Thanks for this superb report.
I hope you also learned that the "doom sayers" usually have an agenda, and it's always sideways from where they are pointing.
Morning and evening cups of tea, before and after work ;)
Very informative report about the challenges to operate the national Grid in the UK.
EV Recharge network Operator Better Place has built a network operation center which manages the recharging of their subscribed EVs centrally. They exchange information about available energy and demand with the grid operators in Israel. They charging their batteries when power is available and cheap and slow down charging when the demand peaks. Wonder if you can manage to get in the NOC of Better Place too.
That really was a very interesting episode.
It would be interesting to hear some insights on some of the other bigwigs of the industry, such as :
- How much energy does a national communications grid like the telephone network consume ?
- How much energy is used in road signals ?
- How much energy is used in trains ?
- What is British Gas up to ? :)
All stuff that the normal private person don't have a chance of getting info on themselves, but something that Robert has a chance to obtain. :)
Fantastic episode Robert. I would tend to say keep the show as webisodes as going to TV means the entire international viewership will be disadvantaged due to the idiotic rules the big media players have placed.
Also keep up the great work you have done, seen every episode right from pilot and even re-watch episodes from time-to-time(something that cannot be done in mainstream(excluding those that have recorded onto PVRs/MediaCentrePCs/etc.)
Fantastic video. Very informative : )
Well done! Loved it!
Seeing coal at the top of the board there 6 years ago, and seeing now that it's 0.0%, shows some great progress. Admittedly most of the slack has been taken up by gas, but it's still cleaner than coal.
great episode Louie : ) he seemed to actually know things, how unusual.
An oldie but I've just seen this one. Very interesting episode, bobbylew!
Fantastic to see!!
There is also the whole issue of home style PV being completely unmetered in real time, much like Nigel was saying, it's very difficult to balance the network when we are unaware of how much of the demand is being hidden by people using solar panels.
The only way NG sees embedded generation is as a reduction in demand, we recieve no data from the feed in tarriff at all... can be rather troublesome when a storm begins coming across the UK. We actually see the demand rise area by area.
love your videos! thanks! :)
Anyone know the title of the fully charged video showing the power station producing electricity from air. Thx
I am an energizing bunny today, thanks to National Grid....bring on the power
Really interesting stuff! Nice work.
Very nice video. It surprised me that you've got 50Hz too in UK, I thought is was 60Hz and there was a problem with connecting to the rest of Europe because of it.
Dinorwig Power Station (info on wikipedia) That is exactly what they do actually, this station in Wales pumps water to the top of a reservoir, and then releases it when required. They lose energy by doing this, but it does mean that during power surges you mantain a supply. I was told by a physics teacher that if it wasn't for this station the miners strikes may have suceeded, instead the station provided power during large surges.
Really interesting to get a look in there!
I could sit in that control room just looking at those displays for a whole day...
Great Video!
Excellent reporting
thanks you sir for providing such valuable information.....Sir please make a video on which softwares are mostly used in national grids....thanks
Here in 2018 right this second wind meeting 33% of UK demand.
Very informative. Tied up a lot questions I had - and a few I didn't know I had. Created one though: the 'bootstraps' are dc? I thought ac was required for long distance transmission?
Really Good Informative episode - Thanks. And i never heard about the Water Storage thing, --does anybody knows how much power is lost that way ? because it seems pretty smart to store energy in "nature" rather that toxic batteries.
Actually, the peak is usually when people arrive home in the evenings, there is very little rise in demand during the middle of the day, it is actually rather flat. If you search for "National Grid real time data" you will find the demand curves on the NG website to show this.
oop, when i said "pre-empts" i ment the opposite: "follows".
ie: when you finally get to home/work, you first plug your car in, then you go inside and turn on the kettle/TV/PC. So the plugging in of the car's battery residue is wonderfully synchronised to offset whatever grid demand you will have now that you have arrived at your destination.
Not sure but widespread use of air conditioners probably is a big factor in midday summer usage.
I'm the only one of my entire circle of friends and colleagues who doesn't use one at home.
*I would love to see an update on this, a lot has changed in 11 years!*
Really interesting episode.
Fully Charged, as always since episode 01 have always been interesting.
Yet, since when you got the sponsorship from British Gas, everything has been far more professional, especially the camera quality!
Robert, I think this is well good enough to appear on the teley. Something like the Discovery Channel maybe. You got CarPool in Dave and it was a success!
This is really proper quality stuff, even on television standards!
Interesting to see how much we relied on coal in 2012. Looking at it now, coal never seems to make up more than 2% of our energy generation.
Over long distances, you also get issues with synchronization of frequency due to time delay with AC power, no such issues with DC.
“A storage solution, that’s just what we need”
Well over 10 years later Tesla is installing Mega packs for energy storage. A drop in the pond for now but you have to start somewhere. With renewables needing to take on a bigger role storage is key. (I’m my opinion :) )
Wow, that National Grid guy really knows his stuff. I know he needs to, and should, but still, impressive. Lots of food for thought there for us all.
wow...thanks a lot...
Time for a revisit Bobby
For those interested, you can view the real time demand & transfers on the national grid website. Unfortunately youtube blocks links from comments.
I was refering to megawatt class turbines, since price per MW falls down with the size of the turbine, whereas PV price is determined by the price of modules. Also, in your last sentence, which return will be much more? You say wind cost 2x as much, but the output per annum is up to 3x more for wind, so in 20 years PV makes max 240 MWh, wind makes 800 MWh.
At real utility scale, even those might be too costly. But the pumped heat technology with gravel "batteries" that is being developed by Isentropic in the UK shows great promise.
Really interesting, good work.
The big Boss has a Welsh accent, so the Centre is somewhere in Wales. As for electricity from wind farms, he implied they have no idea how to predict what input the farms can supply because that depends on the....er.....wind!
Amazing stuff.
@fullychargedshow: Robert, I believe it would be of real interest to visit the national grid again now (6 years down the line) and see if anything has changed in their view of electric cars, renewable energy and energy storage. Just a suggestion :-)