Sizewell To Halve Output To Prevent Blackouts

By Paul Homewood

Little Emily updates us on grid balancing this weekend, after fears that there could be a surplus of power due to low demand, with news that Sizewell B will shut half of its capacity:

https://twitter.com/emilygosden/status/1258472093462810632

She does not know how much the Grid has had to pay to Sizewell, but Reuters estimate it at £50m for a four month period. This would make sense, as Sizewell would be losing about 430 GWh per month. With current wholesale prices at around £25/MWh, this would imply loss of income of £11m a month.

The Grid could have chosen to constrain wind generators, but the cost would have been much greater, because of the obscene subsidies they receive. Put simply, wind generators will not accept £25/MWh to switch off, when they know they can get paid much more in subsidy.

And this is the real scandal here. By shutting down half of Sizewell B and removing a chunk of cheap, reliable power, the grid is forced to rely on much dearer renewable energy instead.

Whereas Sizewell would have sold their electricity at the market price of £25/MWh, offshore wind generators will be paid £122/MWh if they are on the Renewable Obligation scheme, or up to £173/MWh for CfDs.

In other words, the loss of nuclear power during the next four months will cost consumers in the region of £300m. Such a decision is criminal.

The problem has of course arisen because wind and solar power is inherently unreliable and intermittent. If they were reliable, they would be able to sell on a forward baseload basis, and the Grid would be able to plan ahead properly.

There is of course a corollary to this decision to furlough Sizewell. The Grid will be even shorter of power, when wind power drops, and will therefore have to rely on gas-fired generation more than ever.

Currently CCGT is supplying a third of the nation’s electricity.