June 16th Talk

 ‘Power to the People’ was the subject of the talk given to the club recently by John Prime, UK and EU publicity officer with the National Grid, which is responsible for the control of the flow of power, both electricity and gas across the grid and is the UK’s largest utility company.

He spoke of the different matters that affect demand, such as TV programmes Something as simple as going to put the kettle on after watching a televised sporting event, such as a World Cup match or an F1 race, could cause a problem. So, when millions of people go to put the kettle on at the same time, the National Grid has to respond.

Other uncertainties the grid had to deal with included strikes from lightning on cables, electricity pylons falling over, fire and flood. Twenty five per cent of existing power stations were due to close by 2020 and North Sea gas was coming to an end. The energy landscape was changing with climate change, with wind farms being built on land and out at sea. But the unreliability of wind in itself presented a problem, he said.