It announced ‘emergency measures’ late last year to ensure that blackouts were avoided, but is the National Grid’s latest announcement of planned ‘Transitional Arrangements’ auctions going to improve matters for 2016 and beyond?
Opening on January 26th, the auctions should secure electricity capacity for next winter and aim to offer targeted support to Demand Side Response (DSR) to increase levels of participation in the next two years before the full ‘Capacity Market’ comes into play during the winter of 2018/19.
The amount being auctioned is 900MW and will run until January 30th and participants in this transitional auction are not only DSR units, but also small, embedded generators. There will be four auction rounds each day, with a cap of £30/KW per year and this will be reduced by £2.5/KW per auction round.
With the auction being oversupplied, with the capacity entering it standing at 1,110.028MW, this by no means guarantees a success to yet another emergency measure by the National Grid, as it fails to provide adequate and timely replacements to its ailing coal and nuclear power stations reaching their decommissioning.
A new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers warns that the UK will be facing an even more serious power supply crisis by 2025, thanks to the closure of the aforementioned plants, leading to an electricity supply gap of up to a staggering 55%.
Not wanting to spread panic, but the National Grid’s track record, coupled with the Institute of Mechanical Engineer’s report together confirm that companies that depend on continuous power supplies in order to guarantee no break in their services would all benefit from a proactive strategic approach to their continuous power supplies, rather than a reactive approach.
To learn more about Uninterruptible Power Supplies, standby generators and how your company can guarantee continuous power 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, speak to a member of the shentongroup team now!