TODAY (October 30) presents us with yet another glimpse of Scotland’s
electrical future.
Both reactors at Hunterston nuclear power station are closed in a routine
graphite inspection outage and are due back on grid on
November 12 and December 18. The station’s normal output is 956MW.
Reactor 2 at Torness is also in a planned shutdown and should return to the
grid on November 24, whilst reactor no 1 is concurrently providing only 410
MW prior to low load refuelling. The station’s normal output is 1190MW.
Today UK combined windfarms – both onshore and offshore – are only able to
provide 9.8 per cent of our needs, producing only around 25 per cent of
their rated output and Scotland today at 14.46pm is importing 1613MW from
the rest of the UK which matches almost exactly the lost output from
Hunterston and Torness.
These stations are planned for closure in 2023 and 2030 respectively and we
can expect today’s scenario to be. thereafter, a very frequent reality as
our windfarms output routinely collapses irrespective of how many more
windfarms we commission. When there is no wind there is no output.
The UK, or more accurately England, is this afternoon generating 12.7 per
cent of UK energy needs from coal to ensure Scotland keeps running whilst
also paying the lion’s share of renewables subsidies as these are
socialised to us all through our electricity bills and absorbing the
contingent, increased, pollution to keep our under-producing country
functioning.
Some of our southern neighbours might find this situation unacceptable as
its frequency increases in future in a post-nuclear Scotland, as it will.
DB Watson,
Saviskaill,
Langdales Avenue, Cumbernauld.
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