what does the UK plan to do with it?
I have no idea 
Maybe there is a secret fusion project and then you can make it for nothing by electrolysis of seawater?
can be managed, but only by throtteling it, not by turning it up
Isn’t that true for every energy source? But below max output, you can go both up and down.
You can’t use coal or nuclear as reserve in case weather turns bad. Such stations need time to wind up, so to speak, and therefore they have to be scheduled hours in advance to be ready to meet the demand as it occurs.
There are many problems with coal apart from the CO2 enviromental factors. The CEGB and a German coal station at Heilbronn IIRC experimented with ways of cleaning up the various emissions. Eg Heilbronn used the sulphur emissions to make gypsum which went into plasterboard. Drax, the largest and most modern coal fired power station in the UK installed low NOx equipment. The problem on the market was that these measures made the the price per Mw/h too expensive. Last I heard, Drax was burning dried out walnut shells.
Coal mining is also a pretty dangerous business and can leave problems once the mine is depleted. When the coal arrives at the power station it has to be crushed into powder before it can be used. Nasty stuff for the respiratory system. This powder has to be constantly raked by large machines so that the pressure of the stockpile doesn’t turn into a volcano inside, burning up most of your fuel before you get time to use it. Your investment can easily go up in flames and that has to be taken into account when setting the price at which you will sell your electricity.
Gas, to a minor extent diesel, pumped storage, hydro to some extent and more recently battery farms AFAIK are the only generation units that can supply peak lopping.
The grid control team used to meet every afternoon to estimate what the demand would be at each minute of the day for the day ahead.
They used historical models for the day of.the year time of day etc. Then they added in the weather models eg a sudden downpour over a city could suddenly push demand up 400MW.
The end of a popular tv programme could increase demand some 2GW.
Once they had done the estimates they then go shopping. The cheapest suppliers will be used first and they go down the list making contracts until they have got enough to meet the predicted demand. But what happens if there is a sudden unexpectd temperature drop and demand soars or the wind stops blowing or a turbine at a nuclear power plant suddenly breaks down.
None of these occurrences can be met by coal or nuclear generation unless those stations are already running, or in standby mode. In which case you just put another shovel full of coal on the fire or lower a few more fuel rods.
But it would be costly to have a coal or nuclear station ticking over on standby and then not needed. The owners of those stations will want some sort of compensation and to whom is that charged. We all know the consumer pays in the end.
Wind, sun etc. might in some cases be able to meet a sudden demand but cannot be guaranteed. So if we are limited by gas supplies, hydro availability or battery capacity, grid controllers have to balance the system and an expensive generator may have to be brought on when wind or sun could actually meet demand.
I have watched this process of matching capacity to demand on several occasions and the teams that do it have my great respect. Its both a science and an art IMO, especially in a privatised world where investors need to make money.
Peter wrote:
Neither is really feasible in bulk, for the retail market. Here (well, in London, AFAIK) we have some propane taxis but
Gas powered public transport is common in Sweden. I believe every bus in my hometown is natural (or bio) gas powered – except for those that are electrically powered of course. There have also been trials with hydrogen-powered buses. (Not fuel cell, I believe, but combustion engines.)
they go back to some refilling depot.
It’s not like the infrastructure is very complicated. My town has four refilling stations for gas. Of course buses refill at the depot, but they did the same also when they were diesel powered.
Anything that needs a “depot” is a no go for broad acceptance.
Same old reasons…
Someone I know had a vehicle with a switch to convert between lpg and petrol whilst in motion. The main drawback was the additional space required for the lpg tank, but it meant you would never get stranded due to a lack of filling stations. An option for tinkerers rather than everyday folk at present, methinks.
Peter wrote:
Anything that needs a “depot” is a no go for broad acceptance.
Did you actually read what I wrote!?
Did you actually read what I wrote!?
Today I
so probably not
Peter wrote:
so probably not
Ok. I didn’t write that the buses “needed” a depot for refueling with gas. On the contrary, they could have refueled at the public gas stations. But as the bus company is a large consumer, it has its own fuel facility at the depot. That is no different from when you have large fleet with diesel powered buses.
“what does the UK plan”
The UK Governments “Propose” then “Implement” but do not “Plan”.
Plenty of natural gas power fleet vehicles in my US area, IIRC all buses and garbage collection trucks are natural gas powered.
My natural gas utility bill this month was $17, utilized for hot water and cooking. However probably all of my $250 electric billed was generated by natural gas (and tax). It’ll be about half that next month, we’re not using AC now and the next biggest electric load is the outside Jacuzzi at $50/month. The rest (lighting etc) is small enough that it’s almost in the noise.
On a year round averaged basis, irrigation water is our biggest utility cost.
