Colin Sandford

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@mgshanks Having worked in several engineering roles during my 49 year career I can tell you nothing is totally infallible.
Sods law will always bite your bum when you least expect it.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@mgshanks Personally I would rather believe the engineers who are whistle blowing, they know the real facts.
Box ticking doesn't keep the lights on.
Our energy supplies hang on a thread, it only takes a breakdown and we go the way of Spain.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@InTheTrenchesUK Musk got where he is by giving the world what it wants or thinks it wants. He is reading the crowd. The Economist is a niche publication pushing a minority view but cannot see it. You need to get out of the bubble and see the reality.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@McdowallRose @politicshome @GBNgovuk It is 2 SMRs in place of the existing Wilfa power station that is being decommissioned.
Anglsey had nuclear power from 1971 to 2015.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@Nigel_Farage I just feel sorry for the motorist she ran into. They now have the hassle of sorting out the repairs.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@politics_jimmy @BenGrahamUK Britain has poured billions in aid into these countries in the past.
If they are still on their arse it is their problem, not ours. The government's duty is to put it's own citizens first. It's not our duty to keep foreign governments in limousines.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@GBNEWS @Alexarmstrong How did he manage to cook and clean for his wife and family while in prison?

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@LeeHarris I am pleased to see the back of him, but don't expect things to get better with his successor.
It is out of the frying pan into the fire

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@NJ_Timothy @benhabib6 Another race to the bottom.
Unless the best are appointed, we will have second rate justice.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@visegrad24 Not surprised Stoke Heath has been kicked into touch. It is nowhere near any amenities. One family they put there was unhappy that it was a £20 taxi trip to shops, doctors, dentists and schools.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@Lord_Talbot64 @chriswkane If you are in public office, how are the public supposed to give feed back.
Yes, they may get a fair amount of abuse but if you put your head above the parapet that goes with the territory. I am not a politician, and I get abused but accept it for making my opinions public.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@Artemisfornow @StevieJenkin Well, he isn't costing the country money in expenses as most other MPs are.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@EdwardJDavey Only reading earlier today an eminenent professor of environmental sciences at MIT say Net Zero is a hoax and CO2 has negligible effect on warming.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@WhoopsJack94524 Yes

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@RachelD1892 C definitely.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@SeddSezz Does that mean they won't need so much in benefits if we a feeding them?

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@Conservatives @KEdge23 It's a bit rich coming from a party with no balls.
Put up or shut up.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@ShepherdWales @RachelD1892 As Dominic Cummings has said, the establishment will break the law if they have to in an attempt to stop Farage.
They are digging as much dirt as they can, but I think it could all blow up in their faces. Farage has some influential foreign friends.

[Colin Sandford @ColinSandford2]

@KEdge23 Kemi may be performing well, but their is little strength in depth.
The Tories have a handful of good MPs, but the majority are the Liberal wets that lost them the last election. She gas lost several of the best to Reform.

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

In the past couple of weeks we've seen some worrying trends on the GB power grid with unprecedented summer margin notices and three occasions on which system operator @neso_energy was forced to ask the EU to lift intraday interconnector trading limits

But more worrying is what hasn't been widely reported - on 23 June there was persistent low frequency through the evening which NESO eventually solved by curtailing exports

Not by buying the capacity back, but by requesting "Emergency Assistance" - these aren't really requests - although the other TSO can reject the request it can't stop NESO from turning the flow off at the exit substation

Why is this worrying?

1. NESO didn't issue any warnings to the market that GB margins were tight yet it was unable to keep frequency within the safe operating limit - why not?

2. By cutting off exports to the Netherlands and France, in the absence of any system warnings, NESO has just made cutting off exports part of the normal operational toolkit. As we rely on imports in winter we might regret this move as the other countries will feel far more able to reduce their exports to us after this move

3. Did the absence of any warnings issued by NESO mean it didn't see the tight margins coming ie was it due to forecasting errors?

4. Was the system actually secure during this period? Was NESO compliant with the SQSS (requirement to at all times hold enough reserve to cover the loss of the single largest infeed - I doubt it since at times during the say the demand forecast error was higher than the required reserve holding)? Were any transmission constraints violated?

The fact there has been no discussion of this by NESO is also worrying. NESO seems to think if it keeps quiet about its challenges nobody will notice

But the demand forecasting errors are growing, as the system becomes more complex. The maximum error so far this year is almost 4x the SQSS!!

And that's the average over half an hour - the instantaneous error is likely far higher. And of course NESO balances the grid from instant to instant, not over half hours

So can NESO actually PROVE it can run the grid securely? Everyone assumes it can because we haven't had a blackout. But the absence of a disaster is not the same as safety - running into traffic isn't safe just because you're not run over every time you do it

@ofgem @energygovuk @ClaireCoutinho @AndrewBowie_MP @NJ_Timothy @griffitha @cmackinlay @DavidGHFrost @mattwridley @TiceRichard @Iromg @AllisonPearson @EdConwaySky @afneil @MerrynSW @mattotele @jonathan_leake

https://t.co/w96n6LRCyk