James Watson CEng, FIET

Engineer. Historian. Beer-Drinker. Publican's Friend. Hi-Fi Anorak. Technocrat. Patriot. Improving Husband. Feminist. “The Attenborough of the Relay Room”

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

We are not the BEST commissioning engineers on the British power system, but we are in the top two 💁🏻‍♂️

!⃝ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 ⚡️👆🏻

[UK Power Networks @UKPowerNetworks]

We're continuing to support customers who are still affected by Storm Austen. Our engineers are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power. We’re sorry for the disruption and understand how difficult it is to be without power.

With further strong winds and heavy rain expected from Storm Boelo this weekend, we have additional teams ready to respond and support customers.

You can keep up to date with the latest power cut information on our website: https://t.co/K7EvtGeqgg

[JamesFennell MBE @FennellJW]

In Kyiv, my grabbag and stockpile for power or water cuts, or to go to the shelter was as follows:
1. An emergency power pack which could charge phones and laptops
2. Headtorch and batteries
3. £250 in cash, passport, etc.
4. Spare debit card and credit card
5. Burner phone and sim card
6. 24ltr bottled water
7. 2-3 days canned meals, pasta, rice, vegetables
8. High energy bars and chocolate
9. toilet roll and poo bags
10. Bottle of single malt
11. Space blanket.

[James Savage @SavLocal]

We’ve been doing this for years in Sweden. It’s not a deep state conspiracy, it’s common sense.

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@david__s @CobraEmergency A GE Vernova transformer made in Stafford, off somewhere exotic I shouldn’t wonder

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@Nick_SMHS @hawkins_carole @ofgem Reliability is higher than that. Availability is much lower. Reliability was hit last year by the fire at North Hyde. Before that it had been rising year on year

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@benrwright @pijoe1212 The battalion of keyboard warriors grows every year. It’s akin to the Express “coldest winter ever” and “Diana alive in Argentina with Shergar 🐎” headlines

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

This is good advice and worth a read and heed. Personally, I’ll head to a transmission substation. One with plenty of tea and a good comfy chair. I appreciate only a tiny minority can do that. But I suspect we may be needed anyway, to get the rest of you back to normal 🙏🏻

[Tobias Ellwood @Tobias_Ellwood]

Are you ready?

👇Time to think the unthinkable. And plan ahead.

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@benrwright That risk has NEVER been zero. The winter of 1947 had horrific and widespread blackouts. I feel with the maturity of our systems and processes, perhaps supply has become almost TOO reliable. People are used to it always being there, without any appreciating of the effort it takes

[Induction @WattInduction]

No I’m not a relative, I just appreciate the work. He was one of those self taught engineers without formal education who somehow achieved so much. It was almost a theme of that era, Faraday, Tesla etc. Seems unfathomable how it was possible with just physical books from libraries. Seems like a massive ask even today with the world’s information at your fingertips and AI. He did reduce Maxwell’s equations from twenty to four. I remember a professor once said to me that in their current form they should be known as the Maxwell-Heaviside equations.

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@WattInduction @jowilliams293 Inpressed with your Heaviside avatar. A phenomenally brilliant engineer and mathematician. You’ll know, of course, he is attributed with the leg work behind Maxwell’s equitations. Are you a relative at all or just a fan? Heaviside is one of our greatest unsung heroes 🇬🇧 💪🏻☺️

[UK Power Networks @UKPowerNetworks]

Storm Boelo: Strong winds and heavy rain are moving across the South East and East of England this evening.

We're currently getting a high volume of social media messages right now. We have extra staff on duty to respond as fast as possible, but we're unable to respond to everyone individually at the moment.

We're currently prioritising messages reporting damaged cables and customers who require extra support.

Check our websites for updates about your power or call us on 105: https://t.co/K7EvtGeqgg

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@hawkins_carole Would a hand picked failed luvvie be able to guarantee a permanent non interrupted electricity supply to 70 million people? If so, I wouldn’t call that a failure, I’d call that super powered 💪🏻

[Kirstie Allsopp @KirstieMAllsopp]

What’s so weird about people’s response to this Government advice is that anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 5 years knows that one of these events is a possibility. I had a chat with my boys years ago about what to do in the event of a communication systems collapse.

[Lordmvarder @lordmvarder]

@KathrynPorter26 @jackaspi High pressure = Low wind
High pressure = Cold temperatures
High pressure = High solar (short duration)
Margin issues 07:00 - 09:00 and 15:30 - 20:00

[Philip Davies @phildavies1995]

Absolutely ridiculous decision by Plaid. Under grounding is more expensive, takes longer, is worse for the environment, is much harder to maintain and identify/fix problems and takes up way more agricultural land.

Zero good argument for it. Actually infuriates me this nonsense.

[Tobias Ellwood @Tobias_Ellwood]

Are you ready?

👇Time to think the unthinkable. And plan ahead.

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@WattInduction @jowilliams293 I disagree with you. And I speak as a historian and practising electricity supply engineer. The CEB was not socialist. It was a long overdue public body. The CEGB built on this logic and developed exceptional engineering standards. It led the world. EDF was modelled on it

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@hiltonholloway Yeah. Something we are not short of in England & Wales. In BAU, low volts are rarely our issue, in fact the opposite is usually true. One London cable spills more than your average 400 kV cap bank 😬

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

https://t.co/6WGQnLHqIQ

#BlackStart has been called Electricity System Restoration (ESR) since about 2019 in GB. Many still use the old term

[John Bull @54JohnBull]

Considering there is really little chance of war or a cyber attack causing a 3-day UK shutdown, I would suggest the government has finally been told there is a likely electricity grid failure coming this winter.
The link describes what could happen if the grid trips. Only 60% of power will likely be restored in 24 hours. It could take 5–7 days for power to be completely restored. In the worst case, it could be 14 days.

https://t.co/DUU6SkV4oc

[James Watson CEng, FIET @EngineerLondon]

@hiltonholloway Flywheels need MW to make them spin. This doesn’t help in the early stages. Some synchronous machines would definitely help during the skeleton network stitching phase. But I suspect we might use cap banks if voltage droop becomes an issue. Inertia will be way down the list