Momentum for inertia...

Last Friday's #powercut caused horrendous delays in the UK, leading to countless stories of inconvenience, suffering and risk. And, of course, even mainstream media channels were quick to air the possibility of cyber attack.

The reality is that the #energytransition (to renewable generation) poses challenges to grid stability. Natural variation in wind and sun means that, without storing excess energy, we still rely on combustion to meet demand. But it's more complicated than that; these generating assets are, almost by default, in the distribution network, where the copper is thinner and less able to withstand sudden power flow changes without tripping out (in the electrical sense, at least...).

Both the National Grid and Schneider Electric's David Hunter acknowledged this on BBC Radio 4's Today programme - that the energy transition puts pressure on the operators' measures to maintain the regulated service. And they both emphasised the pressing need for inertia.

Traditional thermal generation has heavy turbines rotating at 3000rpm if the grid frequency is 50Hz; any variation in frequency meets an inertial resistance in these kinetic buffers and they are effective at containing frequency deviations - and they have the benefit of thick copper from the legacy of centralised power generation.

Switching to renewable sources and batteries takes away that inertial response and leaves the grid more vulnerable to black-out when generating assets switch out, as happened last Friday.

As I write this on Tuesday 13th August, the UK grid demand is 34GW, of which 10GW is provided by non-synchronous generation. For the recommended ten seconds of inertia, that equates to 25MWh of inertial storage which we do not have - a figure which will grow as we continue to switch to renewables. The National Grid recognises the importance of inertia as a future economic value back within the energy system but it's up to industry to deliver the hardware...

Whilst batteries are an imperative for the growth in electric vehicles, the energy industry must look harder at innovative solutions for storage with inertia, to keep the lights on, the trains running and the operating theatres powered up.

Teraloop is one example of a company developing such a solution and contributing to the debate. Come and support us.