No Coal but Oil ??

[ecogeorge]

Saw uk demand at approx 28Gw all day . This morning we were burning a little coal but the biggest input was solar.
Tonight wind has picked up a little , demand is similar, gas is up as solar drops....BUT coal is off and we have some Oil and OCGT going ????? thought this was the dearest and only brought out when
Anyone know why ?

[AE-NMidlands]

Maybe need to run them properly occasionally to check everything still works?
Anyway, this morning pumped storage was mopping up 1.3 GW. I've never seen anything like this before...

Screenshot 2024-05-12 at 07-52-27 GB Fuel type power generation production.png (59.52 KiB) Viewed 487 times

(I'm surprised at wind too, as GF is hardly doing anything. Maybe it's just a higher proportion of very low Sunday morning demand)

[AE-NMidlands]

and this morning we had coal back on, but both pumped hydro and straight each delivering 2%. I don't often look at this, maybe it's a regular morning peak thing?

Screenshot 2024-05-13 at 10-41-25 GB Fuel type power generation production.png (77.29 KiB) Viewed 430 times

[dan_b]

The usual answer here is "they need to burn down their remaining coal stockpile before it closes completely later this year" but I agree it does seem odd - perhaps they needed the inertia in that part of the Grid?

[Ken]

The Nat Grid has no interest in the coal supplies but the coal leccy production may have bid low to get a contract to maintain warm boilers for the Monday demand. However the Nat Grid has to ensure there is enough reseve in case a production unit goes bang. Well if demand is low and there is virtually no wind and solar,nuclear and imports are taking the load then there may well not be enough reserve/standby in particular parts of the country which the nat grid will satisfy the best way possible by bidding up the buy price locally.