In the late 40s/early 50s the electricity went off quite regularly - we were not cold however as the coal fires kept the house warm.
For the last 60+ years the supply has been almost 100% thanks to excess power availability - if some station went down there was another that turned up their output.
We are more reliant now on gas and to a lesser extent wind, the reliability depends on the wind blowing. I notice that there is at least 1 coal station being called upon today even although demand is around 30G, in winter we need roughly 50G - this does not sound good as the 50G was reached in winter using 8Gb of coal station output.
Looks like a 3 Kw petrol generator in the garage might be a good investment - Under £300 for Chinese brands - a Honda might be nigh on £1000.
|