Britain increases electricity supplies to France due to strong winds

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Britain increased its electricity supplies to France on Friday as strong winds swept across the country providing more power.

France cut power from its nuclear fleet by 4 gigawatts – enough to power a million homes – as it imported more electricity from Britain, according to Montel Analytics.

It highlights the changing landscape of the electricity system as wind and solar power are sometimes used to provide electricity to homes, businesses and factories.

Winds of up to 114mph from Storm Eowyn also show Britain’s growing reliance on its neighbors to buy and sell electricity to balance an increasingly dependent energy system. the sky.

Electricity supply and demand must be matched on a moment-to-moment basis, meaning that in times of high wind, Britain and other countries may produce more than they can use.

Britain has a number of cables, known as interconnectors, linking its energy system with neighboring countries including France, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Jean-Paul Harreman, director of Montel Analytics, said France started exporting electricity to other countries on Friday morning due to its low domestic demand.

But traders soon began to import from Britain as its electricity performance became clear. He said: “France was sending to all the countries it gives a border.”

Then Britain said, we don’t need your power, we want to restore the link. So France was already exporting and got more power from Britain.

“They (France) didn’t have a lot of capacity to export, so they rejected some of the nuclear plants.”

Britain now has about 30 gigawatts of wind power, about half of which is offshore, where wind speeds can be very high.

If production is too high from wind and other generators and the extra power cannot be exported, the National Energy Regulatory Commission may end up having to pay wind farms to curb production of them.

When Storm Eowyn hit overnight, several wind farms in Britain had to be paid to shut down, albeit with imports, according to Montel Analytics.

France’s nuclear power fleet is operated by state-owned energy company EDF, which is building the UK’s first generation nuclear power station, Hinkley Point C, and wants to build second, Sizewell C.

Nuclear power plants, which supply most of France’s electricity, cannot be switched on and off as easily as gas or coal power plants, but output can be adjusted to a certain extent.

In addition to adjusting its nuclear production, France has used electricity overnight to pump water to hydroelectric dams, meaning it is ready to send water to generate electricity when needed.

Britain’s electricity system is becoming increasingly complex to manage as it relies heavily on intermittent wind and solar power.