The Big Power Off

FabioPorkpie

FabioPorkpie

Well-known member
Apologies if I’ve missed it, but couldn’t find anything on the first page about this and I thought some may want to participate. I was unaware but my wife told me about it and it seems like a small action to take, but is better than nothing.

Turn off your power for 10 mins at 10pm tonight, in silent protest. Hit the energy companies where it hurts.

‘Described as a ‘non-partisan action protest’, the 10 minute blackout aims to have an impact on energy and shareholders' profit and demand that special emergency measures are brought in to combat the situation. The protest is silent, can be fought from home, and is inclusive to many, for example, those with disabilities.’


www.euronews.com

Why Brits should turn their power off for 10 minutes this weekend

After a successful protest in Spain, Brits are being urged to join the '#BigPowerOff' - a campaign against the fuel crisis.
www.euronews.com www.euronews.com
 
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It may help to understand why it would help.

At this time I would imagine that we are working on non renewable energy. So the energy companies will have a spike at 10pm and will force them to not generate power and then switch back on again. Will this affect them ? there will be a cost to them, but I bet it will be passed back to the consumer.
The consumer will have to spend time resetting clocks, heating etc.
If you want to make a difference surely it would be better to make an effort to not having items on standby, turn off you microwave when not in use. Disconnect your chargers etc.
 
Steve8778 said:
I can't see many households participating.
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Hopefully enough will that it generates some interest. The idea comes from the Spanish, who had some success doing just this apparently.
Maybe with a bit more exposure and better coordination, it could be a useful tool for the public to use, who knows?
 
‘The idea is that, if it won't put you at risk, you switch off all of your electrical appliances, lights, or switch off at the breakers for 10 minutes.
“This short power off will cause an imbalance on the national grid, where consumption becomes lower than predicted and therefore the electrical supply is too great.
To protect the grid, power stations will be temporarily disconnected or issued notices to attenuate their output.
Because the grid is publicly owned, but power supply is private, this effectively creates a 10 minute boycott of the privatised portions of our power supply, losing them up to an estimated £9m in revenue.
“That's right, private energy companies take in an estimated £9m every 10 minutes in UK’

www.ladbible.com

'Big Power Switch Off' Planned For Tonight To Protest Rising Energy Costs

The 'Big Power Switch Off' has been organised online to protest against the rising cost of energy
www.ladbible.com www.ladbible.com
 
Randy said:
Whilst a good idea not enough people would take part to make a difference.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don’t think many people know about it. First I’d heard about it was a couple of hours ago. Maybe a bit of exposure and generated interest might create a drive to do it again, and with more onboard it might become something good.
Anyway, I’m off to find some candles …
 
I’ll never be able to set the oven clock again, but I’ve done it! I’ve heroically saved us all a fortune on our gas and leccie!
 
FabioPorkpie said:
“This short power off will cause an imbalance on the national grid, where consumption becomes lower than predicted and therefore the electrical supply is too great.
To protect the grid, power stations will be temporarily disconnected ............
Click to expand...
Sounds like cobblers to me. The only risk to the grid is when demand outstrips generating capacity there is no risk whatsoever when generating capacity is higher than demand.
The concept that knocking everything off at home is going to start power stations dropping off the grid is ludicrous.
 
chickenrunner said:
Sounds like cobblers to me. The only risk to the grid is when demand outstrips generating capacity there is no risk whatsoever when generating capacity is higher than demand.
The concept that knocking everything off at home is going to start power stations dropping off the grid is ludicrous.
Click to expand...
Yeah, all that will be automated to within an inch of its life, and I imagine energy firms are paying more for energy used than they can charge many of their customers so it's probably just saved them a few quid.
 
coluka said:
I‘m gutted to have missed this, the internet was down as we‘d had a power cut.
Click to expand...
It was probably caused by the 'big switch off' causing power stations to stop generating then an overload on the grid, in the absence of all that generation, when everybody switched back on for a cuppa?;):rolleyes:

Some years back I went to carry out some work on some emissions control equipment at a coal fired power station in Scotland. It was planned for Thursday night into Friday. I went to a planning meeting on the Thursday lunchtime to be told that the outage would be delayed 24hrs as Rangers were playing a European game and they anticipated an increased power demand at half time when everyone made a cuppa. I suggested that the surge may come earlier when everyone lost interest at 4-0 down after 25 minutes, my crack was not well received.🤐

National Grid (electricity) live status (other NG dashboards are available) ......................... NG Demand

As can be seen demand wiffles up and down by 10 - 15 GigaWatts every day, with a base of about 20GW. Ironically the fall off usually starts at around 22:00hrs.
 
chickenrunner said:
Sounds like cobblers to me. The only risk to the grid is when demand outstrips generating capacity there is no risk whatsoever when generating capacity is higher than demand.
The concept that knocking everything off at home is going to start power stations dropping off the grid is ludicrous.
Click to expand...

That may be true, I just cut and pasted from the article.
If it’s all cobblers then so be it, but I thought it was a harmless way to try and do something that was no inconvenience to me. Couldn’t be chewed with looking into all the details as to whether it was a worthwhile venture or not. Was easier just to flick the switch for ten mins 🤷🏻‍♂️

If a few well meaning folk have tried to start something and it’s not worked then so be it.
Good on them for at least trying I say.
 
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