02/04/2026
Please note the following RCEA talk to which all are welcome. If your planning to attend please email Mike at [email protected] so he can organise seating and refreshments etc.
Subject: RCEA talk on Tues 14 April by Roger Arthur, 2.30pm Field Place, Worthing. 'Net Zero – Challenges for the National Grid'
Steve, please find below the synopsis of our next talk in 2 weeks time. As usual your Members/friends are welcome to come as guests (£5 entry). If its more than 2 or 3 of your Members, it would be nice to have some idea of numbers. Mike
Roger will open his talk with a brief review of his career covering the design and commissioning of large power systems – in particular a 360MW power station in Malaysia. He will take time to explain certain technical terms (such as Synchronous/Asynchronous operation, System Inertia, and other terms mentioned below).
Moving on to the Government’s target for NZ (Net Zero carbon release to the atmosphere) he will highlight the UK’s lack of money, materials (and associated lead times), and skilled resources to meet said Target. This will be illustrated with particular reference to:
1. Providing spinning reserve power, to meet Maximum Demand (MD) – (including droop control) - by the target date of 2035. By then around 40 GW of aging nuclear and gas powered generators will have been retired.
2. The portion of power capacity provided by ‘Renewables’ that must be backed up by non-Renewables to cater for sustained periods of calm, cloudy, cold UK (winter) weather.
3. Interconnectors (to other countries); capacity and availability.
4. More subtle engineering considerations such as: Rotational Inertia (aka Generator Stability), MVAR capacity, and fault clearance capability.
5. The role of Grid scale batteries and potential Hydrogen usage and storage.
6. Up to date Grid control to deal with Grid intermittency.
7. Sufficient distributed Black Start capability. (The RCEA visits to Shoreham Power Station touched on this.)
Such factors rudely came to the fore during the recent Iberian Blackout, and may well do so again if (and when?) a similar situation arises in the UK.
We continue to be told that wind and solar will be free, when the cost of electricity is already 30% higher than the wholesale price, (due to green levies) and wind capacity factors have been reduced by almost 30% relative to those quoted in the original NZ case for their use. Also the cost of back up capacity (see bullet 2 above) must be included when costing Renewables. The Royal Society estimates that 100TWh of energy will be needed pa for that.
Hydrogen is also cited as an alternative green energy storage medium but the technology is relatively new, expensive, and carries other challenges.
The ongoing availability of nuclear fuel has also been cited as an issue: Roger will touch on the under used possibilities of re-processing spent fuel.
Added to all this is the cost of the extra distribution lines and equipment. NG (National Grid) estimated £3trn, just for the U.K. grid upgrading. Then we need to add in costs of local network upgrading as well as potential subsidies for heat pumps, home insulation etc. McKinsey’s (a well respected independent consultancy) estimated the TOTAL cost of UK Net Zero at £5 trn, which they equated to 7% of GDP pa through to 2050. However, DESNZ continues to quote
