Quarterly Reports
by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
Britain was battered by storms throughout January and February. Unprecedented rainfall flooded thousands of homes, but the accompanying gales sent wind power to new records.
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by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
Most business that had not already closed moved online, with millions of people now working from home. This had a huge impact on electricity demand: consumption on weekdays fell by 13% to its lowest levels since 1982 – a time when there were 10 million fewer people in the country, and GDP was a third lower than today.
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by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
But before shutting down they burnt through their remaining stockpiles of fuel, pushing up Britain’s coal consumption for the first time since 2012.
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by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
A succession of severe winter storms battered the country, giving the wettest and windiest February since records began. This helped make February the first month on record when more electricity was produced by wind farms than gas-fired power stations across the country.
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by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
Demand-side response operated full force to help during the first event in January. It was much less prominent during the second event in March, giving very different consequences for the power system.
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by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
Wind farm capacity factors averaged nearly 50% over the quarter, well above their long-run average of 30% (26% for onshore and 37% for offshore).
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by Dr Iain Staffell – Imperial College London
Britain’s wind farms broke all records, most notably by supplying an average of 12.3 GW through February, smashing previous record of 9.3 GW set back in December 2019.
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