Read on Twitter
1. Gas turbines are only marginally less efficient than Coal - and that excludes warming times - new recip gas engines are more efficient full stop. makes more sense to have back-up gas than coal -always. https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/06/renewables-let-s-address-reality/
Grid forming equipment like VSCs and Reactors were more common before large integrated Grid was completed - either way modern Statcoms etc + wind farms are cheaper than adding new capacity for stability + energy
However, I entirely agree that the UK cannot reasonably claim a coal free record when it relies so much on interconnected markets
And that planning and building a system for Net Zero requires a similar effort to the plans and operational delivery the CEGB undertook when delivering the 275kV and 400kV supergrid
There also seems to be an unspoken correlation between renewables and 9th August - this is not the case, two events happening at the same time was more than the system was planned for
A thorough assessment showed the ESO was well prepared for likely events - what occured was not likely - and we now know we could balance an even more heavily RES dependent system
Also the weird question at the end: "have Renewables failed us?" are we looking at the same system? Lights stayed on, carbon emissions were lower - balancing was more expensive yes, but any system would have been expensive to manage with 20% drop in demand
Closer investigation shows one of the OCGTs running on that day (£115/MWh offer) was the brand new Spalding Energy Expansion - definitely a good replacement for coal and CCUS ready https://www.intergen.com/development-opportunities-portfolio/spalding-energy-expansion
Oh and that excludes fixed operational costs, which are Huuuge for coal and tiny for gas engines.
