Has anyone prepared for possible powercuts this winter?

There was a bad cut last year, Christmas Eve in fact. It went on all day and the house was freezing. What made it worse was that we were hosting a huge family Christmas dinner the next day and needed to cook.
 
Open fireplace, a barn full of seasoned wood and a 6kva Diesel generator will get us by if that ever happened. :)
 
Cuchulain said:
Unless you're living literally in the middle of nowhere then a power cut this winter will be as likely as any other time of year, it'll also probably only last long enough to be a minor inconvenience.

We had an entire underground main power line burn out in our street last January (village, in the middle of nowhere) which needed the street digging up, we were without power for about 5 hours max. No-one died because they didn't have a candle ...
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That's it, really. The system isn't broken enough (yet) for it to be a serious risk. Localised power cuts for a couple of hours, maybe. Power cuts over a large area for days, no. If generating capacity is exceeded at peak times and the power fails, I'll either be at work or I'll turn on a torch and read a book. While it would be a worrying reminder of the failure of governments to address a problem that will only get worse, it won't be a threat to my life or to civilisation.
 
Power failure as Britain at highest risk of winter blackouts for almost a decade
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The safety cushion or "margin" of just 5 per cent is lowest predicted by the Grid since 2007.
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5-6 years depending on how you look at it - that's almost a decade!!11 We must be back in the post war days again!!
 
What with this and the worst winter in history, it's surely only a matter of time before the Sun runs with 'UK Prepares for Cold-Snapocalypse'.
 
1. I'm an electrician and would find a way to feed my house.

2. In the unlikely event all 3 phases are down I have a 7kva generator in my garage which I would use to power essential things and charge my neighbours to keep their food frozen.

If the gas fails I have a jumper and a wood burner.

I'm safe for the impending services apocalypse.
 
I have a gillion candles thanks to her ladyship. Apart from that nothing, really don't believe anything will happen anyway. Id probably go to bed and read a book or something if it did.
 
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malachi said:
The amount we pay for gas and electric, there should be no excuse for Blackouts.
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Except that for the past 10 or 20 years the ability of the electricity companies to build new generating facilities as older ones are either closed down due to end of design life, or in the name of "being green", to build the replacements has been pretty low (I'm not going to sazy zero, but a lot lower than it should have been if the government had the balls to deal with an issue that isn't going to hit this side of an election*).

Every single time they even think of applying for planning permission to build a new plant, regardless of the type or location they seem to get rentamobs and nimby's turning up to protest, and then the legal challenges that take longer to sort than designing and building the plant from scratch.

It's hard to blame the electricity companies for power issues when every time they've suggest/tried to plan to prevent the problems they've run into multi year legal battles to even get planning permission.

I would be far more inclined to place any blame for any power cuts at the feet of the politicians.
They're the ones who have approved and required things like green legislation that has required power stations that could have been converted to be shut down.
They're the ones who have pandered to every "environmental" and "concerned locals" group who have decided that wherever the suggested location for the stations is, is wrong, and done nothing to support the police and power companies when the protesters have disrupted the planning and building processes, meaning that even once the planning process has finished there are likely to be massive ongoing additional costs and delays with construction. That's even ignoring the protesters who manage to get over the fence at operational power stations.


*And when it does, whichever party is in power will be able to blame the last government by the other party.
 
Some of the "It will never happen" quotes in here are funny to read

I work in the power industry and this year is biggest test for the grid in a while. Lots of coal fired plants have closed this year which drastically reduces the grids chances of responding to a shortage

Didcot 2000 MW
Kingsnorth 1940MW
Cockenzie 1200MW
Fawley 1000MW

All closed this year and theres more that just those.
This is all thanks to the LCPD, Large Combustion Plant Directive from our EU friends which mean these stations must close due to emissions

A long cold spell with little wind would really test the system if any major faults or unplanned station outages occur

Also this isnt tabloid driven, its come from the grid too
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24433778
My favourtie quote from this was
"As long as the market responds in the way that it has done historically then we will be absolutely fine"
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It cant possibly do that due to all the recent closures

Oh and the next implementation of EU directives is just around the corner which will mean more closures before 2020, probably earlier
 
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You guys are way over thinking this, a standard leisure battery will power lights and consumer electronics for days. The idea of getting solar panels and generators is ridiculous.

And candles are a Victorian era fire hazard which produce almost no light what so ever. A torch will provide the same power as a 60W light bulb for many hours on a single set of batteries.
 
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mrbell1984 said:
Shouldn't really need to plan for events like this as the UK has excellent infrastructure.
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yes we have a great infrastructure but just an example our supermarkets have only a 2 day supply of food meaning long powercuts could cause problems in getting basic supplies as they need daily supplies from trucks just to have food for the day after
 
div0 said:
What with this and the worst winter in history, it's surely only a matter of time before the Sun runs with 'UK Prepares for Cold-Snapocalypse'.
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ICEAGE APPROACHING BRITAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN BILLIONS OF YEARS!
Get out now before it's to late.
insert cgi photo of dover>calais with the sea frozen over and random shots from coastal areas with cgi waves that instantly froze as they hit the mainland
 
we get powercuts but there seems to be some sort of backup supply fitted to the flat where lots of dim lights come on in the hallways and flats and those lasted a good 24 hours to be honest whilst they got us back on. Got loads of beef jerky im making under the stairs and beer too so I'm happily proteined and caloried up til its over.
 
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