The UK's national grid has been utterly transformed in the last 8 years with coal making way for wind and solar. This is only the beginning of the shift to green energy, watch as James Kelloway, Energy Intelligence Manager, from National Grid ESO explains how the UK became genuinely world-leading, and because "we are the first generation who understand climate change, and the last who can do anything about it", where we are going next. Robert talks to James about how renewables are overtaking fossil fuels, supply and demand, artificial intelligence, vehicle-to-grid, batteries, negative pricing, nuclear, exporting renewable energy, electrifying heat and transport, and the future increase in wind, solar and tidal. For easy reference through each section of this episode, see *timestamps* in the description.
I'm looking to join an ELC and your endorsement or investment in green tech could really help my application. It's a lifelong dream for me to do this and either way you're welcome to see how I'm doing and be a part of it if you like. The plan is to be growing exotic fruit and veg here in South Wales and reducing the carbon miles from that sort of produce. It's doable with battery storage improvements and the other green tech we're seeing rolled out thesedays. Please respond here and I will send you my email address if you'd like to discuss further. Best, Ben
Paul Krugmen (Nobel Prize winning economist) suggested preparing for an alien invasion to fix the economy. Instead we're trying trying to save the world from CO2, the air every living thing breathes out! The sea levels have been rising since the last ice age. People used to live on The Doggerlands connecting England to Europe until it flooded about 7000BC!
fullychargedshow What surprised me as an American how this changing videos moved me personally over to your renewable electricity is what keeps me coming back to you so keep on showing us the actual use that we can all understand and some cases buy that devices or pressure our government to use!
So is fully charged a supporter of nuclear power? Cuz basically all I see is renewable energy sources getting a lot of attention. And republicans in my country are supporting renewables cuz they’re cheaper to run from what I hear.
You need people who are quite good at their jobs to support the level of incompetence further up the chain without the country turning to soup. Really these Sargent level people are why we can afford the luxury of a complete basket of weevils in the executive branch.
As an engineering student, going for masters degree in energy, I can reassure you that this bloke is not alone in his enthousiasm! All of us are really excited about the big and fast changes, and the important, but solvable challenges in this area.
The fact that this kind of exclusive interview if free, for us the watch, is true testimony to the hard work of people at fully charged. So much great information all available online Thank you Robert, you’ve created an incredible show, one that excites me for the future of energy
I’m so proud of NG ESO despite never having worked with them. As a group of academics and engineers they could have pushed back against renewables and killed the market in the UK, instead they are pushing us forward, and step by step knocking down the arguments from the “whatabouters”. James in this video is THE PERFECT EXAMPLE of a really clever person, he makes the complicated seem simple by using words that everyone can understand, has a great and warm personality and seems relentlessly enthusiastic about saving our planet. Top people all around, the only shame is that “Dave down the pub” isn’t interested in facts, just what he heard 10 years ago from “Kevin”.
@@penfold7800 Yes it's great to see, NG are very 'switched on' and understand what needs to be done. But the chain is only as string as the weakest link and the DNOs are lot more variable in my experience. Tight capacity and quick fixes all over the place due to rampant housing & commercial development, sweated assets/long term lack of investment and not enough experienced staff left who understand how it all works. And the DNOs probably have as big a job than NG, if not much bigger, to make this transition work. Not least because most of their many thousand miles of cables are in the ground and it's hard to find space for new sub stations in urban areas. Hope I'm wrong about this!
Really liked James, really clear explanations and his enthusiasm is brilliant. Would like to see some more episodes about the changes in energy generation
I've been watching 'Fully Charged' since the very first episode ten years ago. Robert Llewellyn covers all things electric. Electric vehicles of ALL kinds, smart grids, solar and wind, battery technology and energy storage. He examines renewable energy from literally the microscopic level to literally 10,000 feet. I can't imagine life without Robert and 'Fully Charged'.
I've been with this channel from the beginning because I was looking for GOOD NEWS about the future. You know HOPE was a bit thin on the ground then (though not as bad as today appears to be) so this channel has been a beacon of positive and uplifting news to make moving forward to a future worth living in look possible. There comes a time when you want more than imagination and wishful thinking, you need something to be created to be MADE. I found so much here, in fact I continue to find so much here and this was a classic old school Fully Charged that ties and old episode to current day. Robert and team, please do more follow up, where are we now videos. Time has moved so quickly and some things seem to have gone backwards for the worse... so it would be great to shine a spotlight on our progress... especially today.
It's an accomplishment we should all be proud of in the UK. For an example, an hour of so after the video was released solar is providing 21.6% of our power and wind 31.3%. At 3pm on a Friday afternoon in June. Just think what can be done in the next decade. Amazing.
It’s great to see a success story like this and it really gives me hope for a greener and sustainable future to electrical supply. Plus he was a right cracking bloke.
Brilliant interview. Nice to have someone speak in plain English with such enthusiasm. This is another one of those videos to point people too when they start the tailpipe vs electricity emissions debate around EV's
Awesome interview. It's great to see someone so knowledgable and enthusiastic about his job. You can tell he loves doing what he does. Let's see more from this guy please.
Simon Adams, we'll be replacing our current gas-fired water heater shortly, was looking to replace with electric but unfortunately the U.S. doesn't have domestic 240V like we had in the U.K., meaning a fairly heavy cost to rewire/upgrade just to heat up water using electricity from our local monopoly supplier over a non-smart grid.
I guess electric boilers running of a air source heat pump right? These are much more efficient because the power is used to drive pumps, not to actually hear the water. The heat comes from ambient outside air :)
@@michaelrch IIRC Heat Pump can't achieve high enough temperature to get water seriously hot. Still would have to resort to Resistive for raising to boiler tank temps. But raising it part way with alternative methods is massively more efficient, geo ground heat pump or Solar thermal depending on the climate would make sense.
My Dad looked into an electric boiler recently and it seems they are still not good enough to replace gas, I mean they need to be cheaper over their lifetime and do the job.
I'm here to complain! ... that should have been longer :) x I'm guessing you'll be back at the National Grid HQ as soon as is possible, it's such a great story of progress to tell. Programs like this help combat the negativity often found online. I can remember back when we would hear things like the Grid would never be more than 5% then 10% renewables, still now when a record is broken they say the grid won't get cleaner. The first time Fully Charged went to the National Grid HQ it was so heartening to see and I can't wait to see you back there again... just make it a nice long program or even a two parter x
One of the most exciting episodes for ages , a real contradiction for the naysayers, especially when the information comes from a great source like this guy. Well done Robert !!
Fantastic talk Robert! Key takeaways for me were, the large-scale use of batteries to store energy & assist during periods of high demand & the phrase, ‘We’re the first generation to understand climate change & the last that can do anything about it’!!! So very true!!
@John Ashtone Multi cyclical space weather emissions will dictate the Earth's weather systems and consequently, harvest growing seasons as it always has done. Too low CO2 will adversely affect our ecosystems.
James Kelloway was fantastic. Please get him on again. Clear information the we can all understand.maybe he could do more in depth episodes on how it all works?
Thank you James! keep up the good work! thought the vid was short! I could listen to this guy for a good while longer. am so excited for the next 5 years :D
Thank you for this fantastic update on the UK Grid progress over the last 10 years. It is interesting to share some recent changes in South Australia to compare against comments that were made around the 11.30-time stamp on this video. The topic being discussed was "Inertia". In South Australia, we are lucky to have had the "Hornsdale Power Reserve" (HPR) installed in late 2017. This was the largest battery in the world when it was installed at 100MW / 129 MWh. Since its initial operation, HPR has been enormously successful for the Owner Neoen (from a financial perspective) and for the Australian NEM and the NEM Operator, AEMO. So much so that the owner and AEMO have recently upgraded HPR's capacity to 150 MW / 193.5 MWh and they have added "Grid-forming" Controls. This recent upgrade does two things for HPR. It maintains the title of the world's largest battery for HPR in June of 2020. The "Grid-forming" controls now add AEMO recognized "Virtual Inertia" to HPR. In fact, AEMO recognizes HPR's "Virtual Inertia" as the equivalent of 3000 MWs of "Real Inertia", which amounts to half the required "Real Inertia" for South Australia. I suspect that the UK Grid will be adding "Grid-forming" Controls to storage al over the UK sometime soon. When it does, this discussion of inertia will move to the "Virtual Inertia" discussion. As it should, because "Virtual Inertia" is automated and far more responsive and reliable than real inertia.
What a brilliant interview. I would love to work with someone like James. Relentlessly enthusiastic, sees challenges rather than barriers. Feel very relieved that there is such a great team working at National Grid embracing the challenges that intermittent generation and storage bring because the benefits are just so huge and so important!
It’s really exciting how far we’ve come. Electric buses might not be as bad as he thinks though, my local bus company “Big Lemon buses” in Brighton, UK has been converting its fleet to electric over the past few years, as part of this they installed a solar array on their depot roofs. Whilst it won’t be enough by the time they’ve converted their entire fleet it should take the edge off. I love the slogan on their diesel buses “when I grow up I want to be electric” :-)
I love the way you have segmented the video into sections that you can see when moving mouse over the buffer scrub bar. Now this is as nice as timestamps in a comment!
This is fantastic. I keep telling people that positive things are happening and I really need to start sharing actual content more! My natural lethargy is like a massive coal-heavy weight dragging me down. I need to stand up and shout 'I am Spartacus'. Although my name is not Spartacus. I have met someone called Hadrian though, but that is not relevant.
Congrats not only for your 10th anniversary but also for this good interview. You guys are doing a brilliant job with green energy in UK. I’m happy to see how seriously are you tackling climate change. Best regards from Barcelona.
Really interesting interview. I'd love to hear a more in-depth one with him talking about real-time monitoring and balancing where he explains the basis and operation of dispatching and curtailment decisions and how they are implemented. Another great topic would be an in-depth review of the real time spot-pricing market for power.
What a delight to listen to a superbly well informed guy who can put complex issues across with such clarity and enthusiasm. With people like him involved in our energy infrastructure there is real hope in spite of the efforts of certain politicians and their fossil fuel buddies. Excellent episode.
I love watching knowledgeable and enthusiastic people. They can make pretty much any subject interesting. My only criticism is that the episode was too short!
Please don't wait so long before you speak to this man again! It is excellent to hear all the updates from the national grid, and [InsertFavouriteDeityNameHere] only knows we need all the good news we can get! Well done!
Excellent, well spoken and explained at a level that most could access, Another excellent fully charged production it’s clear to see why fully charged is one of the leaders in educating people in alternative energies
Great video, I've seen the grid from a Swiss control room. They are the accountants of the European Grid. It is too bad that they don't transfer the subsidies they have for fossil fuels and really make an effort for renewables. One interesting part of the equation would be to see the need for all of the toxic products used for the oil industry go off line. The oil industry alone uses 43% of all the electricity in the world. But that isn't taking into account the chemicals needed for fracking and tar sands. And don't forget the products (lubrifiants, etc) that a petrol car needs. There is a trial going on now for the chemical plant in Rouen, France.
Do you have a reference for "The oil industry alone uses 43% of all the electricity in the world."? seems completely irrational given information available e.g UK Domestic vs Industrial electricity demand etc.
I think you've just found another presenter. James is brilliant, infectiously enthusiastic, and explaining complex processes in easy to understand terms. I really enjoyed this video!
What a thoroughly nice chap. Really great interview with some great stats. I would just like to say that even through lockdown, the content has been every bit as enjoyable, and hopefully, as bad as this pandemic is, the world will be a greener place for it. Keep up the good work 😁👍
I haven't completely watched the video yet, but I do want to say that it's amazing fullychargedshow is 10 years old, I've been watching for the last 2 years now, and this channel was one of the big motivators I got to do a complete career change and start uni this year doing Environmental Science for the next 4 years. The future is looking exciting.
James is passionate about the subject, knowledgable and engaging. I really hope when restrictions lift you do another video with him at an exciting location. It's great to be educated without realising it because the conversation is so easy to follow. The same as the Dan Snow video. Can you get Dan and James in the same location and just let them talk?
I’d just like to congratulate you on some really fantastic content, thanks Fully Charged. From one Electrical Engineer to another (I work in distribution rather than Transmission) - it’s great to hear some simple analysis on the capacity of the grid. I’m forever explaining that there aren’t really shortcomings, we can handle the loads now, maybe with a bit of reinforcement over time. The key battle ground for tackling climate control is public perception of Nuclear. This is where we will win or fail. Also, not only does it give inertia to the grid, it’s also the best at taking the base load as a nuclear power plant is best ran near to capacity.
Very interesting and definitely be good to see and hear more around this kind of thing with the grid people involved as its really eye opening to what they're doing and how it impacts us all. Its also really good to see someone talk about the work they do so enthusiastically too!
Congratulations on 10 successful years of Fully Charged. Stay healthy so you can make it to Fully Charged live in Austin, Texas 2021. I already bought my tickets.
A great relief, that someone senior is delivering exciting positive news.. I’m fed up of all the usual ‘ we can’t cope with electrics the grid will blow up’ ‘ renewables are rubbish’
A fantastic episode, it's great to hear the big view on electricity supply and demand, fascinating and easy to understand. It's definitely worth getting James back regularly, as it would be good to get his views on how home PV and battery storage options may fit into the overall picture. Thanks both!
This interview really needs to be updated every year or two so that we can watch them all back to back 20 years from now. It's a shame we had to wait so long for this update but this isn't a complaint, I completely understand it's not easy to set these things up. Great work.
Another excellent FC video! We were told years ago that renewable energy could only be a small contributor to the grid - wow! This should inspire us all that we can do this, we can take responsibility for our planet, we can make a difference. We need our leaders to get behind this, and stop subsidising the fossil fuel industry. Robert - a video on how our tax money is used to prop up the fossils in the fossil fuel industry would be awesome!
James was such a good sport! Please have him again on the show, or visit the HQ again! Or you do a monthly update with him, with news on the UK grid and such?
Just the episode I wanted! Thanks @fullychargedshow ! I feel it would still be interesting to get a big deeper on why it costs money to stop the windmills (and so it's cheaper to pay people to use the excess energy)
Agree with the comments within, great to listen to someone who knows what he’s doing and recognises why, this is good news you’ll never hear on the BBC
Great video. I find it quite amusing when I talk to someone in the pub (remember those days?) and they start talking about all the problems with producing renewable energy and the load from charging a car as if they were the only person who had ever thought of these issues. They conveniently forget the slight pollution issue with burning fossil fuels.
Working on the transition to a clean dynamic smart grid is about the only thing that tempts me back into engineering after 20 years away! It's a mouth watering challenge for an engineer, with so many opportunities for really elegant solutions.
GREAT INTERVIEW one of the best eps of lockdown for me! For people wanting to know more about how negative prices works i've got 2 videos on my channel one all about AGILE pricing and another with an interview for Greg Jackson octopus energy CEO
That is a topic that I'm very much interested in. How the grid is operated. This is a great interview. Hoping there will be more on this in the future. Happy 10 year anniversary, it is a big one!
What a brilliant episode. And I also caught on the news the other day that the power utility companies have reduced Thier oil usage massively, and coal usage is almost non existent now. That's great news, especially as I remember being told 40 years ago that we only had 65 years left of Gas and Oil. It's such a shame they dragged Thier feet for 30 years before they thought about doing something about it. So I'm looking forward to cleaner air in the near future. If we could just get batteries that are lighter in weight but with increased capacity then Electric-only public and commercial transport will finally become a fully viable option. It still grated me to have to pay £200 for replacement Lead Acid AGM batteries for my wife's wheelchair because there isn't any Lithium alternatives readily available. THAT has to change. ...FAST
Another brilliant episode. As an aside, it's baffling to me why trolls subscribe to content they take umbrage with. This episode has been online for a few minutes and there's already a couple of people trolling! What twisted logic leads people to chose this as a way of life?
I oftentimes wonder the same. My best conclusion is they feel threatened in some way. Or perhaps they're seeking a bit of attention missing in their lives.
James was fantastic, his enthusiasm shone through. I really believe we have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us. Now, I was told there was no such thing as a stupid question, so here is my attempt at one. The concept of using electricity stored in vehicles to supply the grid, is this to take tiny amounts from many vehicles and that there isn't a risk of having an uncharged vehicle because of this concept? I really cannot wait to see where we are in 10 years' time.
Coal has been disappearing from our grid, which is good not just from an emissions perspective but also from a human health perspective. However, the majority of coal power stations have been replaced with gas and biomass power stations, which once you take the fugitive gas emissions and biomass sourcing in to account, the CO2eq g/kWh for these can be as as bad as or even worse than for coal. Biomass is a "renewable", but it is not clean and is not necessarily even low carbon. Nuclear is ultra low carbon, with median CO2eq life cycle emissions just 25% of solar PV (according to the IPCC's 2013 Life Cycle Analysis), and only marginally higher than wind. There is the issue of nuclear waste, but most of the high level nuclear waste consists of partly used fuel (less than 5% used), which is an unnecessary burden. The technology already exists to vastly reduce the volume and longevity of waste, for example Canada's CANDU heavy water reactors (which can run on waste from light water reactors, and run on unenriched uranium) with even more advanced waste burner reactors in development, for example Moltex Energy's (a British/Canadian company) Stable Salt Reactor - Wasteburner (SSR-W). Alas, in the UK we have largely squandered our nuclear expertise, allowed our nuclear industry to die, and allowed radiophobia to thrive, and then we winge about Hinckley Point C being expensive.
@@fullychargedshow I love the show, have been watching it from the start, and have been a Patreon for many years, so the show's positions are evident to me from its output. I post comments like these because they cover things the show/episode does not, cannot or will not. It is my duty as an ecomodernist to inform people so that they can take positive evidence based environmental action.
Today. Saturday. 13.03 Biomass, 3.7% Unclear, 17.8% Wind, solar 53.3% Unclear energy is not "green" untill it is 1) Producing power, 2) Has offset the fossil energy used in *its* construction, 3) Has offset the amount of fossil energy it will trace on the grid during its construction time (10 years?) It *is not* "ultra low carbon" soon enough. And just btw, the reason "we moan about Hinkley C"? It IS expensive! Sizewell is looking the same way! And what's this going on with EDF in France? "Adjusting" arrangements with suppliers? (Just skim read the story, needs more research on my part, but looks like they have issues?)
Robert. My environment degree mentor at University of Kent/Canterbury said to me that we were the first generation to fully understand climate change and the last to be able to tackle it before it got out of control. And that was in 1997. 👍
The UK's national grid has been utterly transformed in the last 8 years with coal making way for wind and solar. This is only the beginning of the shift to green energy, watch as James Kelloway, Energy Intelligence Manager, from National Grid ESO explains how the UK became genuinely world-leading, and because "we are the first generation who understand climate change, and the last who can do anything about it", where we are going next. Robert talks to James about how renewables are overtaking fossil fuels, supply and demand, artificial intelligence, vehicle-to-grid, batteries, negative pricing, nuclear, exporting renewable energy, electrifying heat and transport, and the future increase in wind, solar and tidal. For easy reference through each section of this episode, see *timestamps* in the description.
I'm looking to join an ELC and your endorsement or investment in green tech could really help my application.
It's a lifelong dream for me to do this and either way you're welcome to see how I'm doing and be a part of it if you like.
The plan is to be growing exotic fruit and veg here in South Wales and reducing the carbon miles from that sort of produce. It's doable with battery storage improvements and the other green tech we're seeing rolled out thesedays.
Please respond here and I will send you my email address if you'd like to discuss further.
Best,
Ben
Fantastic news, at a time when it's desperately needed!
Paul Krugmen (Nobel Prize winning economist) suggested preparing for an alien invasion to fix the economy. Instead we're trying trying to save the world from CO2, the air every living thing breathes out! The sea levels have been rising since the last ice age. People used to live on The Doggerlands connecting England to Europe until it flooded about 7000BC!
fullychargedshow What surprised me as an American how this changing videos moved me personally over to your renewable electricity is what keeps me coming back to you so keep on showing us the actual use that we can all understand and some cases buy that devices or pressure our government to use!
So is fully charged a supporter of nuclear power? Cuz basically all I see is renewable energy sources getting a lot of attention. And republicans in my country are supporting renewables cuz they’re cheaper to run from what I hear.
What a top bloke! Really interesting and he made it easy to understand.
Can we have more of him, please?
Where's the episode where you visited the power plant?
I concur.
Pretty please, he's a Jedi master of explanations
Or maybe an yearly update on the latest changes/improvements
Now there's a guy who loves his job.
So easy to understand this guy, he actually speaks normal person English.
Without being patronising either. A good skill to have.
You mean Bob right. Te other gentlenan is little hard to understand.
@@najibyarzerachic not talking about the quality of the microphone 😆
I am shocked, amazed and pleased that in 2020 there is actually someone who seems excellent at his job in charge of something in Great Britain.
You need people who are quite good at their jobs to support the level of incompetence further up the chain without the country turning to soup. Really these Sargent level people are why we can afford the luxury of a complete basket of weevils in the executive branch.
As an engineering student, going for masters degree in energy, I can reassure you that this bloke is not alone in his enthousiasm!
All of us are really excited about the big and fast changes, and the important, but solvable challenges in this area.
🤣
The people who work at ESO are generally dedicated, intelligent, committed, professional and rather sexy in a subtle way.
The fact that this kind of exclusive interview if free, for us the watch, is true testimony to the hard work of people at fully charged. So much great information all available online
Thank you Robert, you’ve created an incredible show, one that excites me for the future of energy
Well said.
I’m so proud of NG ESO despite never having worked with them. As a group of academics and engineers they could have pushed back against renewables and killed the market in the UK, instead they are pushing us forward, and step by step knocking down the arguments from the “whatabouters”. James in this video is THE PERFECT EXAMPLE of a really clever person, he makes the complicated seem simple by using words that everyone can understand, has a great and warm personality and seems relentlessly enthusiastic about saving our planet. Top people all around, the only shame is that “Dave down the pub” isn’t interested in facts, just what he heard 10 years ago from “Kevin”.
Or saw in a video by Michael Moore. :)
Renewable is good for national grid. All those wires into the north sea and across the country
The whole ethos of the company as a whole is really positive, supportive and (best of all) open minded, so I'm told. So I'm glad about that.
@@penfold7800 Yes it's great to see, NG are very 'switched on' and understand what needs to be done. But the chain is only as string as the weakest link and the DNOs are lot more variable in my experience. Tight capacity and quick fixes all over the place due to rampant housing & commercial development, sweated assets/long term lack of investment and not enough experienced staff left who understand how it all works. And the DNOs probably have as big a job than NG, if not much bigger, to make this transition work. Not least because most of their many thousand miles of cables are in the ground and it's hard to find space for new sub stations in urban areas. Hope I'm wrong about this!
Remember the BT slogan 'talk is cheap' :)
Kelloway seems like a great chap; bet he's a superb boss. His explanations of complex principles are just great.
Great to finally see an update from the grid. Book him in for an annual update !! :)
Really liked James, really clear explanations and his enthusiasm is brilliant. Would like to see some more episodes about the changes in energy generation
I've been watching 'Fully Charged' since the very first episode ten years ago.
Robert Llewellyn covers all things electric. Electric vehicles of ALL kinds, smart grids, solar and wind, battery technology and energy storage. He examines renewable energy from literally the microscopic level to literally 10,000 feet.
I can't imagine life without Robert and 'Fully Charged'.
I've been with this channel from the beginning because I was looking for GOOD NEWS about the future. You know HOPE was a bit thin on the ground then (though not as bad as today appears to be) so this channel has been a beacon of positive and uplifting news to make moving forward to a future worth living in look possible.
There comes a time when you want more than imagination and wishful thinking, you need something to be created to be MADE. I found so much here, in fact I continue to find so much here and this was a classic old school Fully Charged that ties and old episode to current day.
Robert and team, please do more follow up, where are we now videos. Time has moved so quickly and some things seem to have gone backwards for the worse... so it would be great to shine a spotlight on our progress... especially today.
Excellent and fascinating. Top man that Mr Kelloway
It's an accomplishment we should all be proud of in the UK. For an example, an hour of so after the video was released solar is providing 21.6% of our power and wind 31.3%. At 3pm on a Friday afternoon in June. Just think what can be done in the next decade. Amazing.
Yet 8 hours or so after the video was released, all 13.4GW of Britain's solar via 1.027m installations was providing zero, zilch, nada.
@@ronhughes3444
How was the wind?
I bet you didn't even look.
Ron Hughes : and here we go again, another grumpy naysayer.
@@ronhughes3444 I believe that's because solar only works during the day.
It’s great to see a success story like this and it really gives me hope for a greener and sustainable future to electrical supply.
Plus he was a right cracking bloke.
Brilliant interview. Nice to have someone speak in plain English with such enthusiasm. This is another one of those videos to point people too when they start the tailpipe vs electricity emissions debate around EV's
Such a great talk! SO many questions in my head answered. Greetings from Germany, love your vids Robert.
Fantastic interview. Makes me want to work for the national grid
Awesome interview. It's great to see someone so knowledgable and enthusiastic about his job. You can tell he loves doing what he does. Let's see more from this guy please.
Electric boilers are mentioned. It would be really good to have an episode on this topic.
Solar Thermal (evacuated tubes) paired with Electric Boilers would be the perfect combo.
Simon Adams, we'll be replacing our current gas-fired water heater shortly, was looking to replace with electric but unfortunately the U.S. doesn't have domestic 240V like we had in the U.K., meaning a fairly heavy cost to rewire/upgrade just to heat up water using electricity from our local monopoly supplier over a non-smart grid.
I guess electric boilers running of a air source heat pump right? These are much more efficient because the power is used to drive pumps, not to actually hear the water. The heat comes from ambient outside air :)
@@michaelrch IIRC Heat Pump can't achieve high enough temperature to get water seriously hot. Still would have to resort to Resistive for raising to boiler tank temps. But raising it part way with alternative methods is massively more efficient, geo ground heat pump or Solar thermal depending on the climate would make sense.
My Dad looked into an electric boiler recently and it seems they are still not good enough to replace gas, I mean they need to be cheaper over their lifetime and do the job.
What a nice chap who talks in a manner that’s easy to follow
I'm here to complain! ... that should have been longer :) x
I'm guessing you'll be back at the National Grid HQ as soon as is possible, it's such a great story of progress to tell.
Programs like this help combat the negativity often found online. I can remember back when we would hear things like the Grid would never be more than 5% then 10% renewables, still now when a record is broken they say the grid won't get cleaner. The first time Fully Charged went to the National Grid HQ it was so heartening to see and I can't wait to see you back there again... just make it a nice long program or even a two parter x
One of the most exciting episodes for ages , a real contradiction for the naysayers, especially when the information comes from a great source like this guy.
Well done Robert !!
Thanks for this superb interview. Please have this man back again.
This was absolutely amazing interview! Thank you for doing it! 😊
Fantastic talk Robert! Key takeaways for me were, the large-scale use of batteries to store energy & assist during periods of high demand & the phrase, ‘We’re the first generation to understand climate change & the last that can do anything about it’!!! So very true!!
Robert, in 10 years time you'll be able to say again "I was right all along". Thanks for your videos!
@John Ashtone Multi cyclical space weather emissions will dictate the Earth's weather systems and consequently, harvest growing seasons as it always has done. Too low CO2 will adversely affect our ecosystems.
James Kelloway was fantastic. Please get him on again. Clear information the we can all understand.maybe he could do more in depth episodes on how it all works?
Absolutely fascinating conversation! Loved this one! Great to hear about what the grid are up to!
Thank you James! keep up the good work! thought the vid was short! I could listen to this guy for a good while longer. am so excited for the next 5 years :D
Thank you for this fantastic update on the UK Grid progress over the last 10 years. It is interesting to share some recent changes in South Australia to compare against comments that were made around the 11.30-time stamp on this video. The topic being discussed was "Inertia". In South Australia, we are lucky to have had the "Hornsdale Power Reserve" (HPR) installed in late 2017. This was the largest battery in the world when it was installed at 100MW / 129 MWh. Since its initial operation, HPR has been enormously successful for the Owner Neoen (from a financial perspective) and for the Australian NEM and the NEM Operator, AEMO. So much so that the owner and AEMO have recently upgraded HPR's capacity to 150 MW / 193.5 MWh and they have added "Grid-forming" Controls. This recent upgrade does two things for HPR. It maintains the title of the world's largest battery for HPR in June of 2020. The "Grid-forming" controls now add AEMO recognized "Virtual Inertia" to HPR. In fact, AEMO recognizes HPR's "Virtual Inertia" as the equivalent of 3000 MWs of "Real Inertia", which amounts to half the required "Real Inertia" for South Australia. I suspect that the UK Grid will be adding "Grid-forming" Controls to storage al over the UK sometime soon. When it does, this discussion of inertia will move to the "Virtual Inertia" discussion. As it should, because "Virtual Inertia" is automated and far more responsive and reliable than real inertia.
What a brilliant interview. I would love to work with someone like James. Relentlessly enthusiastic, sees challenges rather than barriers. Feel very relieved that there is such a great team working at National Grid embracing the challenges that intermittent generation and storage bring because the benefits are just so huge and so important!
Thank you! Yet another fascinating video, and an admirable followup to your original National Grid episode.
These conversations are extremely important and I appreciate the information.
Absolutely wonderful to see the progress and changes over the last ten years!
It’s really exciting how far we’ve come. Electric buses might not be as bad as he thinks though, my local bus company “Big Lemon buses” in Brighton, UK has been converting its fleet to electric over the past few years, as part of this they installed a solar array on their depot roofs. Whilst it won’t be enough by the time they’ve converted their entire fleet it should take the edge off. I love the slogan on their diesel buses “when I grow up I want to be electric” :-)
That was absolutely enthralling. Get him on regularly!
I concur. Truly brilliant! Following this channel with a lot of enthusiasm.
I love the way you have segmented the video into sections that you can see when moving mouse over the buffer scrub bar. Now this is as nice as timestamps in a comment!
Delighted to hear that, it was a late night task!
So good to hear such a forward thinking, interesting and positive conversation at this time - brilliant show love it!
This is fantastic. I keep telling people that positive things are happening and I really need to start sharing actual content more! My natural lethargy is like a massive coal-heavy weight dragging me down. I need to stand up and shout 'I am Spartacus'. Although my name is not Spartacus. I have met someone called Hadrian though, but that is not relevant.
Stipulation.
If you do proclaim your identity it has to be in your best "Daffy Duck" voice"!
😁
Super informative and exciting to see where significant changes are happening!!
Congrats not only for your 10th anniversary but also for this good interview. You guys are doing a brilliant job with green energy in UK. I’m happy to see how seriously are you tackling climate change. Best regards from Barcelona.
Really interesting interview. I'd love to hear a more in-depth one with him talking about real-time monitoring and balancing where he explains the basis and operation of dispatching and curtailment decisions and how they are implemented. Another great topic would be an in-depth review of the real time spot-pricing market for power.
Thnx Guys for covering such a wide range of issues in a professional manner 🙏🏻
Top bloke who knows what he’s talking about. Robert’s ok as well......👍
What a delight to listen to a superbly well informed guy who can put complex issues across with such clarity and enthusiasm. With people like him involved in our energy infrastructure there is real hope in spite of the efforts of certain politicians and their fossil fuel buddies. Excellent episode.
Damn 10 years... I've been an ev owner for a decade... I remember when I found this channel... It was so small... To the next 10 🍾
Inspirational , I am loving this new age, the faster the better. Great work Robert and the team.
I love watching knowledgeable and enthusiastic people. They can make pretty much any subject interesting. My only criticism is that the episode was too short!
I live in Perth Australia, we have a lot of work to do with renewable energy and EV's. I love the show, keep up the good work.
One of the best interviews I’ve watched. He’s passionate about his job and trying to do good for the world.
Please don't wait so long before you speak to this man again! It is excellent to hear all the updates from the national grid, and [InsertFavouriteDeityNameHere] only knows we need all the good news we can get!
Well done!
I love that intro before the interview. 😍 Clean energy 🌎🌍🌏♻️❤️
Excellent, well spoken and explained at a level that most could access,
Another excellent fully charged production it’s clear to see why fully charged is one of the leaders in educating people in alternative energies
Great video, I've seen the grid from a Swiss control room. They are the accountants of the European Grid. It is too bad that they don't transfer the subsidies they have for fossil fuels and really make an effort for renewables. One interesting part of the equation would be to see the need for all of the toxic products used for the oil industry go off line. The oil industry alone uses 43% of all the electricity in the world. But that isn't taking into account the chemicals needed for fracking and tar sands. And don't forget the products (lubrifiants, etc) that a petrol car needs. There is a trial going on now for the chemical plant in Rouen, France.
Do you have a reference for "The oil industry alone uses 43% of all the electricity in the world."? seems completely irrational given information available e.g UK Domestic vs Industrial electricity demand etc.
I think you've just found another presenter. James is brilliant, infectiously enthusiastic, and explaining complex processes in easy to understand terms. I really enjoyed this video!
What a thoroughly nice chap. Really great interview with some great stats. I would just like to say that even through lockdown, the content has been every bit as enjoyable, and hopefully, as bad as this pandemic is, the world will be a greener place for it. Keep up the good work 😁👍
I haven't completely watched the video yet, but I do want to say that it's amazing fullychargedshow is 10 years old, I've been watching for the last 2 years now, and this channel was one of the big motivators I got to do a complete career change and start uni this year doing Environmental Science for the next 4 years. The future is looking exciting.
James is passionate about the subject, knowledgable and engaging. I really hope when restrictions lift you do another video with him at an exciting location. It's great to be educated without realising it because the conversation is so easy to follow. The same as the Dan Snow video. Can you get Dan and James in the same location and just let them talk?
Great insight! It gives one hope to know such an articulate intelligent man who believes in climate change has control of the situation.
I’d just like to congratulate you on some really fantastic content, thanks Fully Charged.
From one Electrical Engineer to another (I work in distribution rather than Transmission) - it’s great to hear some simple analysis on the capacity of the grid. I’m forever explaining that there aren’t really shortcomings, we can handle the loads now, maybe with a bit of reinforcement over time.
The key battle ground for tackling climate control is public perception of Nuclear. This is where we will win or fail. Also, not only does it give inertia to the grid, it’s also the best at taking the base load as a nuclear power plant is best ran near to capacity.
Very interesting and definitely be good to see and hear more around this kind of thing with the grid people involved as its really eye opening to what they're doing and how it impacts us all. Its also really good to see someone talk about the work they do so enthusiastically too!
Congratulations on 10 successful years of Fully Charged. Stay healthy so you can make it to Fully Charged live in Austin, Texas 2021. I already bought my tickets.
A great relief, that someone senior is delivering exciting positive news.. I’m fed up of all the usual ‘ we can’t cope with electrics the grid will blow up’ ‘ renewables are rubbish’
When the pubs open up some get that man a pint so knows his stuff
What an interesting, knowledgeable and high energy guy James is....brilliant...
A fantastic episode, it's great to hear the big view on electricity supply and demand, fascinating and easy to understand. It's definitely worth getting James back regularly, as it would be good to get his views on how home PV and battery storage options may fit into the overall picture. Thanks both!
This interview really needs to be updated every year or two so that we can watch them all back to back 20 years from now. It's a shame we had to wait so long for this update but this isn't a complaint, I completely understand it's not easy to set these things up.
Great work.
What a delight - no irrelevant music and free of irritating jump cuts all the time. Big channels please copy !
It's great to hear from someone with such a "can do" attitude, it sounds like the UK grid is ready to take on the challenge to turn our grid green. 🙂
Another excellent FC video! We were told years ago that renewable energy could only be a small contributor to the grid - wow! This should inspire us all that we can do this, we can take responsibility for our planet, we can make a difference. We need our leaders to get behind this, and stop subsidising the fossil fuel industry. Robert - a video on how our tax money is used to prop up the fossils in the fossil fuel industry would be awesome!
Gosh, James interviewed really well. Easily understood without complicating things. Yes, take him up on his offer of a return "visit".
Who watches TV shows anymore!!! Thank you a lot for the great content
James was such a good sport! Please have him again on the show, or visit the HQ again! Or you do a monthly update with him, with news on the UK grid and such?
Top bloke and obviously passionate about his work. Great he could explain it in simple language so I could understand!
Just the episode I wanted! Thanks @fullychargedshow ! I feel it would still be interesting to get a big deeper on why it costs money to stop the windmills (and so it's cheaper to pay people to use the excess energy)
That's just the sort of positive information we need to hear right now!
A really good video with exceptionally well described ideas and concepts.
If he ever quits his day job... i think you've found new fully charged presenter!
Totally inspiring. Thank you!
So refreshing and exciting to hear from such a proactive leader within this momentous period of energy disruption and transition.
Agree with the comments within, great to listen to someone who knows what he’s doing and recognises why, this is good news you’ll never hear on the BBC
What a brilliant guest,totally understandable and informative, excellent episode. Thanks
Really informative; thank you both!
Great to have someone who’s really enthusiastic about their job AND able to explain it simply.
Who the heck would thumbs down this? It is pure positivity and hope!
Great video. I find it quite amusing when I talk to someone in the pub (remember those days?) and they start talking about all the problems with producing renewable energy and the load from charging a car as if they were the only person who had ever thought of these issues. They conveniently forget the slight pollution issue with burning fossil fuels.
Working on the transition to a clean dynamic smart grid is about the only thing that tempts me back into engineering after 20 years away! It's a mouth watering challenge for an engineer, with so many opportunities for really elegant solutions.
Top notch episode. More like this please!
GREAT INTERVIEW one of the best eps of lockdown for me! For people wanting to know more about how negative prices works i've got 2 videos on my channel one all about AGILE pricing and another with an interview for Greg Jackson octopus energy CEO
That is a topic that I'm very much interested in. How the grid is operated. This is a great interview. Hoping there will be more on this in the future. Happy 10 year anniversary, it is a big one!
These are truly exciting times and it fills one with optimism that we are heading in the right direction with pace.
What a brilliant episode. And I also caught on the news the other day that the power utility companies have reduced Thier oil usage massively, and coal usage is almost non existent now. That's great news, especially as I remember being told 40 years ago that we only had 65 years left of Gas and Oil. It's such a shame they dragged Thier feet for 30 years before they thought about doing something about it. So I'm looking forward to cleaner air in the near future. If we could just get batteries that are lighter in weight but with increased capacity then Electric-only public and commercial transport will finally become a fully viable option. It still grated me to have to pay £200 for replacement Lead Acid AGM batteries for my wife's wheelchair because there isn't any Lithium alternatives readily available. THAT has to change. ...FAST
Another brilliant episode.
As an aside, it's baffling to me why trolls subscribe to content they take umbrage with. This episode has been online for a few minutes and there's already a couple of people trolling! What twisted logic leads people to chose this as a way of life?
I oftentimes wonder the same. My best conclusion is they feel threatened in some way. Or perhaps they're seeking a bit of attention missing in their lives.
Thank you, Bobby, for the last ten years, it's been fun.
James was fantastic, his enthusiasm shone through. I really believe we have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us. Now, I was told there was no such thing as a stupid question, so here is my attempt at one. The concept of using electricity stored in vehicles to supply the grid, is this to take tiny amounts from many vehicles and that there isn't a risk of having an uncharged vehicle because of this concept? I really cannot wait to see where we are in 10 years' time.
Superbly interesting, thank you very much.
Coal has been disappearing from our grid, which is good not just from an emissions perspective but also from a human health perspective. However, the majority of coal power stations have been replaced with gas and biomass power stations, which once you take the fugitive gas emissions and biomass sourcing in to account, the CO2eq g/kWh for these can be as as bad as or even worse than for coal. Biomass is a "renewable", but it is not clean and is not necessarily even low carbon.
Nuclear is ultra low carbon, with median CO2eq life cycle emissions just 25% of solar PV (according to the IPCC's 2013 Life Cycle Analysis), and only marginally higher than wind. There is the issue of nuclear waste, but most of the high level nuclear waste consists of partly used fuel (less than 5% used), which is an unnecessary burden.
The technology already exists to vastly reduce the volume and longevity of waste, for example Canada's CANDU heavy water reactors (which can run on waste from light water reactors, and run on unenriched uranium) with even more advanced waste burner reactors in development, for example Moltex Energy's (a British/Canadian company) Stable Salt Reactor - Wasteburner (SSR-W).
Alas, in the UK we have largely squandered our nuclear expertise, allowed our nuclear industry to die, and allowed radiophobia to thrive, and then we winge about Hinckley Point C being expensive.
Thank you! We explain our position on each technology here: fullycharged.show/blog/renewable-energy-isnt-doable-its-being-done-and-its-unstoppable/
@@fullychargedshow I love the show, have been watching it from the start, and have been a Patreon for many years, so the show's positions are evident to me from its output. I post comments like these because they cover things the show/episode does not, cannot or will not. It is my duty as an ecomodernist to inform people so that they can take positive evidence based environmental action.
We're trying to get around to it a David! The Fully Charged cosmos is vast these days. Thanks, Dan
Ecomodernists are my favourite environmentalists :) keep up the good fight brother!
Today.
Saturday.
13.03
Biomass, 3.7%
Unclear, 17.8%
Wind, solar 53.3%
Unclear energy is not "green" untill it is
1) Producing power,
2) Has offset the fossil energy used in *its* construction,
3) Has offset the amount of fossil energy it will trace on the grid during its construction time (10 years?)
It *is not* "ultra low carbon" soon enough.
And just btw, the reason "we moan about Hinkley C"?
It IS expensive!
Sizewell is looking the same way!
And what's this going on with EDF in France? "Adjusting" arrangements with suppliers? (Just skim read the story, needs more research on my part, but looks like they have issues?)
Robert. My environment degree mentor at University of Kent/Canterbury said to me that we were the first generation to fully understand climate change and the last to be able to tackle it before it got out of control. And that was in 1997. 👍
Great guy and conversation!!! Very interesting and easy to understand. Wish more people were like this when they are explaining complex items