Tonight’s eclipse is estimated to see around 1GW in electricity cut from the National Grid as the effectiveness of solar panels dips dramatically.
The amount of lost energy, which is equivalent to a mid-sized coal-fired power plant, will likely be supplanted by ramping up gas generators or importing energy from Europe at a time of peak demand for households. To put it in perspective, country-wide demand for energy on an average Wednesday is around 31GW, so the loss in solar represents around 3.2% of the total UK grid demand.
During the event, energy firm Octopus is calling on customers to cut back on their electricity usage in an attempt to fill some of the gap. Speaking to E+T Magazine, Kieron Stopforth, the firm’s head of flexibility, said that previous customer-led initiatives have been able to save around 200MW in energy at peak, or around a fifth of the estimated loss in solar this evening.
The eclipse is scheduled to begin just after 6PM and last for around two hours with the peak...