Running out
Our youngest daughter’s gas supply has been cut off because a water main burst and flooded the gas pipes. She uses gas for heating and cooking. More than three thousand homes in her area have been affected. The water must be pumped out of the pipes and household appliances must be checked to ensure that they are safe to use. The gas supplier states:
“We first need to turn off supply at every impacted property, then remove all the water that flooded in, and only then can we safely reintroduce gas to the network. We will need to make a return visit to every property to turn supply back on and check everything is working okay.“
As a result, people are using more electricity. Now people are being asked to limit their use of electricity because supplies are running low. This creates many problems, for families, schools, businesses, and institutes which do not have stand-by electric generators.
Our daughter does not live in the boondocks. She lives in London.
It is hard to ascertain the facts behind the all-too-often political statements about the availability and stability of current and future energy supplies in the UK.
Such lack of clarity on the subject is leading to a growing number of people seeking independent power. This could be supplied from individual household backup electrical generators and batteries. There are already backup generators in a number of large establishments in the community.
EDF, one of the biggest suppliers of electricity in the UK, has stated that there will be sufficient energy because of solar panels on house roofs. This is, at best, an overly optimistic and unquantifiable view.
Meanwhile, our daughter and her family, friends and neighbours continue to shiver through the days, waiting for the gas to be reconnected and life to return to normal.
Perhaps this demonstrates that energy is a scarcer commodity in the UK than we have been led to realise. In a nod to the past, maybe we should become accustomed to the regularity of brownouts and power cuts.
Post script: The gas was reconnected late on Sunday morning!
Power supply gets shaky for a umber of reasons. a power outage makes for very uncomfortable conditions.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does if there are no alternatives.
DeleteI feel so sorry for your daughter and all affected families. Hopefully there is someplace to go for showers and cooking?
ReplyDeleteEnergy supply is iffy everywhere it seems, here in Australia the infrastructure of poles and wires is all very old and needs much repair which the government won't pay for because supplies have been privatised and "those" people don't care for anything but their profits. Meanwhile breakdowns are common and to "save" power people are finding themselves in "brownouts" where the power is cut for a specified time during heatwaves so there is no airconditioning or even fans during those hours which are usually just when people need them.
I wonder about the use of electric generators, wouldn't they cause a problem when electricity supplies are low?
I wonder too about all the "renewables" the governments are pursuing, costing who knows how many $$$ and none is a reliable source of base supply power, relying on weather conditions instead, sun and wind.
No-one can say what happens when there is no wind or sun.
DeleteOf course it happens during the cold spells; and not to mention the ability to cook your food etc.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the situation gets resolved sooner rather than later.
No-one seems to have sensible answers.
DeleteWe live in an all electric house so when the power goes off for any reason (hurricanes, winter storms, etc.) it leaves us in a bit of a pickle. Fortunately, we also have a fireplace and a plentiful supply of firewood for backup.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for those who do not have alternative fuel supplies. Life must be miserable.
DeleteGas is best for cooking and heating in any case, because it is cheaper and more functional than electricity, even if gas is not literally non-renewable. So if your daughter doesn't have batteries or roof solar panels, she should send her current electricity bills to her normal gas company, until gas is running again.
ReplyDeleteIf only it were that simple . . .
DeleteI had solar power installed last year. This year, the rebate will be reduced to 0.05 cents per kilowatt, which is negligible. As a result, I will need to invest in a battery, which will incur significantly higher costs.
ReplyDeleteThese are the things you're not warned of at the point of installation.
DeleteEnergy supplies are all so very problematical. It's as well to have plans in place for outages!
ReplyDeleteAlways be prepared, as far as possible.
DeleteOur lives these days are all about convenience, turn it on and it works, as a child we had to prepare for winter, logs and coal, mum's kitchen was all electric, but she never got rid of her old cooking stoves and lamps, which came out when necessary.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Everyone expects everything to work all the time, but only the wise take precautions.
DeleteI am so sorry this happened to all those people affected and happy to read at the end they got their gas back.. We were totally lost when our power was out for 7 days, and were totally not prepared for it.. the people who had gas powered generators had trouble getting the gas/petrol for the generators. homes here in Florida are not prepared when we lose what we have. being prepared becomes really expensive and there are not enough generators, we are now caught in the round and round of one thing affects another and another.
ReplyDeleteWe take for granted what we have and are lost when supplies are cut, for whatever reason.Seven days is a long time!
DeleteWhat a tricky situation trying to stay warm without the furnace running. Are the radiators on. I'm glad to hear that they have heat by now. Or we live out in the country most people have a generator. We do not and we have been fortunate for 12 years not to have needed it yet. They are expensive and they have to be operated once a week to make sure they're in good condition. They are extremely loud when they are running once a week.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter bought a couple of oil-filled radiators to warm the rooms and used the immersion heater to heat the water for showers.
DeleteGlad it's back on and am also glad that it didn't happen in a Canadian winter.
ReplyDeleteIf we had extreme weather conditions, most people in urban UK would not be able to cope. Those in rural areas would probably be better equipped.
ReplyDeleteGas stoves are rare in Sweden. Checking with Wikipedia it seems they still exist in areas of our three largest cities though. (I wouldn't know how to use one! I can only recall having seen one once in my life, way back in my early childhood, when visiting a friend of my grandmother's in Gothenburg.) But of course long lasting powercuts can cause similar problems here. In general those are more common in the countryside than in the cities, in connection with storms etc . But here too, people in the countryside are also usually better prepared for those situations than we are in the cities.
ReplyDelete'Brownout' is a new term for me, had to look up the meaning of that.
It's alarming to realise how much we depend on companies for our power.
DeleteThis really isn't good, is it? I am very glad things are on again now but brrrrrrr. xx
ReplyDeleteIt lasted almost a week and she's mightily relieved the gas has been reconnected.
DeleteThis is really bad in this day and age. But for some reason it brought fond memories of the way London homes were heated when I lived there from 1959 - 1962. I lived with a family in a very large house and they had a space as large as a garage full of coal for heating their home.
ReplyDeleteThat is incredible. We have a coal bunker which is topped up every couple of weeks. Our fire certainly keeps our house warm.
DeleteI've learned to be prepared due to experiencing sometimes prolonged power outages over the years. Our weather is such that we can get everything from hurricanes and tornadoes to significant ice/snow storms. Where we live in the US, when we lose electric, we also lose access to water (have a well-needs the pump). That means no toilet, no shower--no water comes from any tap. So I always keep on hand a number of gallon containers filled with water and stored in the garage to handle flushing toilets and a quick wash. If a storm is predicted that I think might significantly interrupt power, I fill the bathtub with water; can use a bucket to flush. I also maintain sterile water supplies for drinking purposes. We do have a wood stove so in winter we can stay warm and even cook on top of it, if necessary. Can heat up kettle for my tea and have instant coffee available for OH. Besides the usual array of flashlights, if the outage is a long one we also have a generator to keep some lights and the refrigerator going. Helps to have an emergency radio that works on batteries or by hand cranking and several power banks for mobiles on hand. The worst time for power loss here is summer (May-Oct) when temps reach the upper 30s and the humidity is insufferable. A fan only does so much to keep you comfortable in those conditions.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I try to be prepared, but sometimes there is only so much one can do. But I do realize how privileged I am to have access to these additional tools/survival methods. Too many people aren't.
Goodness me, you really have to be on top of things, don't you? We have nothing to complain about!
DeleteWe don't have a lot of gas stoves here in Las Vegas. Most everything is electric. I haven't seen a gas stove or heater in years. So when we have a power outage everything gets shut off. Thats never fun.
ReplyDeleteIt makes you realise how powerless we all are, really.
DeleteSounds like the infrastructure of all the energy suppliers needs an update toot sweet. I'm glad your daughter's household is back to normal
ReplyDeleteToo right! There's so much that needs updating. You'd be horrified at the amount of water that is lost daily because of leaking drains.
DeleteOh my goodness, what a thing to have happened. And of course things like that invariably occur when there's a cold spell! xxx
ReplyDeleteFortunately, our daughter was able to make alternative arrangements - oil-filled radiators, for example - but a lot of people simply cannot afford to do that.
DeleteThis is scary. Right now our temperatures are near -6.7 C during day and close to -17.8 C at night and something like this would be a disaster.
ReplyDeleteGood heavens, that's so, so cold. Everything in this country would simply stop . . .
DeleteI think that there was a scare recently with electricity supply when we had a long series of still, grey days ie no wind or solar.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your daughter got her gas back. It must have been hard waiting around and worrying.
That's the problem with 'green' energy - it only works when the wind blows and the sun shines. Even Switzerland, which has hydro-electric power producing most of its electricity, also has nuclear power stations.
DeleteI am so pleased that your daughter's household is back to normal.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder is the energy that we rely on, and perhaps take for granted, a scarcer commodity in the UK than we have been led to realise?
All the best Jan
I believe it is, Jan. We are being hoodwinked, I'm afraid, with promises that cannot be fulfilled. 'Lessons can be learned' - that over-used phrase! - from other countries, like France, Germany, Italy, Spain.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that your daughter had problems with her gas supply for a while. Green energy is just not good enough at the moment to meet all our current needs unfortunately.
ReplyDelete