I totally agree with Richard Phillips' letter (S.T. 3.1.10 Business p.9)). Every new installation of wind power connected to the UK electricity grid requires simultaneous construction and connection of back up gas turbines amounting to at least 90 per cent of the GW capacity of such windpower. It has to be gas turbine capacity (greenhouse gas producing) because only gas turbines offer fast enough response to take over load shed uncontrollably by wind power. Such back up can not be provided by the plant margin held in reserve for the wintertime annual maximum demand of the UK national system.
During summer time and the night of electricity system annual minimum demand. the UK grid connected wind power component, all totally uncontrollable in output level , now growing rapidly year by year, presents another serious problem to UK electricity system stability. The GW capacity of the published government aspirations for wind power will exceed the system annual minimum demand GW. In the event of full load gales coinciding with system minimal demand conditions very large numbers of wind turbines will have to be shut down and isolated from the system.
If in due course the proposed North Sea submarine grid is developed sufficiently to enable surplus electricity on such a scale to be offered by UK wind generators to continental electricity systems the prices obtained during such periods of electricity surplus (which can not be stored) are highly likely to be minimal and uneconomic for UK wind generating companies. That the simple law of supply and demand makes this inevitable has been repeatedly experienced to their cost by Danish wind generators in such conditions . This is only one of the reasons why Mr Gordon Brown's reported ( S.T. 3.1.10) proposed unveiling of a £100bn offshore wind plan is rightly described as a gamble. Unfortunately the risk will inevitably come home to roost with UK electricity consumers and taxpayers.
