UK Electricity Supply Industry Research Articles

Occupational exposures to power-frequency magnetic fields in the electricity supply industry

Reports a survey of the exposure of staff in the UK Electricity Supply Industry to power-frequency magnetic fields. Two hundred and fifty-eight staff from a variety of jobs and locations wore a monitor for 1 week each. The results form a substantial body of data which adds significantly to the understanding of occupational exposures. The results show that fields encountered in shops, offices and distribution sites were roughly half those in power stations, which in turn were half those in transmission sites. Office workers based on transmission sites experienced higher fields (geometric mean of individual time-weighted average fields: 0.48 mu T) than those at headquarters offices (0.18 mu T). In power stations, electrical workers experienced higher fields (0.46 mu T) than mechanical workers (0.25 mu T). Amongst transmission and distribution staff, the highest fields (1.16 mu T) were experienced by transmission substation attendants and the lowest fields (0.17 mu T) by staff working predominantly in domestic environments.

Rising to the challenge - the changing face of Nuclear Electric

Nuclear power was hurriedly with drawn from the UK electricity supply industry privatisation programme in 1989. The Government's decision to do so was because of the industry's poor track record and the apparently crippling liabilities for decommissioning and waste management that arose from the previous 30 years of operation under the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). Here, the author describes how, following the late withdrawal of nuclear power from privatisation, Nuclear Electric set out on the giant task of demonstrating that it could be commercially competitive.

The UK Renewable Energy programme

The UK Government has supported a programme on Renewable Energy since 1975. In 1988 progress was reviewed and this led to some redirection of the programme with greater emphasis on the commercial development of renewables, as published in Energy Paper 55. The climate in which Renewable Energy operates has been influenced recently by a number of factors including privatisation of the UK electricity supply industry, when the Government introduced the New Fossil Fuel Obligation and publication of the Government's 1990 White Paper on the Environment which noted that the Government is working towards a figure of new renewable energy generating capacity of 1000 MW by 2000. The paper aims to give an overview of the present state of development of the renewable technologies in the UK and to discuss some of the factors - technical and non-technical - which will affect their likely future development.

Why nuclear power failed the market test in the UK

The Conservative Party's manifesto for the general election of May 1987 contained two pledges of relevance to the UK electricity supply industry (ESI). These were to privatize the industry; and to continue to support the development of civil nuclear power in the private sector. As anticipated by some independent commentators, in the event these objectives proved incompatible. The costs of nuclear power have long been a vexed issue and UK nuclear costs have been higher than those in many other countries. While most of the UK ESI has now been privatized, nuclear generation remains in the public sector. This article seeks to explore the reasons for this fundamental and politically embarrassing policy reversal, a rarity under three successive Conservative administrations since 1979. It would be incorrect to argue that private ownership and nuclear power are inherently incompatible. Rather the specific - competitive - form of privatization proposed for the UK failed to provide sufficient guarantees for the London capital market. Thus, at least in this specific case, nuclear power failed the market test. The implications of this for the UK nuclear industry have been profound. As a result, the UK case has wider international lessons as the pressures for privatization, liberalization and greater cost transparency bear down upon electric utilities in other countries.

Power generation—an opportunity or a delusion?

Privatization of the UK electricity supply industry will establish the basis for an independent electricity generating sector. By adapting classic life cycle analysis the paper provides a model to indicate the likely development of the sector. A preliminary phase is added to accommodate the initial investigation of the market prior to schemes being implemented. The model indicates how different approaches will be adopted over the life cycle, reflecting the nature of the independent generators themselves. The model can be used for other capital intensive sectors where abrupt changes allow new entrants.

Renewables and the privatization of the UK ESI: A case study

The privatization of the UK electricity supply industry (ESI) was expected to be likely to improve the commercial prospects of at least some renewable energy technologies, especially given the introduction, in parallel, of a protected market/cross subsidy for renewables via the non-fossil fuel obligation. Although some projects have benefited from the new arrangements, this paper suggests that on balance the institutional and strategic uncertainties and the tight contract conditions imposed had a negative impact, at least initially. Alternative, more interventionist, support policies are discussed, drawing on examples from the USA and Denmark.

British Coal : Present position and prospects

Eric Anstee has over the last two years been actively involved in the privatization of the UK's electricity supply industry (ESI), both in developing policy and practical implementation. In this article he discusses with Michael J. Parker, Director of Economics at British Coal, the effects of the privatization of the ESI on British Coal, the issues raised in the medium- to long-term and the prospects for the proposed privatization of the UK coal industry.

State Policies and the Changing Geography of the Coal Industry in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s

The UK coal industry experienced great changes in the 1980s. Three features are of particular significance to its future in the 1990s. These are questions to do with the volume of deep-mined output from collieries, and where this is mined; the ratio of open cast to deep-mined output, and the locations in which such open cast extraction occurs; and the balance of coal produced within the UK to imports. In this paper we seek to interpret the changing geography of coal production and trade in terms of the character of UK state policies toward the coal industry and the whole issue of energy supply. We identify a number of tensions which lie at the heart of the current direction to policy. These are the different treatment of coal and nuclear power as sources of primary energy; the problems caused by privatization of the UK's electricity supply industry and the proposed sale of British Coal to the private sector; environmental concern over energy consumption; and the strategic and balance-of-payments implications of increased import dependency. We conclude that present policieswhich are likely to lead to further dramatic reductions in UK deep-mined coal production-are far from rational either in the sense of the relations between the UK and the world energy market, or the appropriate use of valuable and finite UK energy

Local generation the devolution of power

The privatisation of the UK electricity supply industry is expected to lead to an increase in small scale local power generation. The authors give the four basic reasons for employing generation local to the load. The authors discuss the example of an industrial consumer receiving power at 11 kV but with a local generator to provide the peak-lopping function and to ensure supply security. They discuss synchronising the generator to the busbar, load control, protection, faults, and earthing.

Privatizing electricity supply cannot be justified

Privatization of the UK's electricity supply industry (ESI) is, to give it the most favourable gloss, an irrelevance to the country. However, in practice the government's plans will be damaging, producing more expensive electricity less reliably supplied. Observing the public debate about privatizing electricity it is astonishing the extent to which serious people have participated as if they were discussing a rational policy, requiring rational analysis and comment. Nothing could be further from the truth. Privatization of electricity is an ideological policy, pure and simple. It has never been based on any calculation of economic or social benefit. It is the political dimension to electricity privatization, which seems to have been widely overlooked, on which I wish to comment first. I will then go on to explain why, in my opinion, no-one has established an economic justification for the government's plans and that the outcome will be damaging to the country's interests.

Improving generator availability by use of strategic spares

In order to improve the availability of its large high-merit generating units, the UK electricity-supply industry has developed a strategy of holding major strategic spare components. These are deployed in the event of failures or when required to expedite overhauls or modifications. Displaced major components are then repaired, refurbished or modified while the unit remains in service. Analysis techniques which can be used to evaluate the likely capabilities of one, two or more spare components for a particular plant family were also developed and the basis of these is described. This article describes the application of the strategies to generator components, complementing an earlier paper to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers relating to turbine components

Public ownership and the performance of the UK ESI

This article considers how far the performance of the UK electricity supply industry (ESI) has been affected by public ownership. It notes the difficulties for the ESI of defining performance and making comparisons, and focuses on specific areas where the ESI has been at fault (plant choice, construction times, etc). It argues that these shortcomings stem from the particular nature of the relationship between government and ESI in the UK not from public ownership per se and cautions against comparing an existing faulty structure with an idealised but untested system.

Privatising nuclear power. Home thoughts from abroad

In the late 1970s, the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) funded a programme of research at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, England, directed at a detailed examination of the economics of nuclear power. As part of this programme, SPRU undertook a comparative statistical analysis of reactor operating performance. The author presents the results of this study into the comparative economics of nuclear power, and examines the effect these results will have on the proposed privatisation of the UK's electricity supply industry. >

Riding the storm

The night of 15th/16th October 1987 saw the worst crisisin the history of the UK electricity supply industry withover 5000 km of overhead line affected and nearly 5 million consumers blacked out

Demand Forecasting and Aggregate Planning in the Electrical Supply Industry

A simulation study of the importance of the choice of demand forecasting method in the aggregate capacity planning of the UK electricity supply industry is reported. Using a financial performance measure rather than the conventional measures of accuracy, some of the univariate or extrapolative forecasting methods employed were found to perform surprisingly well over a six year time horizon, suggesting that such methods may merit a greater role in aggregate capacity planning than they appear to be accorded in current practice.

Windpower in the UK electricity supply industry

Several pilot projects are already under way in the UK to assess the feasibility of using wind energy as a primary energy source. This article explains the prospects for the use of wind energy in the UK electricity supply

British Electricity International — selling technology transfer

BEI, the overseas consultancy of the UK electricity-supply industry, has projects underway in 35 countries. What is its marketing strategy; how does BEI relate to UK manufacturers; and what benefits do exports of power systems and services bring to the supply industry?

Efficiency in the distribution of electricity

Since the publication of the Herbert Report in 1954, it has been inferred that the UK electricity-supply industry is not as efficient as it ought to be. However, since vesting day in 1948, the 12 distribution area boards in England and Wales have markedly improved their economic efficiencies and now employ efficiency techniques such as work study and value analysis to a greater degree than ever before.

Power for productivity—a sketch of the UK electricity supply industry, 1948–69

Mankind has a variety of energy needs, which can be satisfied in many ways; the electricity-supply industry must match the needs of the market, and its objective is to maximise value to consumers and to minimise the cost of resources. This article surveys the applications of electricity and reviews the generation, transmission and distribution technologies.