The Ever Growing Business of Energy Reliability and Resilience

I remember the fun-filled times of the early 1970s when the coal miners were working to rule in the UK, and as a result, coal reserves were running extremely low at many power stations across the country.

Times were different then. There was little diversity in electricity generation, and aside from the relatively small nuclear generation industry, coal provided the means to generate the vast majority of the UK’s power needs at the time.

As a result of this shortfall of capacity, rolling blackouts were sometimes put in place, and we often sat with candles during the early evenings listening to battery-powered radios in lieu of the local news or children’s programmes on TV.

If we did have power, the government had instructed all of the TV channels to close down at 10:30 pm, which admittedly was after my bedtime, to conserve power through transmission but also through the millions of TVs that would be switched off early around the country.

In industry, workers faced a three-day working week that was introduced to save power across the board but also had a significant knock-on effect of reducing take-home wages.

Thankfully, similar situations have been avoided (for the most part) since, primarily through better management of resources and an increase in the range and diversity of electrical generation methods. Things have become a little more resilient all around.

Unfortunately, for business and home users of electricity, the power of generation and reliable supply remained out of their hands - they were dependent on the electrical grid for provision and maintenance of supply.

It would be in the hands of planners in government and, to more extent, private companies as to whether or not there would be enough power for the electrical grid at all.