Dynamic design appliances

Does the author know of the Dinorwic Power Station in North Wales and it's functions?

As I remember (it's more than 25 years since I worked on the project), two of its six turbines are always spinning in air with controlled amounts of water. These control the frequency of the entire UK grid to 50 Hz. The standby capacity of the station is 1800 MW, which is achieved in 30 s and is maintained for 10 hrs. Being a pumped storage scheme, all of the water then has to be pumped back, which consumes four times as much energy as the output. The point of this is that with this backup available to the grid, it allows all of the other power stations to operate near optimum efficiency and to suffer the loss of any two 660 MW stations.

Or at least that was the theory. I wonder who owns and operates the station now in these deregulated times?

One parting thought for the author: why stop at fridges? Surely the electric kettle - or even the electric iron, washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher, should be under consideration too? One might even dare to suggest the TV…

Philip B Irwin ACIBSE