Re: OpenVMS in the media - National Grid Control Centre, Britain from Above, 10/08/08
- From: etmsreec@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:47:08 -0700 (PDT)
On 11 Aug, 00:36, johnwalla...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 10, 11:04 pm, urbancamo <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Spotted an LK201 and an LK401 at the console of the controller at the
National Grid Control Centre in the programme 'Britain From Above'
broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 10/08/08.
The National Grid Control Centre is responsible for providing the UK's
electricity supply. The programme focussed on the unique problem in
the UK of supplying the peak demands of power required after
mainstream TV programmes such as East Enders. The controller had
direct influence at an instant over several hydroelectric power plants
dotted round the UK that are solely used for providing temporary extra
power to satisfy peak demand. The controller monitored a display
showing the mains frequency which required action when it dropped to
49.8 Hz - the normal in the UK being 50 Hz.
I found it absolutely fascinating that hydroelectric dams are opened
temporarily because East Enders has finished and a large portion of
the UK public are making a brew!
OpenVMS was not mentioned in the programme but it can be assumed that
it is used in some major capacity at the control centre.
Can anyone provide more details?
Regards,
Mark.
If you look up "pumped storage" in the usual places you will find some
fascinating (well, to me) information.www.fhc.co.ukdescribes a
couple of such stations in picturesque North Wales and is worth a
visit either via the web or preferably for real. The Dinorwig station
has a visitor centre (with, last time I was there, a very impressive
cafe), the station itself is open to the public and you can take a
tour. Last time I tried was on an unplanned visit, and tours were
fully booked for the next two hours, so as I had places to be, I had
lunch and moved on. It's also in a very scenic part of the world, if
you like that kind of thing; the bottom of the Snowdon Mountain
Railway is a few yards from the visitor centre and if you're into real
engineering, that's also worth a look.
That First Hydro website goes into a bit more detail (than the
programme presumably did) about the technical aspects and the process
of balancing electricity supply and demand via "the market" (look up
"New Electricity Trading Arrangements" or NETA for more info than you
could ever want).
There used to be lots of VMS, and a bit of Tru64 Unix, in the regional
electricity companies (the people who actually supply to end users) as
well as in Gridco (featured tonight) and in the larger power stations
too. I don't know if there still is as I'm no longer involved with
that kind of thing.
Also in days gone by, the biggest demand surge in the year used to be
at 3oclock on Christmas Day, when the Queen's Christmas broadcast came
on. Or was it at ten past, when she came off and the kettles went on.
Anyway, multichannel TV and other factors mean that's no longer such a
big event. You can find "live" figures for demand now, last 24 hours,
and last 8 days athttp://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/Demand/Deman...
Dinorwig and the like were planned, designed and built by engineers in
the days when there was a legal (as well as common-sense) obligation
to keep the lights on, before the accountants and management
consultants and contract lawyers took over UK plc. Now the matching of
electricity supply and demand is a matter for the market, which is why
there's been little money spent on power stations in the UK, at least
since the ridiculously ill-advised post-privatisation "dash for
gas" [1]. Yes, let's make our electricity from gas, it's great for
short-term profits (and CCGT isn't bad for thermal efficiency either).
While we're at it we can close the coal industry, so when North Sea
gas predictably runs out in a decade or two, we'll become dependent on
gas imports from our good friends in Russians, Libya, Iran, etc for
our electricity as well as for our gas! Also while we're at it, let's
sell our essential generating and distribution companies to the former
nationalised utilities in the rest of the world (France, Germany and
Spain spring to mind), so they and not Government can decide where the
gas or oil goes if there should happen to be a bit of a shortage one
day.
Marvellous stuff, technology.
[1]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3581637.stm- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
The thing I love about the pump storage scheme at Dinorwig is that the
CEGB assumed that they could close the railway in order to build the
station. Unfortunately for them, since the railway was opened by act
of Parliament, it could only be closed by act of Parliament. Since
there were objections to it being closed, the CEGB were forced to pay
for modifications to the line so that their little power station
scheme didn't close the little railway that they wanted to cut in
half!
Steve
.
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