At the moment England is going through an extreme heat wave with red weather warnings across the south of the country, which is the first time the Met Office has ever had to do that with temperatures set to reach 40 degrees.
However, our energy networks are built with infrastructure that is well prepared for extreme heat. Network companies that are in areas issued with a red warning have increased their internal preparation as a precaution for any heat-related issues.
Although the national grid might be able to cope with the extreme heat, the nuclear energy stations might struggle more. Nuclear power stations dump a lot of cooling water into rivers, but they are required to stop doing this once the water reaches a certain temperature, to ensure that water does not harm the environment.
Therefore, due to the temperature rise, the nuclear power stations will likely need more water to cool them which causes the temperature of the water to rise, this will likely mean that power plants will have to shut down operations or reduce operations.
However, the National Grid has assured us that the UK is prepped for hot weather and this should not cause energy system failures. Although we have not seen any blackouts due to the extreme heat we have changes in energy prices as it has affected how energy has been generated across the country.
Not only have there been issues with Nuclear power plants, but there has also been issues with generation from solar and wind energy. Although there has been a lot more sunshine, solar panels have actually generated less energy as they do not perform as well under extreme conditions. Wind generation has also been low. These issues mixed with a spike in demand has caused a price rise over the past week.
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