A Beginners Guide to Blackouts.
Anticipating blackouts has become a new national sport in the UK. I can recall blackouts as a child. I’m guessing this was during the first 1974 oil shock when OPEC first flexed its muscles and Britain had a lot more oil fired power generation then than it does now. But a quick check shows that Britain was also in disarray because of strikes, especially striking coal miners. Blackouts were a time of excitement where whole towns went black, citizens reached for their candles and crooks reached for their crowbars.
Things have moved on in the intervening 40 years with a much more complex society today dependent upon electronic communications, a myriad electronic devices and economic growth that is founded on reliable supplies of electricity.
Figure 1 “100 crowbars were nicked during the last blackout”
So why does the UK find itself on the threshold of blackouts? Or does it?
The difference between power cuts and blackouts
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
