Hello everyone and welcome from SP Energy Networks.
Well, it was a significant weekend for Scotland wasn't it?
And not just for our national team over in the Boston Stadium.
Ellen joins me today, and we're taking a look at how the country tuning in to watch the
team’s big moment impacted demand across our electricity network.
This was unprecedented for the network at this time in the morning, wasn't it?
Indeed Frank.
The early hours of a Sunday morning, especially in the summer months, are typically fairly quiet for our network, given that most of the country is asleep.
Life is very different nowadays, with our increased reliance on electricity.
Many of us will be charging our EVs or have appliances switched on overnight, and on top of this, we also have some industries operating 24/7.
We don't usually have this many people awake at this time of night, tuning into their TVs, boiling kettles, or sitting in pubs.
Thanks Ellen.
Let's have a wee look at how the transmission network dealt with the unprecedented spike in demand.
As the nation tuned in between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, we saw spikes on average of around 12% more demand on our transmission network across central and southern Scotland.
The biggest surge, increasing demand by 87MW, was actually around 3 a.m. when the second half of the match would have been kicking off.
There must have been some tense moments in Easterhouse towards the final whistle, when we saw their highest demand, an increase of 13% compared to an average Sunday.
And likewise in Edinburgh, whose demand increased by 15% during the final moments.
What a night we had, and that 87 megawatt surge is something special.
Did you know Ellen, that's the equivalent of 58,000 kettles boiling at once, or enough power for 1.5 million smart TVs?
I think it's safe to say this was a very special event for the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Congratulations to the Scotland team on their fabulous victory against Haiti.
It's been 36 years since our last win in the World Cup.
So, now that's over, what does this mean for the future of the grid, Ellen?
Well, Frank, we do already actually have one of the best electricity grids in the world with a 99.9% reliability.
But like I said earlier, our reliance on electricity is now growing, and not just because of big events like the Scotland game.
Current demand is set to double by 2050.
The grid that we're operating was last upgraded a few decades ago, when the average number of appliances we had in our homes was less than half of what we have now, and that was also at a time where we didn't have as much renewable generation either.
So in short, we do need to upgrade the grid to be ready for that demand and to build a better future for us all.
Thanks Ellen.
It's certainly a pivotal time in the energy sector, and thank you all for tuning in.
We're clearly embarking on a critical investment period for the electricity grid, and you can find out more about the upgrade of the transmission network via the web address on the screen.