3 Major UK Utilities Plan Together For Weather Extremes, Grid Failure

[hatrack]

LONDON (Reuters) - Three of Britain's biggest power utilities have joined forces to draw up a strategy to cope with climate change as analysts warn extreme weather poses a growing threat to power stations and grids, the firms said on Monday.

EDF Energy (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), E.ON UK (EONG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and National Grid (NG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) are working with the Met Office, which on Monday published a study on the potential impact of climate change on the energy industry. The study said utilities will have to cope with shifts in energy consumption as summers get hotter and winters get milder.

Less rain and falling river levels could foul up power station cooling systems, while gas turbines will become less efficient as the weather gets warmer, the study concluded. "We all need to play our part in adapting to climate change," Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of French-owned EDF Energy, said in a statement.

Power stations built near the coast, including nuclear plants, will become more vulnerable to rising sea levels and storm damage, according to the study, which was conducted by the met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Change and Research.

EDIT

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-06-05T000715Z_01_L02215610_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-ENERGY-ENVIRONMENT.xml

[NNadir]

1. This business of changing shorelines will have a big effect on power

generation.

The vast majority of thermal power stations are built near water. It's going to become a big issue, I think.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. EDF have already experienced problems in France, in 2003

The heat wave spelled trouble for France's nuclear reactors, many of
which are cooled by river water. The plants return cooling water to
the rivers, but only after it has cooled down to reduce the impact on
the environment. In some regions, river water levels dropped so low
that cooling process became impossible and plants had to shut
down, while elsewhere the water temperatures after the
cooling process exceeded environmental safety levels. An
exceptional exemption from the legal requirements was
granted to six nuclear reactors and a number of conventional
power stations: The nuclear power plants of Saint-Alban
(Isère), Golfech (Tarn-et-Garonne), Cruas (Ardèche),
Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube), Tricastin (Drôme) et Bugey (Ain)
continued functioning, although the upper legal limits were
exceeded.

http://www.grid.unep.ch/product/publication/download/ew_heat_wave.en.pdf