My main takeaway from this article is that is that the British equivalent for energy is how many kettles you can boil. American football fields are jealous and feeling quite flat.
There was a BBC Connections episode that showed eager power distribution people watching a famous English show.
The thing was that it was so popular they knew to expect kettles going off simultaneously all over the country the minute the show ended creating a spike they had to manage.
There’s a power station in snowdonia, Wales nicknamed Electric Mountain, that just pumps water up the mountain all year round to drop it at optimum times. The cliche examples given are the world cup final half time and after a Dr Who finale. At that point they just drop all the stored water over their turbines to counter the massive surge. I’m sure equivalents of this are common all over the world but it feels so uniquely British.
Interesting it’s as specialized as it is but many dams pump water up the reservoir during low consumption times to store for periods where power is needed.
A soon as I started typing I realised it’s probably not too exciting. I think it’s always had that mythic element growing up near it of imagining the amount of work needed for lots of cups of tea to be made at the same time.
historically it has been a significant measure. Back in the 80s the grid had to allow for TV commercial breaks on popular shows. As millions of folks went and put the kettle on. I assume streaming has done more for UK daley tea distribution then anything else.
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