Powering the Nation: Behind the Grid | Episode 3: From Substation to Socket

Get ready for another exciting journey Behind the Grid as our host, James Stewart, delves into the unseen world of electricity distribution. In Episode 3, James heads to National Grid’s Electricity Distribution business - formerly known as Western Power Distribution - where he uncovers how power reaches homes and businesses across the UK. From high-pressure contact centres fielding hundreds of calls daily to the intricate workings of a distribution substation, see the journey of electricity unfold in real time.

Follow James as he meets the dedicated teams maintaining the network’s vast fleet of vehicles, ensuring that field engineers can keep the power flowing even in the most challenging conditions. Witness a piece of history in the making as the team works on replacing Bristol’s last piece of 1960s infrastructure as part of a major upgrade project. Plus, hear from Phillipa on how National Grid is leading the way towards a net zero future and learn about the incredible efforts behind keeping the nation’s lights on. Don’t miss this behind-the-scenes look at the people and projects powering our daily lives!

[AMoistGoat]

Always interesting getting a bit of insight into things like this, great vid!

[TheChipmunk]

"a fault that a meter operator may have found'.... from my experience as a sparky 'that a meter operator probably caused by leaving a cable loose' is more likely :) Have had to call SSEN (our DNO) out a few dozen times during condition reports for loose connections in the service head :\

[nickhstd]

Very interesting to see how it all works to keep the lights on!

[ambassadorfromreality]

We had a connection failiure of our 100 year old connection . It was a lead bowl filled with bitumen.
The ssen team turned up, dug up the street in torrential rain and st about installing a new one.
The old cable looked brand new gleaming copper.
An engineer sat in the hole and working on live connecytions put in a new connection. The torrential rain caused the hole to slowly fill up but they cooly finished the job.
Took 10 hours. The next day the connection was underwater which we could see because they have another team to fill in holes.
Very impressive professional work, also impressed that 100 year old cables and installation was still working. Ours failed but there are 100 houses in the street and this doesn't happen a lot

[NckBrktt]

Back in the day before the privatisation saga, National Grid covered the whole country. Now it is all broken into bits and National Grid isn't National at all, just one of the bits. Around here the DNO SP Energy. I always used to get confused whenever someone mentioned National Grid as I thought it had disappeared with privatisation.

[Angor]

18:21 how obviously the cable is not plugged into the phone 😄

[robjones]

I couldn’t see any solar panels on the office roof!

[wulliest]

@2:35 - I'm a director and trust me, my desk isn't that tidy...

[iareid]

Net zero and keeping the lights on are incompatible.
You say it will be challenging, why are you willing to risk the security of our grid which should be the priority not the aim to get to net zero?
As this is about the local area network, a significant increase in evs and heat pumps mandated by our government will seriously overload large sections of the local area network. Not only only the extra load but a load that is sustained for very long periods destroying the diversity factor used in the original sizing calaculations.

Science of climate change has moved on from the alarmism and shows that CO2 now has little to no effect on climate, but if it did we should have gone to nuclear generation a long time ago instead of playing with expensive and short lifed intermittent sources of generation.

[IM]

Interesting to see all the distribution equipment belongs to a private company. They may also want to consider moving those EV chargers which are very close to their Pegasus control centre building and could pose a fire risk shutting the control centre down.

[anthonyschofield]

Funny national grid don’t have solar on there roof so what happens if the grid goes down

[marcobrian]

Don't get me wrong, fantastic way this part of the grid works.
Shame it's shown the main grid supply, Ie the power station to them onto user
Another bit missing is the "smart" side of it
Cutting off folk by computer.
And no talk of the higher demand on the grid with no extra supplies.... except buying it in at stupid costs....
These guys are piggy in

[wolvolad]

Good lord get that women a bigger office 😂 2:35

[barryamorris]

Oh and there is no climate crisis! Only clear and blatant weather manipulation! 😂