we learn about conservation of energy in
school how can take potential energy
like the energy in the chemicals in this
battery and you can then just convert it
to electrical energy and then convert
that to whatever you can find it useful
a battery is just a store of potential
energy and that potential energy could
be chemical or it could be gravitational
this like in this rainy bit of Wales is
part of the largest battery in Britain
and it's rechargeable welcome to dinner
Whig Power Station otherwise known as an
electric Mountain what we have is a
large reservoir at the top of a mountain
a larger was roll at the bottom and
between the two a power station which
converts that potential energy into
electricity the power station itself
located inside that mountain in deep
cabins we released that finished energy
through the station it drives a turbine
spins around a synchronous speeds
connected to the grid drives a generator
converting that into electricity
we then export that on to the National
Grid and then at night time we just
reverse the whole process and the
turbine turns into a pump of generator
becomes a motor and we push that water
back up the hill into the reservoir at
Markham are at the top of the mountain
the operating principle here is that the
generation that the station is able to
do during the daytime helps the nation
meet those peaks for electricity demand
and overnight it's able to pump the
water back when prices are lower in
electrical terms we have around nine
gigawatt hours of storage at the top of
the mountain and in fact over the course
of a day the water passing through the
station is broadly equivalent to the
total household consumption of water in
the UK a full load we can be meeting the
demand of around about two million homes
this sounds like a really simple idea
but when there's this much energy
involved the design challenges are
ridiculous if you've ever lived in a
house where you turn off a water tap and
the pipes go limp then you know about
water hammer water isn't compressible so
closing a tap means that all the water
that is under pressure and rushing down
the pipe suddenly has nowhere to go
so if the pipes in your house aren't
secured properly the crash and rebound
of all that water can make the plumbing
move and make noise
if that can happen with just a tap in a
house imagine what could happen when one
of the valves here closes at full
capacity there is somewhere around a
swimming pool every second rushing
through the turbines down there when
that valve closes all that water heading
down here suddenly has nowhere to go the
pressure would do enormous amounts of
damage it will Drake everything apart if
it wasn't for one extra bit of plumbing
a shaft hundreds of meters deep that
acts as a pressure release we can't see
anything and the surface all from down
here suddenly it all happens deep within
the mountain but every time those valves
move that surge pipe is what stops the
whole system tearing itself apart this
station is not some quirky old curiosity
this is serious engineering that keeps
the lights on around the country du Nord
power station is is one of the largest
power stations of its type in the world
and it's also one of the fastest acting
power stations so as well as being able
to take advantage of the peaks and
troughs in that twisty market it was
essentially built primarily with the
intent to provide very fast response on
to the system in order to help the
National Grid balance supply and demand
instantaneously on a second-by-second
basis so it has the capacity to be able
to go from zero up to its full capacity
maybe 2,000 megawatts within ten to
thirty seconds when people talk about
pump storage they tend to associate it a
lot with the CV pickups a National Grid
in analyzing that risk study the TV
schedules and plan ahead and put in
Oregon standby if you like to be able to
to meet those pickups going back to the
80s and the 90s I won't be sitting
around the same TV channels where with a
limited choice then all the ingredients
you need for a sort of collective
putting on the kettle and opening of the
fridge the pickups could be pretty
significant but since then people are
streaming on YouTube on Netflix all the
different platforms that we have so that
has changed that that's sort of
coincidence of viewing on one channel
the current environment we're in we have
a significant amount of renewable
technology on the system which provides
a level of unpredictability day to day
and actually the importance of storage
now is that we can use it
to help develop the amount of renewables
we have and allow us to fill in those
gaps when the winds not blowing and the
Sun is not shining so having storage is
such an important component of a modern
grid system thank you very much to all
the team at ng who made this visit
possible pull down the description for
more about them and more about electric
mounting
[Music]
a battery is just a store of potential
energy