On Thursday the 8th of October at 8:47am, 1.4GW of power was lost on the UK Grid due to the subsea connection between Norway and the UK tripping off, resulting in Grid Frequency falling outside of its operating range.

ALVANCE British Aluminium’s Dynamic Frequency Response system kicked in on site, tripping our potline and sending 45 MWs of electricity onto the grid.

This supported the UK Grid and prevented power cuts due to the trip. Incredibly this all happened in two seconds – making sure that industry and domestic households experienced no interruption to their supply. This is a service that we routinely offer to ensure the risk of blackouts on the Grid are minimised, keeping the power on to homes and industry locally and throughout the UK.

Thanks to our teams on site for reacting to these events and contributing to energy security while producing our low carbon aluminium. A great example of collaboration across UK industry.