Both peaks were 52.4 GW, with a "trough" of 51.7 GW at 1830.
Furthermore, demand was almost flat for a full twenty minutes from 1730 to 1750
Why am I telling you this geeky fact?
It looks as though the reason for this is demand response kicking in.
Industrial users anticipate high "Triad" charges which can occur without warning on days of very high peak demand in February .
Here is a screenshot from Stephen Morley's excellent realtime National Grid site for 2nd and 3rd Feb
The double peak is clearly visible.
It shows that demand response works!
I wonder what the peak would have been without it?
Let's all do what we can with our own domestic consumption to pull the peak right down to the 1500 and 2000 figure of around 47GW by this time next year!
Happy demand side responding!
