Thursday 24 June 2010

England game brings biggest World Cup power surge

England's victory against Slovenia in yesterday's World Cup caused the highest surge in electricity demand so far in the tournament.

National Grid reported a surge in demand of nearly 1300 megawatts - the equivalent of more than half a million kettles being switched on - during the half time break. It also equates to a city the size of Sheffield suddenly switching on. At full time, there was a surge of 1070 megawatts.

The surge - known as a TV pick-up - needed the Grid to meet the demand within seconds by its engineers at the National Electricity Control Centre in Berkshire.

The half time surge was higher than predicted and topped the TV pick ups for the previous England matches. In the England V USA, match the demand at full time reached 1180 megawatts and for the England v Algeria match the highest demand was at half time when it reached 1020 megawatts.