Explainers
How the GB grid actually works
Long-form answers to the questions the live numbers raise - each one grounded in the same open data the dashboard runs on, with the current figures embedded where they help.
- Carbon intensity, explained
- What grid carbon intensity actually measures, why GB's number swings from under 50 to over 300 gCO2/kWh in a single day, and how to use it to cut your real emissions.
- Embedded generation: the third of the grid you can't see
- Around 29% of GB generating capacity is connected to local distribution networks, invisible to real-time metering - why every solar panel is 'embedded', and how it warps the demand numbers.
- How batteries balance the grid
- Grid-scale batteries are Great Britain's fastest-growing power technology - what the ~180 battery sites actually do, why speed matters more than size, and the honest accounting quirks.
- How interconnectors work
- The subsea cables linking Great Britain to France, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Ireland - how they decide which way power flows, and why GB trades both ways at once.
- How the UK electricity grid works
- From power station to plug: how Great Britain's electricity system balances generation and demand every second, who runs it, and where the numbers on this site come from.
- Is the UK still burning coal for electricity?
- No - Great Britain's last coal power station closed on 30 September 2024, ending 142 years of coal-fired electricity. What happened, and what a permanent zero looks like in the data.
- The UK coal phase-out: a timeline
- From 40% of the mix to zero in twelve years: the closures, records and policy decisions that ended 142 years of coal-fired electricity in Great Britain.
- What is curtailment - and why do wind farms get paid to stop?
- Why Great Britain sometimes pays wind farms to switch off while burning gas elsewhere: transmission bottlenecks, the Balancing Mechanism, and what curtailment costs.
- Why does the grid run at 50 Hz?
- Grid frequency is the heartbeat of Great Britain's electricity system - what 50 hertz means, why it wobbles when supply and demand drift apart, and what happens if it strays too far.
- Why electricity prices go negative
- Sometimes Great Britain's wholesale power price drops below zero and generators pay to keep running - how negative prices happen, who profits, and why they're becoming more common.