Demystifying NESO: Grid Constraints, CCGT Maintenance, and the Kilowatts.io Dashboard

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, Nathan sits down with economist Ben Watts, the creator of the real-time energy dashboard at kilowatts.io. They explore the hidden "engine room" of the UK’s electricity system, the high-stakes market where power is traded in 30-minute blocks. Ben explains why a single line on the map (the B6 Boundary) is costing consumers over £1 billion a year and how technology like heat pumps and EVs are moving from being "loads" to "assets" that help keep the grid balanced.Key Jargon Buster: The Grid BoundariesTo help listeners follow the conversation, here is a quick guide to the "pinch points" Ben mentions:B6 Boundary: The most critical bottleneck in the UK. It runs along the Scottish-English border.B4 Boundary: A northern bottleneck separating the Scottish Highlands from the Central Belt.The "4.5 GW" Limit: The onshore overhead cables at B6 can securely handle about 4.5 GW. When combined with the Western HVDC subsea link (2.2 GW), the total limit is roughly 6.7 GW.Wind Curtailment: When there is more wind in Scotland than the B6 "pipes" can carry, NESO pays wind farms to stop generating while paying gas plants in the South to turn on.Keywords & Themeskilowatts.io: Ben’s dashboard for visualising real-time grid data.NESO: The National Energy System Operator (the new name for the system operator in 2026).CCGT Maintenance: Why demineralised water is essential for the steam turbines in gas power plants.Flexibility Assets: Using heat pumps as "virtual power plants" to respond to grid signals at 50Hz.Support the showLearn more about heat pump heating by followingNathan on Linkedin, Twitter and BlueSky