The article says near the bottom "At the time [the GT1A generator tripped] there was 4000MW of unused generation in reserve, and if only a fraction of this reserve was instructed to dispatch within 60 seconds of the initial loss it’s very likely that load shedding would have not occurred."
My understanding was that having reserves available within 30-60s was pretty expensive, and that that would have been what was used to handle the initial frequency drop (the interim report PDF says there was 1000MW of this). Drax's page on this (https://www.drax.com/technology/power-systems-super-subs/) says that even spinning reserve can be on the order of two minutes, and the next tier below that (STOR) is on the order of 20 minutes. So does anybody know what the 4000MW available within 60s but not called on was?
My understanding was that having reserves available within 30-60s was pretty expensive, and that that would have been what was used to handle the initial frequency drop (the interim report PDF says there was 1000MW of this). Drax's page on this (https://www.drax.com/technology/power-systems-super-subs/) says that even spinning reserve can be on the order of two minutes, and the next tier below that (STOR) is on the order of 20 minutes. So does anybody know what the 4000MW available within 60s but not called on was?