National Grid’s experts have been delving back in the records to predict what effect the live edition of Eastenders could have on electricity demand on the night.
The “pick up” in electricity use caused by people putting on kettles and switching on lights at the end of popular programmes could be double the normal level expected for a Friday night edition of the programme.
National Grid is getting ready for a 400 megawatt pick up at the end of the programme – that’s the equivalent of nearly 160,000 people switching on their kettles at the same time. The Electricity National Control Centre will be ready to balance this sudden increase in demand with power generation held on standby.
“While pick-ups for popular programmes are all part of our normal demand forecasting, we’ve had to pay special attention to this live edition. We’ve looked back at live editions of Coronation Street and The Bill to see what effect they have had. Also we’ve been monitoring the response to the series this week which has been heavily promoted,“ said Chris Rogers, National Grid’s forecasting team leader.
Thursday’s hour-long special with the wedding of Ricky and Bianca also caused a much larger than usual pick up of 700 megawatts – nearly 300,000 kettles.
However the “who shot Archie” edition is unlikely to top the “who shot Phil Mitchell” programme on 5th April 2001 which is still in National Grid’s all-time Top Ten TV pick-ups with a 2300 megawatt surge in demand.
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