Britain peak power demand (from BBC TV series: Britain from Above)

Why HN readers recommended it

HN cites it as the canonical illustration of TV pickup and grid balancing, and as a must-see example of demand spikes.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

fiddyschmitt

Topic

electricity grid demand

Format

documentary

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

4

HN mentions in dataset

12

Recommendation years in dataset

2013–2026

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• With the obligatory, must see, BBC Britain from Above segment in which Andrew Marr fly on the wall narrates the most challenging part of a live load engineer (UK)'s day ... <doof, doof, doof> the East Enders kettle break. * [VIDEO]

• Technically yes, economically difficult for most nations, if it's approached at this level. Germany has had an interesting approach to solar, where they subsidized solar panels for homeowners. I think it is the smarter approach because you incentives individuals to go green, rather than trying …

• Here's a great movie illustrating how the grid is balanced when a popular tv show ends and millions of people want a cup of hot tea: [VIDEO]