Kingsnorth shutdown

On the 28th November someone managed to enter Eon's Kingsnorth power station, and switch off one of it's four turbines.

Not only is that pretty incredible, but it's also pretty crazy.

A few thoughts:
1) The complexity of the operation means that it was an inside job. No question. You don't climb an electric fence without first knowing that it's switched off. You can't find the control panel without first knowing where it is and how to unlock the box which (I'm assuming) contains it.
2) Where does all the steam go? These turbines are operating with steam pouring into them with huge temperatures and pressures. I would guess the only way to shut them down (without turning the boiler off) would be to vent the steam somewhere else - presumably outside. I'm assuming the steam went down a designated run-off to an emergency vent in a restricted area, but if anyone had been near that vent they would have been killed. End of. It's a testament to safety at Kingsnorth that this didn't happen.
3) On the 10-17th November the UK would have only had 1GW of spare electricity before many people would have suffered blackouts (this took out 0.5GW). This shut-down took place on the 28th November, close enough to this date to concern me about how much spare generating plant was available.

The irony is that it is the other coal and gas fired power stations which would have borne the brunt of the blip in the grid caused by this trip - so by tripping Kingsnorth the protester has increased UK CO2 emissions.

Ho hum.