Known in the past as the Economy 7 powerplant, used low cost night time electricity, at one time mainly routed from French atomic power stations, to pump the water up*. Run mainly to supply sudden peaks as it could be run up very quickly to cope with all the kettles going on during the ad break in Coronation Street or half time in the Cup Final, or from when everyone got home from work. Nowaday lord only knows where our supplies come from and it is generating for much longer periods. Very inefficient.
* Electricity from France was always cheap and a lot of our supply was imported, many British stations were run down at night and a major part of the electricity used in this country at night was generated in France. The cross channel cables were put in so that we could take their electricity when demand here was high and low in France and could supply electricity when our demand was low and theirs was at a peak. In fact French power was always cheaper so the supply was nearly always one way.
For those worried about accidents at British nuclear power stations, the one that would cause most problems for the UK if anything went wrong is in Normandy.
Where would I go if World War 3 started? The pub.
