Let’s keep it real: this heatwave is hitting different, and the people running the energy grid are absolutely panicking. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) just put out their second warning this week, begging power companies to send over any extra electricity they can find for Friday evening. It is boiling hot outside, everyone is trying to run their fans and AC units to survive, and the grid is out here sweating and struggling to keep up.

Neso is trying to play it cool, saying the supply isn't in real danger and we aren't about to get hit with an immediate blackout. But they wouldn't be putting out these emergency alerts if things weren't looking incredibly shaky. They’re projecting "tight margins" because the extreme heat is hitting both the UK and the rest of Europe, exposing how weak our setup really is.

This is the second time they’ve had to do this in a single week. On Tuesday, they had to put out an alert because a massive heat dome settled over Europe. And get this: the heat dome actually slowed down the wind. They spent all this time telling us wind turbines were going to save us, but the minute the real summer heat hit, the wind stopped blowing and the turbines did absolutely nothing.

So how did they fix it? They had to crawl back to the gas plants and pay them crazy money to ramp up production and save the grid. We’re talking about an estimated £10 million paid out on Wednesday night alone, just for a couple of hours of electricity. And you already know how this story ends—that £10 million is coming straight out of our pockets, added right onto our household energy bills. They mess up the planning, and we get taxed for it.

They’re expecting to pay those same insane prices again on Friday night just to keep the lights on. On top of that, our own gas plants are struggling in the heat, with several of them having to cut back on how much power they produce because the equipment is overheating. It’s a total mess, and the people at the top have no real answers.

We usually rely on France to send us power when things get tight, but they are dealing with their own drama. France had to shut down four of their nuclear plants unexpectedly because the river water they use to cool down the reactors got too hot. When you can’t even rely on nuclear power because the water is boiling, you know the system is completely unprepared.

Over in France, the utility company EDF said they are spending €80 million (about £69 million) to put cooling systems in schools and daycare centers. That's cool for them, but over here, we’re just getting hit with higher bills while our grid operator throws millions at corporate gas companies to bail themselves out.