Keeping the lights on

I have long thought keeping the lights on by ensuring sufficient energy is available at all times is the crucial prior demand of a successful energy policy. A good energy policy also needs to balance affordable cost for people and business alongside environmental objectives.

I posted here my latest public questions to Ministers. I think they need to announce more additional electricity capacity for the balance of this decade as they push through their electrical revolution. I want them to see the logic of their use of gas as a “transition” fuel and see that it is safer and greener to rely on more UK produced gas rather than imported LNG or  natural gas from the continent. We have just seen how we face extremes of prices by relying on the world market. Surely we need more domestic contract gas at longer term prices which smooth the volatility.

This week the Secretary of State told me that the answer to my fears will  be more nuclear. It is true they have one large nuclear plant in construction that will bring us more power this decade. Hinckley C will add 3.2GW to the system. What he did not point out is they also plan to close all but one of our current nuclear stations by 2030, so the amount of power generated by nuclear will fall over the next eight years even allowing for the new opening. The closures will reduce our old nuclear capacity by 8.1GW, or a net loss of 4.9 GW allowing for the new opening.  If the government wishes to keep nuclear at 17% of our total electricity generation, its current level, they will need at least one extra large new nuclear plant and a fleet of the smaller plants they are now trying to work up to approved systems and products. If they want nuclear to take over more of the work currently done by gas and help meet the rise in demand as more cars and heating systems convert to electricity there will need to be an even  bigger expansion of nuclear.

So let me accept the government’s assurance that come the next decade there will be more small nuclear sets, more large nuclear stations, and the nuclear  industry will be able to meet rising demand after say 2035 once it has replaced all the current stations to be closed. That still leaves us with more than a decade when nuclear will not be the answer to keeping the lights on when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine. I repeat my questions. Will they procure  more stand by capacity? Will they keep the old coal power stations available as an ultimate reserve, as they needed to use them this autumn and again today as I write this ? Will they expand gas generating capacity as a gap fill? How long would it take to bring on more pump storage and hydro schemes to supplement wind and solar?

Can we have some numbers please from the government to reassure us the lights will stay on at all times without rationing or special measures?

227 Comments

  1. Mark B
    November 26, 2021

    Good morning.

    So let me accept the government’s assurance that come the next decade . . .

    They can give all the assurances in the world, it won’t matter to them as they will not be around by then to face the consequences.

    Can we have some numbers please . . .

    I suggest that our kind host does them himself and present them to the government for comment. I’d doubt he will get an answer and, even if he did, I doubt it would be satisfactory.

    Take my advice – By candles.

    1. Everhopeful
      November 26, 2021

      +1
      I have..
      Many candles, all shapes and sizes!
      And a nice lantern ..but I dare say that the fuel would be hard to come by in extremis?
      Oh and don’t forget the matches stored in a dry place.
      Wind up torches and lanterns are good too.
      We shall know the meaning of Candlemas again!

      1. James1
        November 26, 2021

        It’s more serious than that. We need electricity to operate ATM’s or to pay money into a bank; to pump petrol and diesel; to use a computer, to use a credit or debit card; for any use online, etc., etc. In the “old” days people in business used typewriters for letters and invoices. Most people don’t have typewriters to fall back on nowadays. In short we are completely dependent upon electricity. The political bozos in charge certainly need to be got rid of at the earliest date and replaced by people who know what the are doing and won’t kowtow to the woke and other nonsense.

        1. Everhopeful
          November 26, 2021

          +1
          Exactly so.
          But it looks like they just don’t care.
          Or they are not as forward thinking as you are!
          Or as realistic.

        2. alan jutson
          November 26, 2021

          James1

          They also want to limit/ban cash transactions

        3. Ed M
          November 26, 2021

          I think we need more candles and lanterns! Mixed with the very best of new technology. Both (well, bit more of the candles / lanterns stuff ..). Best technology for efficiency mixed a bit more with the old for charm and beauty (problem with modern world is that we have all this tech but it doesn’t make people as happy as it should or could – how lucky we are to fly in planes but then you get people moaning about having to sit on the runway for 10 mins or that they can’t get wifi 30,000 feet up in the air or whatever …).

    2. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      Technology has fortunately given us rather better and safer candles in the form of efficient and long lasting LED torches (battery or wind up ones). Also get a generator for a few hundred pounds perhaps (useful to keep in the boot of your electric car too if you are daft enough to have bought one (for when it goes flat).

      1. lifelogic
        November 26, 2021

        In 1800, it took over five hour’s work to generate one hour of light.
        Today, an hour of light costs 0.00027 hours, or about one second’s work.
        Matt Ridley

        The wonders of technology & innovation – this despite the efforts of generally appalling & totally misdirected governments with their net zero lunacy and the absurdly high tax rates Sunak inflicts on us so the endless government waste can continue and accelerate.

        1. Andy
          November 26, 2021

          Matt Ridley. Again we are understanding why you get everything very wrong. Do you read stuff by credible people?

          1. Peter2
            November 26, 2021

            Everything very wrong?
            Any examples young Andy or is it that just because he sits on the other side of politics to you, therefore you see him as an opponent?

          2. lifelogic
            November 26, 2021

            Do you dispute these “hours to earn an hour of light figures”? They seems about right to me.

          3. dixie
            November 27, 2021

            Minimum wage is roughly ÂŁ9 per hour, so 1 sec of work would be 9/3600 which is ÂŁ0.0025 or 0.25p.
            Assuming an LED lamp of around 10W, one hour is 10Wh or 0.001 kWh.
            Assuming a tariff of around 20p per kWh (excluding the standing charge) the cost to power that lamp would be 0.001 * 20p, IE 0.2p – a cost of 0.25p vs an income of 0.2p
            So the Ridley estimate is quite realistic.

      2. Andy
        November 26, 2021

        Why would your electric car go flat? It tells you how many more miles you can travel before recharging.

        An average journey in this country is about 6 miles. An average electric car has a range of over 200 miles.

        1. agricola
          November 26, 2021

          Many of us do not settle for average. EVs come with too many downsides not least of which is cost of purchase. EVs are a government inspired solution that has been imposed on the market. However the market will ultimately decide, preceeded by the electorates verdict on this government.

        2. lifelogic
          November 26, 2021

          Well when you get to the charge point and it is full or out of use. Or it was raining, dark, windy, hilly, cold, there was an accident blocking the road so had to divert and you needed the heating on to keep warm too perhaps.

        3. Micky Taking
          November 26, 2021

          Andy – you have excelled yourself.

        4. Hat man
          November 26, 2021

          200 miles? That’s what the manufacturers say. When you’re a bit older, Andy, you’ll be learn to be wary of sales talk.

        5. No Longer Anonymous
          November 26, 2021

          I really don’t mean to be negative. We had a double murder recently over a lack of parking … lack of charging is going to be far far worse.

        6. No Longer Anonymous
          November 26, 2021

          Did you not see the BBC documentary on cobalt mining in the DRC, Andy ?

        7. dixie
          November 29, 2021

          @Andy
          An EV does not tell you “how many more miles you can travel before recharging”. The range remaining is always a guesstimate based on past driving behaviour and does not predicts how much energy is needed for the forward journey, it can’t because it will depend on conditions, changes in elevation and driving pattern.
          You clearly have no idea what running an EV involves

    3. Ian Wragg
      November 26, 2021

      The Hinkley Point reactor is experimental and not in service anywhere in the world. The Chinese one being shutdown for safety reas. The Finish one years late and over budget.
      Ratcliffe coal station is still scheduled to close in 18 months.
      We are due to lose a quarter of all despatchable power in the next few years with nothing tangible to replace it.
      Carrie and company will be long gone by then.
      Get a grip man before it’s too late.

    4. GilesB
      November 26, 2021

      Britain had not rolled back the frontiers of the European Union “only to import that European model”.

      So true

    5. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      These days candles are made from petroleum waxes. Before that was possible whale oil was a major source of light. Save the whales. Use petroleum.

      1. Everhopeful
        November 26, 2021

        +1
        Lol
        A very green conundrum!!

    6. Footprint
      November 27, 2021

      I understand part of our regular national grid calculations is inclusive of regularly taking something like 10% from our friends on the Continent

      What happens if they cease to be friendly????

      (On further reflection when not if I think in the case of the French we are pretty close to that point now)

  2. Peter Wood
    November 26, 2021

    Good Morning,

    COAL – here’s an interesting idea to mitigate coal burning:

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90682603/this-startup-is-using-sunlight-and-captured-co2-to-make-jet-fuel

    I dunno, perhaps one of these plant positioned near a coal fired electrical generating station – could it be a ‘win-win’ situation….?
    Is government looking into this?

    1. Everhopeful
      November 26, 2021

      +1
      Doubt it.
      They are unnecessarily destroying without a scooby of how to replace.
      What’s the panic except some loony group think?

      I once knew an old lady who remembered her mother talking about shaking sense into stupid people “until their teeth rattled”.đŸ€­

      1. Micky Taking
        November 26, 2021

        Good job Social Services didn’t exist then, the old lady would have been raised ‘in care’ and the mother possibly jailed.

      2. Timaction
        November 26, 2021

        Indeed. Shaking common sense into stupid people is a problem. We have an incoherent energy generation policy based on a religion and making us subject to blackmail by foreign powers. This Government doesn’t know or understand National Security. From this to the boat people, they literally are all at sea! Where’s English peoples Human Rights? We have several National emergencies from Covid to power generation and invasion on our south coast whilst Boris is praying over non existent climate change! Real vote winners.

    2. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      These things will happen when they become practical and economically sensible as loads of energy is needed and wasted in the process – for now we will just use far cheaper aviation fuel.

      The best way to save aviation fuel is to ban private jets & helicopters, only have packed in economy or standing seats and only fly larger economical & always nearly full aircraft. But senior politicians will never do this the obvious reason that they like private jets and first class flights for their own comfort and convenience – in the do as I say not as I do – Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Emma Thompson… mode.

      1. Peter Wood
        November 26, 2021

        I know this sounds fanciful, but the US Navy is taking it seriously:
        ”Now, US Navy has invented and filed a patent application for a process to produce jet fuel from seawater. The process involves first subjecting seawater to an ion exchange reaction to acidify the seawater to a pH of 6.5 or below by exchange of H+ ions for Na+ ions in the seawater. Once the seawater has been acidified, the acidified seawater is degassed to obtain gaseous carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide obtained by degassing is then fed to a reactor with hydrogen to produce hydrocarbons, such as jet fuels…” You’ll note that the objective is again to manufacture CO2, that can be turned into jet fuel.
        Of course this is a step on the way to eliminating ‘fuel burning’ engines. It might be useful if it can be commercialised quickly and then we can all go back to flying as normal.
        Having a massive CO2 production machine, ie a coal burning power station manufacturing the raw material for free, should help viability.

        1. dixie
          November 26, 2021

          The Fischer–Tropsch process developed almost a hundred years ago is a series of chemical processes that produce a variety of hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and H2, various catalysts such as Iron and Ruthenium can improve performance.
          Last year I believe a team at the University of Maryland developed a technique using a composite of Aluminium and Graphite which converts CO2 to CO at room temperature and so with a FT-type process suggests a route from CO2 to syngas and synfuels, though something that works at nano or lab scales my not work at larger production scale.
          The objective should be to take CO2 from the air, though concentration at power generation sites would be ideal, and exploit the captured carbon to produce fuels, carbon based materials and polymers, to form a virtuous circle. But all of that takes research and money and that type of R&D is less predictable than product R&D so typically more expensive.
          It may also take 20 – 30 years to get from lab to product…. so doesn’t appeal at all to advocates of “sensible” R&D.

      2. Mark
        November 26, 2021

        The effect of preventing ordinary people from flying on jet fuel consumption was dramatic. See chart.

        https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/amcBl/1/

  3. Everhopeful
    November 26, 2021

    They don’t do sums or realistic planning.
    Too busy dreaming mad dreams!

    1. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      +1 not their money they are pissing down the drain (just yours) after all.

      1. Everhopeful
        November 26, 2021

        +10000
        Muchly agree!!

  4. Everhopeful
    November 26, 2021

    How odd that govts have always been desperate to centralise everything. To the detriment of all.
    Yet when it comes to nuclear, which although useful is frankly dangerous they are happy to have loads of little stations dotted around.
    Is that a kind of “levelling up”.
    Spreading the undoubted risk of anything this abysmal crew breathes on?

    1. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      The plan for small nuclear stations is rather daft. Surely it must cost more in the end, need far more staff to run them all, more fuel distribution problems and present rather more security and decommissioning problems. One or two large ones could be built, run and protected far more cheaply if only we had some competent people in charge.

      Electricity is fairly cheap to distribute and transmit (but very expensive to store as the wind enthusiasts & industry has discovered)

      1. Sharon
        November 26, 2021

        Lifelogic

        “
. if only we had some competent people in charge.”

        But that’s the key thing – WE DON’T! Just a bunch of idealogical idiots or those with not good intentions.

      2. Nota#
        November 26, 2021

        @lifelogic – and the building of these small units is reliant of the French having a major share as with all UK energy supplies.

      3. Mark
        November 26, 2021

        I think the idea is to co-locate a number of units at particular sites, solving the security problem and also fitting in with grid infrastructure that was built for the previous generations of nuclear power.

      4. Everhopeful
        November 26, 2021

        +many

      5. ChrisS
        November 26, 2021

        The main advantages of the SMRs are that

        1. The technology is British and well proven, being based on the experience Rolls Royce has of providing reactor systems for our submarines and

        2. The first series will be located on the same sites as existing nuclear power stations so security will not be an issue.

        3. Cost should not be an issue. The current prediction is that economies of scale mean that multiple SMRs provide a better price per kW than Hinkley Point C.

    2. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      Statistically Nuclear is the safest form of generation and hydro about the most dangerous (due mainly to dams & barrages failing which have killed millions).

      1. Dave Andrews
        November 26, 2021

        I’m sceptical about nuclear power. All my life it’s been seen as expensive, with government subsidies needed to keep it going. Then there are the problems of decommissioning retired plants and storage of spent fuel, which as far as I’m aware have yet to be solved.

  5. Everhopeful
    November 26, 2021

    I see that MSM is ramping up the notion that illegal immigration can be solved by making all immigration legal. Doing away, even more, with borders. ( Hmmm
what about the old covid then?)
    I seem to remember similar from the UN (possibly) some time ago.
    Is that what all this has always been about? The usual throwing up of hands in despair.
    “Nothing to be done. Let’s just give in.”

    1. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      How many would come to the UK before it became so crowded that no more would come? Five times the current population 10 times perhaps?

      1. Sharon
        November 26, 2021

        Lifelogic

        Eventually, if enough illegals came in ‘legally’, because of no border control; once the country was no longer able to offer free stuff and were no a longer decent country because we had become a third world country. Maybe then, people would no longer come
.dunno!

      2. Shirley M
        November 26, 2021

        At the moment, only the relative wealthy ones are arriving illegally, as they can afford to pay the traffickers. If the borders were opened then I can imagine billions would arrive. They wouldn’t care about future generations, just as our politicians don’t care about future generations. I hope a good % of the illegals are doctors and nurses else we are all done for, given the dire situation we have already, but I doubt there is a single one among them.

      3. Everhopeful
        November 26, 2021

        +1
        That’s a good point.

        Cloward-Piven Strategy

        Overload and Break the Welfare System
        Have Chaos Ensue
        Take Control in the Chaos
        Implement Socialism and Communism through Government Force

        Sounds familiar?

      4. Dave Andrews
        November 26, 2021

        Top ten countries for Calais migrants are Eritrea, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Albania, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Bangladesh. Total population over 800million.
        But not all would come, just the poor and sick – just about all of them.
        So 10 times is about the mark.
        At least at the moment there’s only those with enough money to pay traffickers.

        1. alan jutson
          November 26, 2021

          Dave
          Do not think that those who pay the traffickers are all desirable/wealthy people, otherwise they would fly here and claim asylum in an airport terminal and or stay in a hotel waiting for a flight rather than a tent !
          Why do you think many of them are reported as charging up their phones from illegally wired up street lights, because they have little or no money, but can possibly get it via the black/alternative economy, or perhaps through criminal actions.
          The alternative (also reported) is they sell their soul to the traffickers, to be paid back when in the UK and controlled and working for the rest of the gang members when here.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      November 26, 2021

      If that is the plan then let’s stop the Government pretences. Stop insulting the general population.

    3. Christine
      November 26, 2021

      The migrant crisis could be solved with one decision and that’s the French taking back every person who attempts to cross the channel. Pressure needs to be put on the French to do this and if they don’t then our boarder force should just take them back anyway. It’s long past time this government stopped being so soft. No other option will work.

    4. Iain Moore
      November 26, 2021

      Yes, the great idea the BBC has been aggressively pushing is off shore asylum applications , the ‘safe routes’. How many millions would apply if we set up an asylum application office in the Sudan or Ethiopia? I can only presume they want to destroy our country.

    5. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      We can see what happens when you open the borders to asylum seekers, as the Blair government did in 2001/2

      https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-0d5094a3-e8a6-4e8d-9b8b-68b2470b4a4b

      The chart figures for 2021 H1 are doubled, but the reality will be much higher for the year as a whole because of restricted Q1 travel and the massive hike in boat people in recent weeks and months – it could well be the highest total since 2003, judging by taking 4/3rds of the total for the first three quarters just published..

  6. lifelogic
    November 26, 2021

    The energy policy is a disaster – run it seems by Kwasi Kwateng and Greg Hands two history graduates with no understanding of energy, energy economics, physics or electricity supplies. Directed by Boris under instructions from (Theatre Studies Graduate) Carrie Johnson. All of whom it seems suffer from the net zero, climate alarmist religion. 24 Energy companies have gone bust in 12 weeks it seems.

    What could possibly go wrong with these types in charge?

    1. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      Any comment on the very worrying recent report into the extent of the serious side effects of the Pfizer Covid vaccines – are the government just going to continue on regardless?

      What have Chris Whitty, JCVI and “Just respect the NHS” Javid got to say on this report?

      1. Christine
        November 26, 2021

        Yes, what about all these fit sports people collapsing? Something is very wrong. Also why is Pfizer being used for the booster when people have previously been given the AZ vaccine? I thought the man who asked Jabit this question was right and Jabit’s response and derision completely out of order.

        1. Mark
          November 26, 2021

          I finally managed to secure a booster yesterday, having blagged my way into a local centre that was not supposedly offering walk-in jabs and concentrating instead on teenagers: everyone actually getting a jab was I would guess at least 60 – some teenagers! I had only been able to book an appointment 30 miles away in a different county, but due in the storms tomorrow. I noted that the Pfizer jab now has a new name: “Comirnaty”. Why the rebrand? Why make it sound like some foreign attempt to pronounce Community?

        2. Micky Taking
          November 27, 2021

          answer – to kickstart the body to produce antibodies in a slightly different way to how the Oxford design worked.

      2. Iago
        November 26, 2021

        No, yes and nothing. Even our children and young people are expendable for these creatures.

      3. APL
        November 26, 2021

        JR: “I think they need to announce more additional electricity capacity for the balance of this decade as they push through their electrical revolution.”

        ‘Revolution’?

        Was it in the Tory Party manefesto? ?

        Lifelogic: “What have Chris Whitty, JCVI and “Just respect the NHS” Javid got to say on this report?”

        Take your booster. That’s all they’ve got to say.

        Anyone dying from COVID-19 side effects; stroke, heart attack, myocarditis, .. the list is nearly endless. Will just be rolled up into the new ‘normal’ death statistics.

        We’ve had the unusual mortality rate in Scotland ( probably as one commentator said, just the deep fried Mars bars ) then, the unusually high mortality rate in England & Wales, now after urging pregnant women to get vaccinated in August, we’ve the unusual mortality rate in new born in Scotland.

        https://www.eutimes.net/2021/11/sudden-spike-in-deaths-of-newborn-babies-sparks-investigation-in-scotland/

        It’s all just a mystery, that none of the ‘experts’ seem to be able to link to any particular thing.

        Don’t forget the athletes, supposedly at peak fitness and prime of life, dropping like flies on the pitch.

        Nobody seems to be capable of connecting the dots.

      4. Ed M
        November 26, 2021

        Just done some research. Evidence seems to be that pros of being vaccinated easily outweigh cons for most people health-wise. But on top of that without the jabs, our economies would collapse and chaos would ensue that would then be far, far worse than problems with vaccine.

        1. R.Grange
          November 26, 2021

          Ed M – I think it matters what your research sources were, and especially how recent the information is. The position has changed drastically from what was being claimed earlier in the year. Look at what is happening in Israel and Gibraltar, two of the most highly Covid-jabbed places in the world. If you limited your research to British government and NHS sources, you would have just got the official narrative, which takes no account of inconvenient facts and publishes data that will keep the population in line.

          Economies have been damaged by government lockdowns, not by a cold virus. The Swedish economy suffered least of major countries in Europe, and Sweden did not lock down.

          1. Ed M
            November 27, 2021

            Hi, not saying that I favour lockdowns at all. I was only pro lockdowns at the very beginning when we were clueless about what was going on. But I was fairly quick in saying ‘no’ to lockdowns.
            Jabs another issue. Thanks for info about Israel. Had no idea (just looked up they’ve had big spike in Covid – I thought they were Covid free). What does that means then about the jabs? (I don’t know what to think / believe anymore about Covid).

        2. Dennis
          November 26, 2021

          I think the next medical scandal will be the knowledge that early use of ivermectin would have stopped covid 90% and reduced deaths too. Also that no early treatment is recommended when initial symptoms occur. The self isolate and stay in your room for a week will be seen as criminal.

          The evidence that ivermectin has proved very effective around the world particularly in Uttar Pradesh is well known. If the UK govt can show that these evidences are not right why don’t they show that? If ivermectin has been used billions of times proving its safety why are UK doctors not permitted to prescribe it to see if it helps?

          1. Ed M
            November 27, 2021

            You could be right. But is there any good scientific evidence to support this? Whatever the politics, we need the science to back up.

        3. No Longer Anonymous
          November 26, 2021

          Ed M

          Ignoring, of course, why we needed the bloody things in the first place !

          I note that my local builder’s merchants has re-enforced mask wearing on the basis of “new variant” to which I said to one of the sales persons “So that’s it forever then. Masks and our way of life gone.”

          “Yup.”

          To which I asked …

          “So would you recommend this floppy mask for stripping an asbestos roof ? Bearing in mind that asbestos fibres are many times bigger than viruses ? Go look at a video on vaping through a mask to see how utterly useless they are.”

    2. Everhopeful
      November 26, 2021

      LL
      +1
      I see that your longtime argument re education has been taken up by MSM.
      Took them a while to see why we are in such a state!

      “Well, I can list the causes of WW1 ( as propagandised to me) but I can’t change a light bulb!”

      1. lifelogic
        November 26, 2021

        “Well, I can list the causes of WW1 ( as propagandised to me) but I can’t change a light bulb!”

        Sounds like a description of Boris, Kwatang, Guy Hands and most of the rest of the Cabinet and the UK education system in general. But then most jobs now are really non jobs perhaps 40% or even less do anything useful, of value or needed – the rest just get in the way.

    3. DOM
      November 26, 2021

      It’s about politics not energy supply. Have you not worked that out yet? All is POLITICAL.

      In the US they’re pulling down statues of Thomas Jefferson. One of the Founding Fathers of the USA. That nation is being ripped apart both from within and without by Marxists determined to smash history into the dirt.

      The west is teetering on the cusp of a new dark age driven by a tiny minority of extremists that now hold power

      1. Ed M
        November 26, 2021

        We need to return to our Judaeo-Christian and the best of our Greco-Roman heritage – that gave us the Renaissance, Bach, Sir Isaac Newton, Parliament, Oxford, our Judiciary, Guilds, Shakespeare, Da Vinci, Work Ethic, Patriotism, Venice, Notion of Real Masculinity and Feminity, Family Values etc ..

    4. Donna
      November 26, 2021

      Perhaps it’s part of a Governmental exercise to see how resilient the British people currently are? How much “grief” will we put up with before revolting and how capable are we to provide for ourselves when they completely mess up and fail to carry out the basic duties of Government?

      Exercise 1. The Covid Policy
      Exercise 2. The Illegal Immigration “Policy”
      Exercise 3. The Eco Lunacy Policy
      Exercise 4. The “government-induced poverty” Policy …. also known as “taxing ’til the pips squeak” Policy

      1. glen cullen
        November 26, 2021

        Exercise 5. Split the Union policy (NIP)
        Exercise 6. Let the French fish in UK waters policy
        Exercise 7. Build a train for ÂŁ150bn that no-one wants policy
        Exercise 8. Reduce the size of army to a scout troop policy
        Exercise 9. Never reduce tax policy
        
.this could go on and on and on

    5. Magelec
      November 26, 2021

      Back in the good old days the electricity supply system was planned, designed and operated by engineers. The government of the day discussed the expansion proposals and provided the capital. I know things have changed but politicians have been influenced too much by vested interests and have taken key responsibilities away from the engineers. It will all end in disaster!

    6. glen cullen
      November 26, 2021

      The energy policy is a disaster because the policy is 100% green

  7. turboterrier
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John you know only too well, all the generating capacity in the world is useless if the distribution infrastructure cannot cope with the loadings required to meet the very demand that will be needed in the direction we are being forced down.
    One day the ministers will see the light and understand what a minefield they have led us into over the last 30 odd years by their ignorance and incompetence.

  8. Sea_Warrior
    November 26, 2021

    More nuclear? Yes please. The government needs to move ‘full speed ahead’ with SMR, which will not only start a huge manufacturing industry HERE but will also be great for our balance of payments.
    P.S. I see that another two gas supply companies have fallen victim to the May’s price-cap. I call again for the government to tap the UK’s gas resources, under the ground and sea, so that we are never held hostage by Putin, and others, again.

    1. Nota#
      November 26, 2021

      @Sea_Warrior – These RR SMR are getting the go ahead as the French are to become major shareholders. It would appear they need to get their hands on the tech to use at home and export in competition.

      Supply companies going bust. Isn’t that really someone trying to make money from promises they cant keep. Customers are going to be alright as rather than them going onto the market like everyone else and paying the going rate the UK taxpayer is going to directly subsidies these highly attractive deals they cant get for themselves.

      Yes we should tap into our indigenous resources – that however goes against Boris’s dream of a new eco world. Better to live in poverty than advance in a self sufficient resilient manner.

      1. hefner
        November 26, 2021

        Seriously, the NuWard project put together by EDF (ÉlectricitĂ© de France), Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, Naval Group and Technic Atom (2 French companies involved in the nuclear-powered submarines for about 40 years) was announced (in France) on 17/09/2019 (edf.fr).
        The NuWard objective is SMRs. It might be true that the French financial involvement in RR SMR is to ‘slow down’ British development, but I would not think that the French ‘need to get their hands on the (British) tech to use at home’.

        Did you notice Macron saying in October (12/10) that such SMRs might be around by 2030 and announcing a $35bn funding over the present decade.
        In comparison RR will be getting ÂŁ195m from private firms and a ÂŁ210m grant from the Government.

        1. Stred
          November 29, 2021

          The British regulator will hold Rolls Royce up for ten years and cost it more than a SMR. No need of ‘help’ from the French.

      2. Mark
        November 26, 2021

        Energy retailer bankruptcies are the result of the OFGEM cap, which assumed that wholesale gas would cost no more than 70p/therm not 240p/therm over the winter, with wholesale electricity prices being commensurate with gas prices instead of being at a substantial premium to them. That means massive losses for retailers that they are having to finance. Unfortunately, the process of recovering from their losses is going to be extremely expensive for billpayers when the cap is eventually amended.

        I suspect that there is going to need to be a series of low interest loans to retailers and a lengthy spread out repayment, because most consumers cannot afford doubled energy bills just like that. Hopefully too an apology from BEIS, OFGEM and National Grid for failing to ensure adequate resilience and switching capability in our supplies.

    2. glen cullen
      November 26, 2021

      Our current energy problems are all self inflicted and could have been avoided

      1. alan jutson
        November 26, 2021

        +10

    3. Martyn G
      November 26, 2021

      Exactly so S-W, here we are, the UK consisting of a collection of islands, surrounded by seas full of fish and stood on bountiful supplies of gas, coal and minerals is being ruined by the watermelons (yellow on the outside but dark red inside).
      Governments of every hue in the past and into the present day have busied themselves in destroying our future. None of the present lot seem capable of spouting anything but unscientific drivel based on climate warming lies to frighten children and adults alike. I despair for the future of this disunited nation, I really do.

      1. glen cullen
        November 26, 2021

        +1

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        November 26, 2021

        +1

  9. turboterrier
    November 26, 2021

    How will all this essential power generation and distribution infrastructure be paid for?
    The government has as before cleverly introduced a fear factor into all these requirements bought about by the consequences of non acceptance of Net Zero. They seem to excel in being able to piss before they have their flies open, never thinking the cause and effect processes through in too many areas under their control.

  10. DOM
    November 26, 2021

    Party loyal MPs are destroying the UK. Their refusal to attack in forthright terms and in a manner that is sufficiently damaging the policies of those in power will eventually undermine all that we have known

    The move towards non-fossil fuel energy policy is driven by political considerations not environmental. On that basis alone we are being lied to. It is not acceptable for Tory and Labour MPs to sit on their scrawny and in many cases fat posteriors on the backbenches pretending all is hunky dory when in fact they can patently see we have a serious problem across all policy areas.

    The rise of green fascism, fascist PC culture and the rise of destructive Neo-Marxist woke barbarism is not coincidental. We are seeing a State coordinated and sustained assault on our very nature and backbench MPs who can see it is happening remain silent. Well, that silence by people elected to assert power on our behalf is a fundamental betrayal of the democratic oath

    MPs should either speak out condemn those who exercise power or retire and become a bus driver or something more productive

    1. Jim Whitehead
      November 26, 2021

      DOM , +1

    2. BOF
      November 26, 2021

      +1 DOM
      A party of yes men and women who sit back and do nothing will allow a very evil world to prevail.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      November 26, 2021

      +1

    4. Sharon
      November 26, 2021

      +1

      We could do with an uptick of comments, Mr Redwood.

      1. glen cullen
        November 26, 2021

        +1

    5. Everhopeful
      November 26, 2021

      +1
      I truly believe that they have let things go so far that it is now a case of “se sauve”.
      Demonstrably dangerous being high profile these days!

    6. Shirley M
      November 26, 2021

      DOM, +100 This government is destroying (or at the minimum, ignoring) democracy, but the other parties are just as guilty. I am tired of minorities being given special rights that are denied to the majority. That is NOT democracy, and never will be! Why is the majority consistently trampled on and ignored????? This applies to the woke, the cancel culture, political correctness, race, LFBTQ+ … everything I can think of, basically!

    7. glen cullen
      November 26, 2021

      Spot On

  11. turboterrier
    November 26, 2021

    Nursery and commercial sectors need cheap reliable energy to assist them in becoming really competitive.
    All these hotels being used for all the illegal migrants need cheap energy to help reduce their costs to the taxpayer as one assumes that their power consumption will be increasing to provide, food, hot water, lighting and heating for all their “guests”

  12. Fedupsoutherner
    November 26, 2021

    The whole energy system in this country is a total mess, run by ministers who know nothing and who have constantly failed to seek advice from experts in that field. Instead they have listened to the NGOs and eco warriors who are set to make shed loads of money all paid for by industry and the ever struggling home owners. There is only so much electricity people can save. I have resorted to washing clothes on the shortest coolest cycle permanently, turning off appliances, showerng for the shortest time possible, turning off all lights and sitting in almost total darkness and not using my extractor fan when cooking. My energy bill has still shot up. It was good to see that Biden is to get the USA to produce and release more oil in a bid to get fuel prices down. I feel we are going backwards in this country while worshipping at the alter of climate change. We are truly led by idiots. Successive governments have been warned of the consequences of their ignorance but they are too busy listening to the likes of St Greta to take the necessary action required to keep this country in the real world. We surely deserve a better government than we have now.

    1. Andy
      November 26, 2021

      We are led by idiots. Most of the country didn’t vote for them though. But most of you did.

      1. Peter2
        November 26, 2021

        If you add up the votes for every other party, then that applies to almost every majority government post war.

  13. lifelogic
    November 26, 2021

    Cost of Hinkley C will surely end up at over ÂŁ30 billion – cost of the same generating capacity in gas or coal perhaps about 1/20 of this. The latter more flexible and on demand and with far lower decommissioning costs too.

    1. jerry
      November 26, 2021

      @LL; Indeed, but do we really want to be reliant on Russian gas, nor do I detect any wish from the three main parties in the UK to reopen our coal industry, and two do not want to even burn imported coal, so if we want energy security [1] we need to build more nuclear power stations. The only question being, do we pay the France/China, or does the govt puts the costs back on the HMT/BEIS balance sheets, bringing the projects back in house (were costs can be better controlled), after all the tax payer pays whatever, either through their energy bills or their tax codes.

      [1] not just use an alternate, but unproven/unreliable, technology that are the so called Renewables

    2. Ed M
      November 26, 2021

      There is also issue of who builds it. If we build it, money goes back into British economy. If Chinese build it, money gets siphoned off, out of the UK to wherever.

    3. NotA#
      November 26, 2021

      @LifeLogic – Hinkley C, UK taxpayers filling the coffers of a foreign power to build it and then the UK taxpayer paying the same entity for the privilege of being the consumer. A strange version of investment in the UK’s future – the big money give a way

  14. turboterrier
    November 26, 2021

    And all the time ministers play silly buggers with all this lack of understanding regarding total energy requirements China, India, Russia and others rub their hands together watch us implode and keep hearing the cash pour into their coffers.
    You cannot make it up

  15. Excalibur
    November 26, 2021

    So the latest additional cost for an electric powered vehicle is quote EV tyres unquote. Apparently conventional tyres are too noisy for the peaceful interior of an EV. Tyre companies are now marketing tyres specifically for EVs. They claim these tyres reduce road noise.

    I shall keep my 2006 Corsa (which goes like the wind, even on E10 fuel) until the sky falls down.

    1. Micky Taking
      November 27, 2021

      I replaced tyres with specifically ‘quiet’ tyres – which on a few roads are better, but on most the crap tarmac and thousands of badly laid patches makes them pointless.

  16. Fedupsoutherner
    November 26, 2021

    Flights from 6 African countries have been stopped but the taxi service over the English channel is still running well.

    1. Donna
      November 26, 2021

      Yes, they just have to come the long way. But I expect Johnson would approve of that …… less of those evil fossil fuels used.

    2. Shirley M
      November 26, 2021

      To those who believe the ‘claims’ of Boris and Pritti that they are trying to reduce immigration, let’s look at the evidence. They keep lowering the minimum pay required for legal immigration. They keep finding excuses to invite more legal immigration. They make illegal immigration as attractive as possible, with their 4* hotels, free mobile, and promises of housing, etc. Then ask yourself how many failed asylum seekers and convicted criminals have been deported. I would be surprised if you had heard of more than a half dozen or so. Do you still believe Pritti & Boris?

  17. turboterrier
    November 26, 2021

    And all the time the invasion continues putting more and more demands on our energy capacity and networks.

  18. Fedupsoutherner
    November 26, 2021

    A new Covid variant has been detected. Just in time for our Christmas stocking folks!

    1. Micky Taking
      November 27, 2021

      well well well the Government has a major new distraction to allow them to introduce control measures, mask-wearing, lockdown – announce bad news on a ‘difficult day’.

  19. MPC
    November 26, 2021

    The banning of attendance by the nuclear industry at COP 26 says it all about this dangerous government’s attitude to low emission nuclear power. We have a George Monbiot-inspired energy policy where rational contrarian arguments are simply ignored, including by that key player National Grid, whose senior management still thinks Ed Milliband was a wonderful Energy Minister. Seriously.

    1. jerry
      November 26, 2021

      @MPC; I would hope Nuclear energy is zero emissions, otherwise Greenpeace have a point! 😼

      But yes, there does seem to be ignorance about what counts as emissions, typified by the MSM (not just the BBC…) when they show images of cooling towers etc venting steam, whilst talking about CO2.

    2. turboterrier
      November 26, 2021

      M P C
      Your last comment just about sums it up.
      You may get rid of the leader but unless you get rid of the levels of management that believed all that had been told to them then in reality nothing changes.
      Just like the Civil Service regardless of the change of ministers it is still situation normal carry on as usual.

    3. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      National Grid reported a 47% rise in profits a few days ago. The green regime suits them very well, because it requires lots of extra grid assets on which they can earn a return. No wonder they admire Miliband who made it all possible.

    4. hefner
      November 26, 2021

      Not true:
      * Rosatom representatives were at COP26 as part of the ‘Clean Nuclear Energy’ day on 08/11/2021.
      * The American Nuclear Society is a recognised civil society organisation with UN observer status and as such its representatives attended the conference.
      * Moreover 10 young nuclear energy professionals from Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Spain and the USA were sponsored to participate by the ANS, and they attended whichever talks they wanted.
      * And there was a Nuclear for Climate booth in the COP26 conference centre from the UK’s Nuclear Institute with even the US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pictured talking with one of the ANS young professionals there.

      That’s a lot of presence for people ‘banned to attend’.

      see ans.org ‘ANS COP26 delegates spread the message in Glasgow: Net zero needs nuclear’, 22/11/2021 NuclearNewswire.

  20. Roy Grainger
    November 26, 2021

    They can’t even build new housing in many parts of the country due to NIMBYism and convoluted and protracted planning processes, what chance do they have with “small” nuclear power stations ? Would Andy want one in his part of the leafy Home Counties ?

    1. Andy
      November 26, 2021

      I don’t want nuclear power stations anywhere because nuclear comes with unacceptable risks and contamination.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        November 26, 2021

        Andy

        You want open borders and mass immigration. Own nuclear.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          November 27, 2021

          You must stop caricaturing people in this immature absolutist way.

          Just because someone rightly does not want to see boats of defenceless people fired upon and sunk – as some here have expressly encouraged – does not mean that they are in favour of unlimited immigration at all.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            November 27, 2021

            If they won’t declare an upper limit then immigration IS unlimited.

      2. Peter2
        November 26, 2021

        Look up how many people have died in coal, oil and gas creation.
        Then look up how many people have died in the creation of nuclear power.

      3. Micky Taking
        November 27, 2021

        I’m rather concerned about the obvious contamination somewhere around Amersham and Chesham.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      November 26, 2021

      The NIMBYs are right to object about house building – because it NEVER comes with the increased infrastructure and services that it needs.

      And if it’s for local people then why has our area’s crime rate shot up ? You’d think local people (already well behaved) would be happier in their new homes and not be assaulting coppers in numbers that were unheard of before.

      We should have more services with all that extra council tax coming in… presuming that the new householders ARE paying council tax.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      November 26, 2021

      Roy. At least if he lives in a leafy green area he’ll have somewhere to park his horse!

    4. Norman
      November 26, 2021

      Tim Morgan’s Surplus Energy Economics blog has set out some fundamental problems for 10-15 years now. Basically, *the economy runs on energy* and printing money as we have been doing is irrelevant.

      I don’t think he’s ever had any approaches from UK governments of either party. It’s rumoured that maybe ten governments behind the scenes know the game is up – presumably including US, UK, China, Russia, France, etc. But voters are never told that this might mean that we have to face an end to ‘perpetual growth’. Presumably politicians fear that ‘the other side’ would seize on this admission to win votes and take power.

      Observing the ridiculous reaction since 23 March 2020 to a virus with the same fatality rate as normal or bad flu (source: govt answer to question from Steve Baker MP), I slightly doubt that the UK is a self-governing democracy any more. It’s almost as if it’s taking orders from above from people who have this ridiculous idea of a world government, and harmonising its utterances with other countries, like Germany, Canada et al. But I digress …

    5. Ed M
      November 26, 2021

      The irony is that uneducated planners have nearly ruined so many of our once lovely towns and cities. All planners shouldn’t be allowed to plan until they have been forced to live in Florence for a year and experience the beauty of the Renaissance in the buildings of Florence. I exaggerate of course but there is far, far too much of a brutish approach to planning in this country where there is profound lack of understanding / appreciation of aesthetics: BEAUTY (forget Florence, just go to Oxford or visit Salisbury Cathedral – what is wrong with modern man?)

      1. claxby pluckacre
        November 26, 2021

        X 100.000

        1. Ed M
          November 27, 2021

          ‘Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint. In her spacious and quiet streets men walked and spoke as they had done in Newman’s day; her autumnal mists, her grey springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days – such as that day – when the chestnut was in flower and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth. It was this cloistral hush which gave our laughter its resonance, and carried it still, joyously, over the intervening clamour.’ – Evelyn Waugh

          I love this country whether it be the high culture and architecture of Oxford or the more simple culture and architecture of a Cornish fishing village or a Welsh village like the one in Dylan Thomas’ Under Milkwood – and everything in between.

  21. BOF
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John, I humbly suggest that brains have gone into storage where ‘ the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine’. There is no plan apart from haphazard flatulence on the subject.

    We have our gas hob, woodburner that also heats the hot water, and candles.

  22. Andy
    November 26, 2021

    We had a brief power cut a few weeks ago when a distracted road worker cut through a cable. We had a much longer one about 7 years ago when something blew up – then the electricity company had to provide us and our neighbour with a generator for 3 days.

    Other than those two incidents I don’t remember experiencing any power cuts of note for 40 years. Consequently the fear of power cuts you all mention would appear to be completely irrational.

    But then the Tories have become a party addicted to irrational fears. They feared the EU was making them less English. They fear the BBC. They fear sports people kneeling to show support for anti-racism. They fear men dressed as women. One yesterday told us how he feared Dr Who being played by a woman (Dr Who is, of course, an alien). They fear people in dinghies. They fear power cuts.

    Their politics involves making people irrationally scared. The lights aren’t going to go off.

    1. alan jutson
      November 26, 2021

      Too young to remember the 3 day week then Andy !

    2. Peter2
      November 26, 2021

      In the past you are correct young Andy.
      But things are currently changing.
      We had one today for a few hours due to a lack of electricity capacity.
      A new different type of non accidental power cut.

      Power cuts on a regular basis for capacity reasons are just beginning.
      Caused by demand not satisfied by capacity added to greater involvement of renewables into the total.

    3. Micky Taking
      November 27, 2021

      you admit to using a diesel generator? Well shame on you !

  23. Javelin
    November 26, 2021

    This doesn’t mean that the new Botswana virus is dangerous or has been engineered, but


    The new Botswana covid variant has 32 new mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that most vaccines use to prime the immune system against Covid.

    The ACE2 receptor protein also has 10 new mutations, including a second furin binding site, that helps to create an entry point for the coronavirus to infect human cells.

  24. Sharon
    November 26, 2021

    Resourceful people will find ways of heating and lighting their homes
 generators, torches, open fires
.(some people will gather and store chunks of wood to burn!)

    In South Africa, where my son’s girlfriend grew up, her father rigged up a back-up generator to kick in, for when it was their turn to not have electricity. She told us they have to share electricity by taking turns in going without it for hours at a time. As she said, it at least keeps the fridge and freezer cold.

    I’m sure we’re most definitely going backwards in our progress through the 21st century.

    I recently skim-read First Global Revolution printed in 1991 about The Club of Rome who are alarmed about how the humans are progressing so rapidly. Don’t know whether they’re the same people as WEF meetings, but probably. They have decided there must be a slow down, and their biggest concern is the size of the global population. They were the masterminds behind Agenda 21, so they probably are part of the WEF bunch.

    If this green crap, and taking advantage of the coronavirus is their way of achieving their goal, then the world population hasn’t shrunk much yet
so how do they plan to reduce the numbers? Hope we all freeze to death with no heating because we either can’t afford it or there is no power? Or in the case of the UK, no access to health care due to millions on waiting lists and allowing in thousands of illegals every month on dinghies?

  25. Donna
    November 26, 2021

    Numbers! You want NUMBERS?!

    How very dare you Sir John. The Obsessives who are promoting the Eco Lunacy don’t rely on NUMBERS. They have FAITH. Numbers are for unenlightened “little people” ,,, who will therefore be ignored.

    FAITH will keep the lights on.

    Now shut up …… and pay up.

  26. JayGee
    November 26, 2021

    The lights went out in government long ago.

  27. Iain Gill
    November 26, 2021

    well said john, actually asking the obvious facts and the governments waffle is shown for the nonsense it is

    such a shame politics is in this state

    looks like you are the real opposition, as the labour benches are useless

  28. Sakara Gold
    November 26, 2021

    None of the limited handful of contributors who still post here has provided any of the figures requested. All you will ever get here is greencrap opinion, fossil fuel lobby propaganda and bullshit regurgitated from the DT.

    Your points actually support the completion of the re-nationalisation of the energy industry. Clearly, after ten years of Conservative government, the private sector has failed to provide the energy security that the country needs. Investment in grid-scale energy storage capacity is the solution, a LCOE competition between the various contenders is needed. But Kwarteng refuses to antagonise Putin and the fossil fuel lobby, prefering to support their “blue” hydrogen and “carbon capture and storage”scams.

    Today renewables are providing 15.8GW or 43% of UK demand. A tremendous amount of electricity. There is no prospect that the lights will go out today and to suggest otherwise is fearmongering.

    1. Barbara
      November 26, 2021

      ‘Today renewables are powering 15.8GW or 43% of UK demand’

      Actually, I just checked, and it’s 16.13GW, or 39%.

      Because it’s windy, and not that cold.

      Some days they provide next to nothing. The point is they are inefficient, expensive, require government subsidy, are unreliable except in certain favourable conditions, could never provide baseload and cannot operate without back-up.

      1. Sakara Gold
        November 27, 2021

        @barbara
        While acknowleging that the wind is variable your claims that ” they are inefficient, expensive, require government subsidy etc” are demonstaby false.

        The latest, huge, wind turbines now being installed on the Dogger Bank are up to 50% more efficient than the earliest and operate over a far wider range of conditions. The installation costs are carried by the installers. There has been no subsidy for 7 years and, having previously struck a CFD price of ~ÂŁ40/MWh at the last round, at yesterdays electricity price of ÂŁ180/MWh the treasury is making huge profits from them.

        Do check the facts before you regurgitate fossil fuel propaganda, lies and bulshit cribbed from the DT

        1. Barbara
          November 27, 2021

          “London, 20 November — A report commissioned by the Norwegian government has contradicted Boris Johnson’s recent claim in Parliament that offshore wind costs have fallen by 70% in a decade.
          It confirms that the UK’s newest offshore wind farms remain high-cost operations. Indeed, the academics who produced the report have said the forthcoming Dogger Bank wind farms will be unprofitable, and are essentially worthless, with a value of around minus £1 billion in current terms.
          Remarkably, the findings have not been disputed by the developers.“

          Do check the facts before you regurgitate net zero propaganda, lies and bullshit cribbed from gawd knows where.

      2. Micky Taking
        November 27, 2021

        well today the wind probably means the windmills will be stopped because they might fall over.
        Oh – and by the way today was mostly 1c in high wind-chill.
        It is about to be December, and we have had a mild November, so at least another 4 months of winter ahead……brrrrr..

    2. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      What is worrying is that government appears to have no concept of the numbers. Mr Kwarteng offered no numbers when asked for them. Equally worrying are claims that grid storage is going to solve it all, when it is quite plain that the volumes required to do that are unaffordable, and measured in tens of TWh -and presumes that we have capacity to fill it in the first place.

      1. Sakara Gold
        November 27, 2021

        @Mark
        Until the government funds a LCOE competition between the various utility scale energy storage proposals – many of which are now at the pilot plant stage – we dont know the costings. And they would be charged up at night using extremely cheap juice, when otherwise our wind farms are curtailed.

        Have you seen the latest costings for Scotland’s first green hydrogen electrolysis project? I think you would be surprised

        1. Mark
          November 28, 2021

          Scotland already has a green hydrogen project in the Orkneys. It is eye-watering expensive, but at a least a good chunk of the subsidies came from the EU.

          LCOE is not the holy grail measure (and in any event, many of the estimates of LCOE are propaganda rather than accurate costings). We have to look at integrated system costs. So for example as you increase intermittent wind, the proportion of time when the output would be curtailed increases, meaning that the cost of the useful output goes up. At 50GW of wind only about half the output of an extra wind farm is useful, meaning that the cost us doubled. By 90GW only about 20% of output is useful, making the cost 5 tomes as great fro the same technology.

  29. John Pilcher
    November 26, 2021

    Issues concerning energy supply will improve/deteriorate when the government removes “National Grid” from the control it has exercised on our supply for over 30 years?

    1. claxby pluckacre
      November 26, 2021

      Gone to China…the future looks bright

  30. jerry
    November 26, 2021

    Regarding our hosts last sentence, the energy sector is already in special measures, ÂŁbn’s of what some on the right like to call “tax payer money” is being spent by this govt propping up failed or failing energy companies.

    “To big to fail”, nice work if you can get it…

  31. Everhopeful
    November 26, 2021

    Sorry but I think the lights have gone out all over Europe for good.
    Anyone else seen the vid on Twitter of people ( all ethnicities) being dragged out of a meeting. DRAGGED!
    For questioning the “Health” minister re covid.

    1. Everhopeful
      November 26, 2021

      Whoops.
      Sorry it was at a meeting held by London Mayor.

  32. Micky Taking
    November 26, 2021

    In his letter to Mr Macron, the UK prime minister outlined five steps he wanted to see taken:
    Joint patrols to prevent more boats from leaving French beaches.
    deploying more advanced technology, like sensors and radar.
    reciprocal maritime patrols in each other’s territorial waters and airborne surveillance.
    deepening the work of the countries’ joint intelligence cell.
    immediate work on a bilateral returns agreement with France, alongside talks to establish a UK-EU returns agreement.
    “An agreement with France to take back migrants who cross the Channel through this dangerous route would have an immediate and significant impact,” Mr Johnson said.

    All sounds Priti good at solving the escalation of attempts and tragedies.

    1. hefner
      November 26, 2021

      But only a nincompoop would put such a letter to a head of another state on Twitter. Except if the real addressees were the British public. What are diplomats for, may I ask? or has Mr Johnson taken a leaf out of Mr Trump’s book?

    2. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      I read that France refuses 80% of asylum applications. I do wonder how many of those crossing the Channel have in fact already had asylum claims turned down.

      1. glen cullen
        November 27, 2021

        My understanding is that they’ve already been processed in Greece or maybe Gremany and can’t therefore seek refuge in France…but the stupit English will let they stay

  33. Brian Tomkinson
    November 26, 2021

    Even you must realise that this government is not fit for purpose. Plenty of talk but no delivery, except when it benefits their pals. We don’t have a properly functioning parliament and our democracy is being demolished before our eyes. You MPs need to do far more than ask questions to which you will be given irrelevant answers. We need a root and branch clear out.

  34. Christine
    November 26, 2021

    We are also heading for a massive shortage in rental properties. Many landlords are selling up ahead of the changes in the EPC energy certificates ratings. Properties will not be rentable if they don’t meet exacting standards. These regulations are to be extended to home owners who will be unable to sell their properties unless they meet the standard. For many old properties it will be impossible to meet these standards, so a massive percentage of our housing stock will be unmortgageable. For commercial properties it is set to be even worse as these will have to attain an even higher standard. Drip, drip, drip until you will own nothing!

    1. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      I replied to the government consultation on this many months ago. There has been no report of the consultation findings. I warned them that the policy was likely to result in considerable homelessness and financial hardship. All part of the great net zero plan to make us poor, cold and hungry, and jobless car-less and even homeless.

  35. alan jutson
    November 26, 2021

    My two year fix (with one of the big 4) for electricity comes to an end on 31st December, I lay out some facts.
    Present rate Renewal rate.
    Quarterly charge ÂŁ24.38 ÂŁ49.18
    Fits Recovery Charge 0.615 p/kWh 0.673 p/kWh
    All Units 14.473 p/kWh 24.219 p/kWh
    PLUS VAT PUS VAT
    Renewal rate was for a two year fixed rate, Quarterly charge up 100%, cost per unit up about 60%
    If I was a heavy user imagine how much I would need to raise my prices just to stand still.
    This company advises “they are supplying green electricity from their own wind farms” on their endless loop announcements, when you hang on to the telephone waiting to speak to someone.
    I doubt it, given it is one of the big 4, and my electricity still flows when the wind does not blow.

    Methinks someone somewhere is telling porky pies John, have the Government swallowed it !!!!!

  36. Nota#
    November 26, 2021

    This Government has shown that unless UK energy supplies are in the hands of Foreign Governments they are not interested. The view appears to be it is far better to use taxpayer funding to supplement and support Foreign Governments. That way the UK taxpayer gets to pay twice, fund the project and then eject their payments for the supply into the coffers of our foreign ‘friends’

    Not exactly the way to become self reliant and sufficient when your industry life blood is controlled by the whims of a foreign power

    1. NotA#
      November 26, 2021

      @Nota# Sweden not know for being a nuclear power produces 40% of its energy from its own State owned nuclear power stations. The point being their taxpayer is funding their own future and not held accountable to the political whims of foreign powers

  37. Bryan Harris
    November 26, 2021

    It is this winter and next that most people are concerned about.

    The question that needs to be pursued with the minister is:

    WHY are we spending, nay WASTING, countless ÂŁmillions on windmills when they have shown themselves to be so useless, and will only get more useless as we head into a mini-iceage?


    The events in Texas should have been a grave warning that wind power cannot be relied on, nor could they trust others to supply that power. They had a sudden very cold spell, and the state was without power for days!

    Successive governments have ignored this problem of power generation, and now we have the lunatic net-zero policies determining our future. When the lights do go out, where will the energy still available be routed to first – No doubt ministers have contingency plans to keep their offices and homes warm

  38. The Prangwizard
    November 26, 2021

    Another case of Sir John being at odds with his Tory party’s policies and practises. His recent questions always decently put but are easily swatted away. He asks but never demands. The party knows he will do nothing to hurt the party the government or himself.

    There are others in his party who speak more strongly and stridently and they get more publicity and I dare say ministers pay more attention because they display and represent anger that many ordinary people are feeling.

  39. Micky Taking
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John your final list of questions sounds just like a decent opposition would present. Have you considered script writing for Starmer?

  40. glen cullen
    November 26, 2021

    Green energy hasn’t won the argument…… its won the propaganda war

  41. Hat man
    November 26, 2021

    As always with your questions to government, Sir John, the most revealing part would be for you to supply the weaselly and evasive answers from Ministers, showing there is absolutely no will on their part to do the sensible things you suggest.

  42. John Miller
    November 26, 2021

    There MUST be a referendum before we embark on the suicidal “Green” project. I would suggest a series of televised debates between the faithful and the “heretics” wherein the public are shown that the people forcing us to regress 500 years have no intention of changing their lifestyles by one jot.

    If this stupidity (the data produced by the IPCC DOES NOT SUPPORT THE MEASURES PROPOSED) is enforced, blood will be shed.

    1. glen cullen
      November 26, 2021

      But this government would never enact the result of a green referendum, they never enacted a true Brexit
      We need a party thats pro co2, cheap fuel and technology to support manufacturing and the environment

  43. Lets Buy British
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John,
    A question if I may.
    The govts narrative appears to be to push the use of electric cars and heat pumps but isn’t this coming from the civil service who might be at odds with the govts wish to explore hydrogen capabilities in home heating as well as hydrogen based combustion engines for cars.
    There are 2 countries who are running with hydrogen fuelled cars and JCB is close to modifying their engines to work with hydrogen and there are ongoing developments on gas boilers and improvement of existing gas pipes to take hydrogen or a hybrid fuel in Preston or Carlyle.
    The civil service appears wedded to heat pumps because some EU countries have adopted them. They are expensive and they produce a low heat. Those EU countries may begin to suffer from first mover regret.
    There is an argument to be made that as a first mover we make an expensive blunder into the wrong technology rather than waiting for the technology to become more advanced e.g. how do we process used batteries to make them environmentally safe, etc.
    It will be the citizens of the UK who may end up paying twice having to move from a lower grade technology to a vastly improved technology perhaps only over one generational period.
    Yes we need to do something as we saw at COP26 but do we need to charge off down a potential blind alley when the technology is not yet here.
    All the best
    Colin

  44. BOF
    November 26, 2021

    O T
    Now that the vaccines are proving to be largely ineffective, with so many patients ending up in hospital with Covid (and passing it on), having had the vax, and also now that it is KNOWN that Ivermectin (and hydroxy chloroquin) is such an effective treatment for Covid, will our ineffectual MP’s start to question the whole policy of lockdown, vaccines and cheap effective treatments for Covid?

    1. Bill B.
      November 26, 2021

      BOF – And is the Pope a Methodist?

  45. Ed
    November 26, 2021

    Unless something changes now (it won’t), we have a very bleak future ahead. Power rationing, high prices, blackouts, unemployment, poverty, hunger, cold, and people will die. Boris and the rest of the eco loons will destroy this country.
    All the people coming in to this country from warmer climes will probably want to go back home soon where they won’t freeze to death. Perhaps that is Boris’s long term cunning plan.

  46. Mark J
    November 26, 2021

    The solutions (once again) are simple, but so seemingly difficult for this Government.

    Uncontrolled immigration is helping no one, yet our Government still doesn’t get this.

    Well hopefully you will get a wake up call in the forthcoming by-elections, when a few seats are lost.

    If this will not be enough of a lesson, watch many others fall to the opposition, come the next election.

    All we ask is for the Conservatives to get their house in order and start dealing with the issues that many are concerned about. Is it really that difficult?

  47. Dave Ward
    November 26, 2021

    Meanwhile, the cost of “Balancing” our increasingly precarious electricity grid (thanks to those useless wind turbines & solar panels) reaches a new daily record high: ÂŁ63m

    https://twitter.com/LcpEnergy/status/1463764552693260288?s=20

    I would actually prefer to have the choice of much cheaper electricity, and regular cuts, rather than ever increasing bills – I’ve got my own back-up strategy in place…

  48. Sea_Warrior
    November 26, 2021

    Today’s exam question: how many SMRs could you buy with the money being given by government to prop-up two gas supply companies?

  49. rose
    November 26, 2021

    We need our own gas.

  50. Original Richard
    November 26, 2021

    “This week the Secretary of State told me that the answer to my fears [on keeping the lights on] will be more nuclear”

    Nuclear power is excellent for producing a reliable, stable, weather independent base load of power but because it cannot be quickly switched on and off it cannot provide the back-up for wind turbines when the wind doesn’t blow or blows too hard or for solar energy when the sun doesn’t shine (at night for instance). It is also the safest of all fuel types.

    The backup for wind power is currently provided by fossil fuel generators, often running “hot” so power can be switched on and off quickly and certainly inefficiently compared to steady, constant running.

    If the energy required to produce the short and long-term back-up, via electrolytic hydrogen for instance, is to be provided by intermittent renewable energy (unless nuclear is ramped up far more than current Government plans) then we will need multiple times more wind farms than the Government currently thinks we need.

    So what is the Government’s plan to deal with renewables intermittency other by what they call in their “Net Zero Strategy” document “demand management”, aka (price) rationing, and rolling blackouts?

    1. Richard II
      November 26, 2021

      Government? ‘Plan’? ‘Deal with’? This is 2021, Original R. Nine years till the deadline for agenda 2030. That UN agenda *is* the plan. Anything else, like protecting the British public from blackouts, is incidental. As and when they happen, we will be told that it’s a wonderful opportunity for national solidarity and resilience – ‘all in it together’, you know how the song goes?

  51. Malcolm White
    November 26, 2021

    I note that the recent cost of balancing the grid for just one day to keep the lights on reached an eye-watering ÂŁ63 million, because there wasn’t enough wind and solar in the right place and too much in others. The cost of operating the coal fired plant at Drax is running at ÂŁ4,000 per mega watt hour. How insane is this?

    Per annum balancing costs for 2019 and 2020 were around ÂŁ1.2 and ÂŁ1.8 billion, respectively. You would have thought by now that the Treasury and the Public Accounts Committee would have flagged these and demanded that action be taken to balance the books with a rational electricity generation policy. However, there’s no chance of this happening while the Government and climate change zealots are intent on destroying the UK economy with an unworkable, thermodynamically illiterate, net-zero policy.

    1. Mike Wilson
      November 26, 2021

      The cost of operating the coal fired plant at Drax is running at ÂŁ4,000 per mega watt hour. How insane is this?

      Is my arithmetic correct? A 1000 kilowatts in a megawatt – so ÂŁ4,000 per megawatt hour is ÂŁ4 per kilowatt hour? And I currently pay 18 pence per kilowatt hour. Is that right? Surely it can’t be?

      1. Malcolm White
        November 27, 2021

        Sadly, that’s exactly what it is. Balancing the grid – in answer to your question below – is the mechanism used by National Grid to adjust supply against demand. When there is an increase in demand or a shortfall in generation, as occurs when the wind doesn’t blow, energy has to be obtained from somewhere to keep the lights on. In the most recent instance there hasn’t been sufficient available from nuclear, CCGT, biomass or interconnectors, so they’ve had to fire up the coal fired plant at Drax at horrendous cost.

        Conversely, if there is too much wind powered generation and supply starts to exceed demand then the operators are told to turn the wind turbines off. The operators then receive what are called ‘constraint payments’ to compensate for the loss of revenue – this is generally more than they would get for the subsidised energy if they were generating power.

        Yes, it is truly insane. The consumer gets poorer and the power operators get richer. No wonder they’re all up for more government subsidised wind farms in the name of climate change. The real disappointment is that it will do absolutely nothing for the climate, if indeed there was a man-made problem in the first place.

    2. Mike Wilson
      November 26, 2021

      What does ‘balancing the grid’ mean?

      1. hefner
        November 27, 2021

        What Malcom forgot to point out is that the ÂŁ4,000 per MWhr lasted for a maximum of 90 mn (these things are produced every 30 minutes). During the rest of the day it was fluctuating between ÂŁ100 and ÂŁ300/MWhr.
        But never let such a story (essentially taken out of context) not be used to frighten the populus.
        And here is the original scare story: netzerowatch.com, ‘Coal keeps light on at COP26 as low winds strike again’, John Constable, 03/11/2021.
        Judge by yourself.

  52. Burning injustice
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John
    You ask good questions. Having watched Kwasi Kwarteng’s reply to your questions in the HoC I formed the impression he himself doesn’t believe his own line of argument on ‘gas transition’…
    Meanwhile the government is supporting Bulb customers to the tune of ÂŁ1.7bn. We are sleepwalking into nationalisation of gas retailing.

    1. Original Richard
      November 26, 2021

      Burning Injustice : “We are sleepwalking into nationalisation of gas retailing.”

      Reading the Government’s “Net Zero Strategy ” leads me to believe that there will be so many Government interventions, rules, regulations, instructions, decrees, competitions, subsidies, directives, statutes and laws that the whole of the energy supply industry will be nationalised.

  53. glen cullen
    November 26, 2021

    I see that Grant Shapps MP announcement has managed to wipe billions off the stock markets
and the hits just keep on coming, soon people wont have to money to switch the lights on

    1. glen cullen
      November 26, 2021

      Update – News media reporting ÂŁ85bn wiped stock market today

      1. hefner
        November 27, 2021

        Yes, because of the new Covid variant, not sure the Transport Secretary’s announcement had much to do with it. But Schapps’ announcement about the gigafactory is more likely to affect Coventry and the rest of the West Midlands.

  54. X-Tory
    November 26, 2021

    So essentially you are saying thatb Kwarteng was, to quote our much-missed friend Alan Clark, “economical with the actualitĂ©”. I agree, and believe you should have called him out on it. And it gets worse, as the large nuclear power stations planned by the government (such as Hinkley C) are very unlikely to be completed according to the published timetable, and the certifcation process for the RR SMRs is – as I explained to you a while ago – insanely slow.

    And meanwhile the Treasury is refusing to help large power users – like steelmakers – cut their energy bills, thereby treachrously helping our foreign competitors at the expense of our our producers and workers, and is now having to subsidise the power company Bulb to the tune of over ÂŁ1 bn, when this could be avoided by simply increasing gas production from UK fields.

    We are governed by liars, traitors and fools. What are Tory backbenchers going to do about this?

    1. Bill B.
      November 26, 2021

      X-Tory: What are Tory backbenchers going to do? If what you say are the job qualifications, they’ll hope to be considered for a government appointment.

    2. Iago
      November 26, 2021

      Zero, as they have done about the fraudulent deadly epidemic and the safe and effective vaccine.

    3. turboterrier
      November 26, 2021

      X Tory
      What are they going to do about it?

      Three fifths ofī

  55. BOF
    November 26, 2021

    What kind of people are they who dare to criticise us for having wood burners while they approve the rape of US forests to cut, chip and ship vast quantities of wood accross the Atlantic to burn in formerly efficient coal burning power.stations? The ignorance of our Government is monumental.

  56. Lynn
    November 26, 2021

    We don’t accept their ‘electrical revolution’. They have not even costed it much less explained why it does not matter if China, India et al do not agree.

    1. Original Richard
      November 26, 2021

      Lynn : “They have not even costed it much less explained why it does not matter if China, India et al do not agree.”

      This unilateral dash for net zero by 2050 cannot be costed because much of the technology – carbon capture and dealing with renewables’ intermittency for instance – does not yet exist.

      Has the Government done a risk analysis on the damage to the UK if either no other countries follow our very expensive path to net zero or the necessary technology to eliminate the use of fossil fuels fails to be affordable or even work?

  57. acorn
    November 26, 2021

    You can read the winter gas and electric forecasts at the following. It looks like generators have signed up for a 47 GW winter peak demand with 75 GW connected. I wonder if the ÂŁ4,000/MWh recent balancing market bid will get beaten? For those with their own CCGT, buying your gas at today’s spot price of ÂŁ82/MWh; you will want ÂŁ200/MWh for the electric, to cover just the fuel and the Carbon Credit!

    https://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/gas-transmission/document/137156/download

    https://www.nationalgrideso.com/document/212691/download

    1. Mike Wilson
      November 26, 2021

      Do your figures equate to 8.2 pence per kilowatt hour for gas and 20 pence per kilowatt hour for electricity?

      That’s more than double what I currently pay for gas but only a little bit more than my current electricity cost.

      1. acorn
        November 27, 2021

        Mike, you are correct. Before gas prices went crazy, the wholesale price of the gas and electric would have been circa 36% of dual fuel residential tariff. As my old supplier has gone bust, I have been transferred to Shell at 20.7 p/kWh for electric and 4.2 p/kWh for gas.

        I read today: “National Grid to probe high prices in key electricity market
        Investigation launched as costs of balancing supply and demand across Britain rise”

      2. Mark
        November 28, 2021

        Correct, but those are wholesale prices. What you pay at retail covers the additional costs of operating and maintaining the gas pipeline network and the retailing and metering and billing operation itself, adding more than 4p/kWh to gas cost, while for electricity, in addition to the business operating costs there are transmission and distribution network costs there are substantial costs for subsidies to green generators, smart meters and for other green subsidies for schemes such as Ecohomes, etc. Those costs were running at something like 12p/kWh in the summer. Some of the subsidy payments under CFDs will now be lower, and maybe even a credit, but the Renewables Obligation and other green subsidies will not have reduced. There are lots of other costs arising from increased balancing costs and the cost of coping with a huge deficit between the OFGEM cap and real world costs: we will also see mutualisation of losses for bankrupt retailers like Bulb passed on to general bills (although I think that Bulb customers should contribute because their deals were too good to be true, and the Bulb’s financial backers should expect zero in the pound).

        BEIS and Parliament are going to have to decide how long to stretch the repayment of under-recovered costs and how to provide financing for it: this is now a political decision way beyond the competence of OFGEM (who are proving incompetent by only just announcing a consultation for review of the cap methodology – something they should have done when I was first signalling big problems ahead in posts here and elsewhere months ago), because it could entail widespread fuel poverty, as well as stretching the financial viability of all our retailers.

  58. Mark
    November 26, 2021

    One of the current features of power markets in Europe is extensive shutdowns of nuclear capacity in France, making it a substantial net importer from other countries, including taking 2GW from the UK, instead of supply ingredients the UK- a 4GW turnaround that would exceed National Grid’s spare margin assumptions for cold weather. It has resulted in enormous grid balancing costs, running as high as ÂŁ63m for just one day (annual rate ÂŁ23bn). I have no confidence in National Grid’s forecast of capacity needs.

    Meanwhile I read that BEIS plans to award CFDs to horrendously expensive tidal stream projects, adding another ÂŁ300m to consumer bills over the CFD life. Why do they have a licence to waste money like that?

    1. Mark
      November 26, 2021

      Supply ingredients should read supplying. Autocorrect pains.

    2. Iago
      November 26, 2021

      Important information, thanks.

    3. lifelogic
      November 26, 2021

      Indeed total insanity from the government’s new deluded “religious” energy department.

  59. Paul Cuthbertson
    November 26, 2021

    This shambolic crew and many before them have no idea regarding energy or for that matter anything else. They are all career politicians. Many power stations have been closed before we have built replacements. Seems to me a deliberate policy? ? Nuclear energy ok provided we do not utilise Chinese money and unproven French technology, a la Hinkley Point.(Sizewell B is working well with proven technology so why not replicate?) Nothing wrong with coal either other than the green crap, climate change, global warming idiots. I will ask the questions once again, how much are we indebted to China for Hinkley Point and how much influence will they have with the operation?
    Also provide a full account of where the money paid into the Paris Climate Accord is spent? (I think I know the answer to this one!!!)

  60. Roger W Carradice
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John
    I believe that unicorn farts will solve the energy disaster your party is creating.
    Roger

  61. Stoneman1960
    November 26, 2021

    Ironic isnt it im writing this after the power has come back on after 3 cuts since midday, presumably as offshore wind capacity is wound down to prevent surge as the storm hits and once again backup load is switched taken up with coal and gas with our third world generative capacity
    In less a decade I would guess, given the hostile corrosive environment they are in , these offshore turbines will be failing and need constant maintenance while our nuclear and coal capacity will have been closed, for what? Stripping out our base load , who will be carrying the responsibility for the insanity of this which can only lead to rationing or load shedding as its cutely phrased in third world countries where demand outsrips supply , we are more than half way there already , billions spent on going backwards
    I utterly despair

    1. alan jutson
      November 26, 2021

      Agree sea water is a corrosive and a very hostile environment.
      Yes in high winds we actually pay to shut down wind turbines, then we pay to cut down trees in the USA, shred them, transport them across land, sea, and land again with diesel engine power, to then burn them.

      Would be difficult to make up wouldn’t it !

  62. Everhopeful
    November 26, 2021

    I can scarcely believe that even this govt.. Is going to try the “deadly variant” fear fest AGAIN!
    What do they think we are? A flock of sheep?
    “Wolf! Wolf!”
    Shut the f**** up!!
    And bloody well
..leave us alone!!

    1. Paul Cuthbertson
      November 27, 2021

      EH – So many watch the TV and believe the MSM and believe their government cares about them?

  63. glen cullen
    November 26, 2021

    I’d forgot just how much the BBC enjoys spouting doom & gloom
    It looks like we’re all going to die again

  64. bill brown
    November 26, 2021

    Sir John,

    On a completely other note.

    A terrible accident happend in the Channel the other night a terrible loss of human life including children and a pregnant lady. We should be thinking of them and their families.
    Criticising the French is of course easy and sometimes justified, but as they have 250 kilometers of coast line to suprevise it is not an easy task to supervise that stretch of coast line 24/7 and therefore your criticism is superflous.
    The immigration policy around Europe is a failure and it needs to change also in the UK, this is not any particular country’s fault, it is the failure of a decade of immigration policy in the EU, UK and other European cuntries.

    1. Peter2
      November 27, 2021

      Did you see the pictures in the newspapers of the French police sitting and just watching as a group dragged a boat across the beach towards the sea bill?

    2. Micky Taking
      November 27, 2021

      the problem coast is more like 50km…

    3. Micky Taking
      November 28, 2021

      The fault starts with Merkel in Germany…..’come on in Mein Liebling’.
      Then the hordes invaded the countries on the way to France/UK.

  65. john waugh
    November 26, 2021

    National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET)
    are developing the Deeside Centre for Innovation.
    The net zero idea requires innovative transformation of the electricity transmission and distribution sector

    deeside.nationalgrid.co.uk

    In the meantime it looks like Drax is essential for the stability of the system .

    drax.com

  66. LJONES
    November 26, 2021

    ”Can we have some numbers please from the government….” But surely, Sir John, if your colleagues read this then they’ll know what people think is needed. But – do they read your blog and comments?

  67. Mike Wilson
    November 26, 2021

    I have bought a generator, a changeover switch, some tails and earth wire – just need to summon up the guts to do the wiring change live or find an electrician who can break the seals, pull the company fuse and replace the seals.

    I do wonder if your government have any idea how catastrophic it will be if the grid goes down. No banking, no card or phone payments, no fuel, run on banks with people trying to get cash out – it won’t be like the 1970s – if the power goes down now, the whole economy will grind to an instant halt.

  68. No Longer Anonymous
    November 26, 2021

    It’s no good.

    We MUST all be issued fitted N95 masks by the government.

    If they could issue gas masks to every citizen in WW2.

    It is simply not good enough saying that a cycling tube will do on public transport.

    Cancel Christmas. Abolish pubs. Jab jab jab.

    Stay at home. Save lives. Save the NHS.

  69. Will in Hampshire
    November 26, 2021

    Interesting to see that even the Daily Telegraph has given up on Priti Useless. An article this evening states that there are no applicants for a key management position leading Border Force operations in the English Channel. Not exactly a wholehearted validation of her leadership ability as a Secretary of State!

  70. Mark
    November 26, 2021

    The allocation framework for the next CFD round was published yesterday. It’s an obtuse mechanism for deciding on projects to be awarded CFDs, but we are told it implies a desire to reach at least 40GW of offshore wind by 2030. In short, there has been no substantive revision to the plans hatched previously. It might have been a good idea to start by reviewing how are electricity has been provided over the past 20 years, displayed in this chart

    https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-47e2cb7d-cb07-4961-97d2-160abd4ede31

    We can see the effects of David Miliband’s anti-nuclear stance in the gradual erosion of nuclear output because of no new capacity being developed. Gas generation expanded as coal started to be sidelined by the LCPD that limited operating hours. Yet we still had the flexibility to switch between gas and coal when gas prices soared in the aftermath of Fukushima, reducing the need for expensive LNG imports and capping costs for consumers for both gas and electricity. The attack on coal since has resulted in higher electricity imports and a return to gas as wind output did not increase sufficiently to make up the difference.

    This year, poor performance by renewables has seen gas generation rising to make good the shortfall. Our remaining 4GW of coal capacity could supply perhaps 25TWh a year, which would at least be something towards cutting our high cost of gas supply. If Hinkley Point comes on stream it might supply a similar amount, leaving nuclear output at half present levels at best. According to BM Reports, our installed capacity amounts to

    Quantity (MW)
    Wind Onshore 12,937
    Wind Offshore 12,160
    Solar 13,378
    Other renewable 1,900
    Other 2,808
    Nuclear 8,256
    Hydro Run-of-river and poundage 1,919
    Hydro Pumped Storage 4,309
    Fossil Hard coal 5,241
    Fossil Gas 39,822
    Biomass 4,528

    40GW of offshore wind in total is going to lead to periods of surplus supply that will force prices into negative territory, but it will do nothing for periods of Dunkelflaute, where we will be desperately short of capacity at the same time as Europe is also.

  71. Lindsay McDougall
    November 27, 2021

    Why don’t you ask the Minister to reveal his plan for our energy sources year by year for the next 20 years? And maybe he needs to be reminded that replacing imported gas by domestivcally reduced gas is carbon neutral and better for our balance of payments.

  72. Enough Already
    November 27, 2021

    So the Secretary of State was lying by omission.

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