The california experience

raddy59

Doesn't all this seem to be reminiscent of the experience in California a couple of years back - rocketing gas and electricity prices, power cuts (cc London July 2006). It turned out that the power suppliers - importing power from outside California - were deliberately restricting supplies in order to force up prices. Could this be happening to us in the UK?
Does anybody know?
Does anybody care?

Ken68

Not an expert, raddy, but think the price of gas is linked to the price of oil, and as there is an oil cartel (OPEC) of which this country is a member, then it stands to reason, gas supply is controlled anyway.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13130-2151305,00.html

The blip in the gas market is probably a cockup by the major gas supplier (Russia) or our own energy providers in not allowing sufficient storage/pipelines.

raddy59

Thanks for the reply Ken. While the market is so vertically integrated, where the wholesalers and retailers are part of the same conglomerate one can see why, by restricting supply, the wholesale arm can make a killing - and the retail arm makes a killing too. For example in EON - German owned wholesale supplier and parent of the retailer Powergen.
Where is the incentive to increase supply in this scenario - the scenario wihich we are faced with and are living through.?

Ken68

You could be right, Rad., tho some of the news stories take a lot of believing.
Earlier this year mainland Europe was blamed for UK price increases.
Apparently French and German consumers weren't shifting to the cheapest suppliers. So..how come we pay more.
And since then I read that the UK has increased it's gas storage capabilities. More than likely that was the reason for higher UK prices.
Doesn't matter anyway, in cold weather it's a sellers market, so here's hoping for a sunny winter. :=)), and ever more energy saving tips.

mcfisco

It's about time we [the UK] started to look at being self-sufficient in life’s necessities.
The government have started in the right way by opening discussion on nuclear derived power again but I think we need to look at it on a wider front, & soon.

Ken68

We are already self sufficent in sun,waves, wind, and rain water,all free, yet how many people want it all laid on via a business or the government.
Until business see a willing mass market, there will be no cheap energy.
On the other hand someone who DIY'd , e.g., solar water panels, years ago, will be quids in.
There are plenty of designs ( something akin to open source computer software), free to everyone, as long as you can put it together.

Cardew

mcfisco wrote:

It's about time we [the UK] started to look at being self-sufficient in life’s necessities.
The government have started in the right way by opening discussion on nuclear derived power again but I think we need to look at it on a wider front, & soon.

For gas/electricity, until very recently we were self sufficient in gas(from the North sea) and largely produced all our electricity.

Not that long ago we were self sufficient, and indeed exported, coal; Arthur S and Margaret T saw the end of that industry.