Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Last month, I received 2 Threat-O-Grams.

Today, I received my second for this month.

Then there's the visit I got the other day.

I'm guessing something's not exactly peachy at Capita HQ.

nuatha

Frugalsod wrote: »

It is just scaremongering. In fact the government should penalise any company and director that creates blackouts. We need to break the companies up into dozens more and shrink them all. We need competition and they should be blocked from taking over a competitor.

Depending on your political ideology, this can be argued both ways. Nationalise them, remove the profit motive and have them serve the country.
Smaller companies eliminates economies of scale and potentially pushes prices higher.
In any case, blackouts are likely - there's been a lack of planning and investment, coupled with withdrawing coal fired power stations much earlier than had been planned.
The last figures I saw had a buffer of just under 4% by next year, there is no sign that demand is decreasing and the government's latest reduction initiative seems to have stalled.

elantan

Bedsit Bob do you mean TVL? I had a wee visit from them last week ... Only stopped watching live tv in December of last year

Frugalsod

nuatha wrote: »

Depending on your political ideology, this can be argued both ways. Nationalise them, remove the profit motive and have them serve the country.
Smaller companies eliminates economies of scale and potentially pushes prices higher.
In any case, blackouts are likely - there's been a lack of planning and investment, coupled with withdrawing coal fired power stations much earlier than had been planned.
The last figures I saw had a buffer of just under 4% by next year, there is no sign that demand is decreasing and the government's latest reduction initiative seems to have stalled.

Ignoring any political agendas I think that the lack of investment is a regulatory failure, and one that will not be addressed properly outside re-nationalisation. Since we no longer have a left wing opposition that is unlikely.

The investment returns of investment are lower than actually doing nothing and being able to overcharge because there are shortages of supply. The lack of a generation buffer actually is beneficial to generation companies as they can charge a premium for the same energy. Which flows straight to profits.

Increasing prices will encourage people to become more efficient over time.

Also are the economies of scale really that significant in a larger energy company. I would exclude the actual generation as there are economies of scale there, but in the actual billing and management of customer accounts are there really significant economies? So splitting the customer side from the generators will allow greater competition. They should never have been allowed to buy the generators.

jk0

Remember the other day we were discussing the budget announcement that the taxman would be able to raid bank accounts as long as he left £1000 in them?

Doesn't that sound remarkably like the law recently introduced in Greece?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-27/greek-supreme-court-rules-bank-deposit-confiscation-against-constitution

But the Supreme Court ruling may influence the current practice of tax authorities to proceed to so-called electronic seizure of bank accounts without previous notice.



This measure has been applied since 1.1.2014.



Tax offices and insurance funds are allowed to seize the amount of debt from salary, pensions and rents, provided 1,000 euro will be left in the bank account

I guess that must be one of Cleggy's tiny 7% of laws that come from Europe.

Frugalsod

jk0 wrote: »

Remember the other day we were discussing the budget announcement that the taxman would be able to raid bank accounts as long as he left £1000 in them?

Doesn't that sound remarkably like the law recently introduced in Greece?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-27/greek-supreme-court-rules-bank-deposit-confiscation-against-constitution



I guess that must be one of Cleggy's tiny 7% of laws that come from Europe.

It is not just Europe, it is also the case everywhere, even in the US. In fact I was reading somewhere that there are also changes about nationalising private pensions in a crisis as well. There are also IMF proposals for a one off wealth tax as well to pay off bond holders.

The problem is that the banks are a bigger problem than in 2008 so it is getting more likely that everyone will get to pay for the banks mistakes a second time around. With the lack of real bank reform and kicking the can down the road the only question is when there will be another crisis. I hope that the next crisis is far enough away for me to be debt free and have all my SHTF gear in place, and my disposable income high enough to cope with any cuts to my income.

nuatha

Frugalsod wrote: »

Ignoring any political agendas I think that the lack of investment is a regulatory failure, and one that will not be addressed properly outside re-nationalisation. Since we no longer have a left wing opposition that is unlikely.

Its political agendas that created the regulatory failure.

The investment returns of investment are lower than actually doing nothing and being able to overcharge because there are shortages of supply. The lack of a generation buffer actually is beneficial to generation companies as they can charge a premium for the same energy. Which flows straight to profits.

The only legal duty of a company is to provide the maximum legal return on investment to its shareholders.

Increasing prices will encourage people to become more efficient over time.

That doesn't seem to have worked so far.

Also are the economies of scale really that significant in a larger energy company. I would exclude the actual generation as there are economies of scale there, but in the actual billing and management of customer accounts are there really significant economies? So splitting the customer side from the generators will allow greater competition. They should never have been allowed to buy the generators.

Quality customer service is not cheap, nor are billing infrastructures. Once established they scale fairly well, so much so that several smaller companies used to buy these facilities from the major players - Ebico using SSE for example (before they became an SSE brand).

Even if a solid agreement on the way forward for UK energy was reached today, there is unlikely to be any major improvement in UK energy security in the next 5 years and probably longer. Therefore the likliehood of blackouts/brownouts is something that we should prep for. (I can't see that agreement being reached any time soon - nor can I see the country extending the life of coal powered generation to delay the inevitable).

A few days ago I posted this link it really could make green energy afforable and plentiful, but the best guesses are that we are at least 10 years away from commercial deployment.

paidinchickens

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Last month, I received 2 Threat-O-Grams.

Today, I received my second for this month.

Then there's the visit I got the other day.

I'm guessing something's not exactly peachy at Capita HQ.

elantan wrote: »

Bedsit Bob do you mean TVL? I had a wee visit from them last week ... Only stopped watching live tv in December of last year

We've never had a problem with them. We get a letter once every two years and then we ring and tell them we are not watching live TV etc and then they leave us along for another two years it seems.

I do have six foot gates and four dogs though

PiC x

elantan

Paid in chickens ... What's the etc ? I was under the impression it's just live TV ?

We have tv's in the house and watch them every night, just nothing live, we will watch catch up tv or maybe a series that we enjoy ( walking dead or revoloution etc)

I thought the tv licence was just for live tv ?

D&DD

Morning all


Just a quick report on the greenhouse heater it worked really well considering it had quite a few carp reviews on Amazon..*I only looked it up after I'd bought it typical!* Mine fits together really well,was easy enough to fill and light I think sometimes it's not the actual gadget that's not so good it's the people using it.


Need to wiggle some sticks in my cukes on the windowsill they're growing like triffids now,I have no windowsills spare at all so I'm glad to see the weather is going to be a bit fairer of a night so I can start moving some stuff outside to the greenhouse to harden off.


Loganberries have fruit forming already,they're usually early june/july but to start budding up now is ridiculous! I'm not complaining though as it'll save me a fortune each week as DS3 loves them.


Got to pot up 43 white strawberry runners this morning too,we put the pot up on the empty potato bed for the winter and it grew like the clappers!


Getting the dehydrator on later as I need to do some leathers and my mum wants some bananas done.


Have a great day all XX