Energy news in general

Scot_39 · 14 January at 4:37PM

Did you really mean a barrier or not a barrier ?

mmmmikey · 14 January at 5:55PM

Scot_39 said:

Did you really mean a barrier or not a barrier ?

Thanks, corrected

victor2 · 14 January at 6:25PM

mmmmikey said:

Ildhund said:

Published yesterday: Developing an energy smart data scheme - GOV.UK

"We're seeking views on the potential for developing a Smart Data scheme in the energy sector."

If you can understand the questions, you're invited to complete the survey: Developing an energy smart data scheme: call for evidence.

At the risk of sounding cynical I think we're living in an age where a complete lack of understanding of the subject matter is not a barrier to having a strongly held view on something

Of course not. Two minutes on your favourite website and you can be an expert on anything.

Ildhund · 14 January at 7:55PM

mmmmikey said:

I think we're living in an age where a complete lack of understanding of the subject matter is not a barrier to having a strongly held view on something

I appreciate your insight!

Image: https://us-noi.v-cdn.net/6031891/uploads/editor/js/hd0t962ey7of.gif

michaels · 14 January at 11:54PM

The_Green_Hornet said:

Britain’s gas storage levels ‘concerningly low’ after extreme cold, says British Gas owner
Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site has said.
Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said.
Britain’s gas storage levels ‘concerningly low’ after extreme cold, says British Gas owner | The Independent

I understand that we are still exporting loads to Europe as we have the landing terminals for LPG and are effectively a transit country.

michaels · 14 January at 11:58PM

stripling said:

@Scot_39
Wind power has generated even less in recent past in deep winter - like this time last year it dropped to half yesterdays minimum half hourly ave of 3.0 GW - one freezing cold winters afternoon. To about 5% cf yesterdays c10% lows of the now c30GW plus installed theoretical capacity.
So last January we spun up all 4 four 500MW coal units at Ratcliffe - to generate upto 2GW - similar to yesterdays predicted shortfall - now closed. Just part of the UKs secure generation capacity that has in recent years been permanently decommissioned - but not replaced by reliable generation alternatives.
The peaks on renewables save our emissions - the inconvenient for policy makers truth - is the troughs threaten our energy security - if not our own home lights - the heavy industrial users production capacity.

Actually, the cost of the two gas power stations fired up for 3 hours was relatively minor if you zoom out and look at the entire system. There were a lot of scaremongering ill-informed headlines but the gas stations were bought in as back-up not as a desperate quick fix or the lights were going out. NESO could've drawn on the Battery Energy Storage Systems (Bess) for what are called 'peakers' for at least some of this back up but lo and behold our privatised energy system means that the grid batteries made even more $$s by selling their power on markets elsewhere.... Inter-connectors, that sell energy between countries, go out of the UK as well as in. Yep, it's a dog eat dog, high speed, constantly flashing, trans-national energy market and the British end of it is the most broken of all of it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Because we have 'marginal pricing' where electricity prices are linked to gas - we are suffering from really dirty (as opposed to the previous more 'usual') games of (mostly) American hedge funds on the Dutch TTF markets (the wholesale market). These folks moved in on the game after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The roller coaster high prices then get spun as a problem of 'dunkelflautes' or 'geopolitical stress' or wait for it, drum roll ....Ukraine transits, or the lack of them, all of which is spin, leading to one analyst I talk to coining the expression 'You've been Bloomberged'...
(I won't tell you what he said about the repeated use of the Ukraine transit story because this is a polite forum ..). 😁

What does this mean? It means the consumer (particularly in Britain) suffers from extreme energy prices largely caused by a combination of fossil fuel companies naughty PR games and Hedge funds talking up prices to boost their coffers. Donald Tusk even wrote a paper recently arguing for European market regulation because of it.

Renewables are not much of a problem - broken energy markets, lack of regulation and certain 'vested interests' are the real problems.

I am highly suspicious that the 'price cap' basically commits suppliers to purchase specific amounts on specific dates to avoid being incorrectly hedged and thus means that the sellers know exactly what demand will be and can manipulate prices accordingly. The existence of the price cap means consumers are much less likely to shop around or hose fixes so the vast majority of the market is subject to these known pricing rules.

Chrysalis · 15 January at 2:58PM

victor2 said:

QrizB said:

Spies said:

Surprise - the company responsible for dishing out licenses willy-nilly don't foot the bill for their failings

They were just following orders. Government wanted lower barriers to market entry, to shake things up.
Things were definitely shaken up.

Doesn't a body like Ofgem need somebody in charge who understands what he is responsible for, and actually questions government orders, rather than follow them blindly? Of course, I don't suppose he'd hold his post for long if he did that...

I agree, but the reality is these regulators are a way for the government to extend its will without putting their name to it, so if something goes wrong, the regulator takes the heat instead of the government department. So if you had someone pushing back hard enough, they would probably be removed for getting in the way of "progress". If I am not mistaken some people did resign from Ofgem in protest with some of the decisions made in recent years, political will overcame knowledge and rational thinking. One sign of this is that Ofgem did a consultation on SC, decided to do nothing, then the government after lots of pressure made them do it again, and unsurprisingly it came to a different conclusion the second time.

stripling · 15 January at 7:05PM

Ildhund said:

Published yesterday: Developing an energy smart data scheme - GOV.UK

"We're seeking views on the potential for developing a Smart Data scheme in the energy sector."

If you can understand the questions, you're invited to complete the survey: Developing an energy smart data scheme: call for evidence.

One aspect (but not the only one) of this is smart meter data.
The Energy Systems Catapult* has been pushing for at least a couple years that I know about to open up smart meter data for sale. At the moment it is very strictly controlled because: a) paired with other data sets it reveals a lot of information about people; b) it's worth a fortune; c) it further enables external controls of household appliances/energy.

I'm not interested in getting into discussions about the rights and wrongs of giving away all your data (although it's interesting that Ofgem use 'Open Banking' protocols as an allegedly positive example when OB has facilitated real time bank account 'snooping' by government agencies). I've posted this for those who may wish to respond to the survey.

My personal view is that further down the line our descendants are going to absolutely hate us for giving away so much of our privacy and control without so much as blinking...

*a sort of QUANGOy thing set up to promote innovation (lobby?) and research (although it's always been extraordinarily of a 'certain persuasion') - it's one of several set up by the previous government.