Energy news in general

superkoopauk

Suppliers cannot remotely switch you without confirming it is safe to do so.  So unless you give them consent they are going to need to arrange a visit.  And if you are not paying then you are unlikely to let them in so they will need to go down the warrant route.  This will take months.

savers_united

superkoopauk said:

Suppliers cannot remotely switch you without confirming it is safe to do so.  So unless you give them consent they are going to need to arrange a visit.  And if you are not paying then you are unlikely to let them in so they will need to go down the warrant route.  This will take months.

Days, months, years does not really matter they will catch up with you in the end and if you have the means will be forced to pay, a default on a credit file will cost u more in the long run with mortgages and other finance, the only ones who can really get away with this are the ones who likely do not work and do not pay now and have nothing to lose, 

Sea_Shell

savers_united said:

superkoopauk said:

Suppliers cannot remotely switch you without confirming it is safe to do so.  So unless you give them consent they are going to need to arrange a visit.  And if you are not paying then you are unlikely to let them in so they will need to go down the warrant route.  This will take months.

Days, months, years does not really matter they will catch up with you in the end and if you have the means will be forced to pay, a default on a credit file will cost u more in the long run with mortgages and other finance, the only ones who can really get away with this are the ones who likely do not work and do not pay now and have nothing to lose, 

I agree.   But with an "or" not an "and" 

I don't know the demographic of these "protestors", but if they are just "Angry from Chipping Norton" but comfortably off, retired, without any need for a good credit file, and they want to make a point, then they probably can "make some noise", without too much effect to their lives.

They can afford to drag it out for however long, and pay what they owe when push really comes to shove!!!

Others don't have anything anyway, so it'll make no odds to them.  You can't get blood out of a stone!

QrizB

I don't think this story has been shared here yet:

How London Paid a Record Price to Dodge a Blackout

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-25/london-s-record-9-724-54-per-megawatt-hour-to-avoid-a-blackout

Last week, unbeknown to many outside the power industry, parts of London came remarkably close to a blackout — even as it was recovering from the hottest day in British history. On July 20, surging electricity demand collided with a bottleneck in the grid, leaving the eastern part of the British capital briefly short of power. Only by paying a record high £9,724.54 (about $11,685) per megawatt hour — more than 5,000% higher than the typical price — did the UK avoid homes and businesses going dark. That was the nosebleed cost to persuade Belgium to crank up aging electricity plants to send energy across the English Channel.

The £9,724.54 price, settled between noon and 1:00 p.m. on July 20 via the so-called NEMO interconnector that links the UK with Belgium, was the highest Britain has ever paid to import electricity, nearly five times higher than the previous record. The absurdity of that level is apparent when comparing it with the year-to-date average for UK spot electricity: £178 per megawatt hour.

The actual amount of electricity bought at the record price was tiny: enough to supply just eight houses for a year. More power was bought at slightly lower prices. The payments, nonetheless, highlight desperation: buying across the channel was, for 60 minutes or so, the only option to balance the system. If Belgium had not helped, the grid would had been forced to “undertake demand control and disconnect homes from electricity,” says a grid spokesperson.

Reported at the time by EnAppSys via Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/enappsys/status/1549787694661832705

MattMattMattUK

QrizB said:

I don't think this story has been shared here yet:

How London Paid a Record Price to Dodge a Blackout

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-25/london-s-record-9-724-54-per-megawatt-hour-to-avoid-a-blackout

Last week, unbeknown to many outside the power industry, parts of London came remarkably close to a blackout — even as it was recovering from the hottest day in British history. On July 20, surging electricity demand collided with a bottleneck in the grid, leaving the eastern part of the British capital briefly short of power. Only by paying a record high £9,724.54 (about $11,685) per megawatt hour — more than 5,000% higher than the typical price — did the UK avoid homes and businesses going dark. That was the nosebleed cost to persuade Belgium to crank up aging electricity plants to send energy across the English Channel.

The £9,724.54 price, settled between noon and 1:00 p.m. on July 20 via the so-called NEMO interconnector that links the UK with Belgium, was the highest Britain has ever paid to import electricity, nearly five times higher than the previous record. The absurdity of that level is apparent when comparing it with the year-to-date average for UK spot electricity: £178 per megawatt hour.

The actual amount of electricity bought at the record price was tiny: enough to supply just eight houses for a year. More power was bought at slightly lower prices. The payments, nonetheless, highlight desperation: buying across the channel was, for 60 minutes or so, the only option to balance the system. If Belgium had not helped, the grid would had been forced to “undertake demand control and disconnect homes from electricity,” says a grid spokesperson.

Reported at the time by EnAppSys via Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/enappsys/status/1549787694661832705

They should have probably let the power go out, essential services would have backups, large businesses have backups and a couple of hours of the power going out might wake people up to the fact that we are all going to have to economise, on top of a reasonable probability of power cuts this winter. 

Sea_Shell

That Bloomberg link is paywalled☹️

Who ultimately makes the decision to buy "at any cost"?

Who gets the invoice/bill?

Will this have any direct impact on the October price cap?

Xbigman

MattMattMattUK said:

They should have probably let the power go out, essential services would have backups, large businesses have backups and a couple of hours of the power going out might wake people up to the fact that we are all going to have to economise, on top of a reasonable probability of power cuts this winter. 

I totally agree. Its time we stopped covering problems up and let people know what the issues are. 


Darren

Sea_Shell

Xbigman said:

MattMattMattUK said:

They should have probably let the power go out, essential services would have backups, large businesses have backups and a couple of hours of the power going out might wake people up to the fact that we are all going to have to economise, on top of a reasonable probability of power cuts this winter. 

I totally agree. Its time we stopped covering problems up and let people know what the issues are. 


Darren

It does beg the question as to where exactly is the "line in the sand" above which we will just not pay?

QrizB

Sea_Shell said:

That Bloomberg link is paywalled☹️

Sorry about that, it let me read it after clicking through.

Edit: the same event is reported by EnAppSys on LinkedIn and The National. The Bloomberg article is duplicated by the Washington Post. I've got a WaPo sub but can read the article without signing in.

Who ultimately makes the decision to buy "at any cost"?

I assume there's someone in (or closely associated with) the National Grid control room who has authority to sign off on this sort of thing.

"Eight houses for a year" sounds like the purchase was for something like 24MWh, so roughly £240k spent.

Will this have any direct impact on the October price cap?

Very unlikely. Per Drax Electric Insights, the total UK electricity use on the 20th of July was 780GWh (780,000MWh) at an average price of around £185/MWh (total £144M). 24MWh and £240k is a drop in the ocean.

wakeupalarm

QrizB said:

"Eight houses for a year" sounds like the purchase was for something like 24MWh, so roughly £240k spent.

£240,000!
Surely they could have just bunged 8 houses less then £30,000 each for 1h disruption?
What's the current compensation level £30 per day isn't it?
£30x8= £240
£240 compensation vs £240,000, hmm.