To everyone complaining about "obscene profits"

artyboy

...perhaps read this from the BBC before posting yet another rant. Yes the producers are making money, but they are GLOBAL corporations and there is no effective way to levy a tax on them from the U.K., and certainly not without negative repercussions...

Mind you, you probably already think the BBC is part of the big establishment lie, so I might be wasting my time 

Astria

Yes, we all know the real reason, but when BBC also post articles like "British Gas owner Centrica and Shell have posted huge profits due to rising energy prices, as UK households face even higher energy bills.", you can understand why people are confused over the whole situation.

[Deleted User]

Company X has a thing.  You want to buy this thing.

You offer them £1 for the thing, but they have 20 other people offering them £5 for it.

Who are they going to sell it to?

artyboy

Astria said:

Yes, we all know the real reason, but when BBC also post articles like "British Gas owner Centrica and Shell have posted huge profits due to rising energy prices, as UK households face even higher energy bills.", you can understand why people are confused over the whole situation.

Well given many people still seem to think that the average use cap figure is the MAXIMUM they will have to pay, clearly there are some fundamental issues with how things are being explained, or understood, or both...

But I thought this particular bit of the BBC live coverage was pretty clear, and if it cuts down some of the misdirected noise on this board then that would be a good thing...

Astria

[Deleted User] said:

Company X has a thing.  You want to buy this thing.

You offer them £1 for the thing, but they have 20 other people offering them £5 for it.

Who are they going to sell it to?

and if we refuse to pay it we might have 95% of the energy required, so do we prioritise gas and have energy black outs, or electric and cut off the gas supply...

Wonder what happens when your gas pipe runs out of gas? I guess it becomes depressurised and your boiler complains, might even damage some type of equipment?

xeny

Astria said:

Wonder what happens when your gas pipe runs out of gas? I guess it becomes depressurised and your boiler complains, might even damage some type of equipment?

Bad things - there's scope for air getting in the gas pipe, meeting some gas and making friends with it in what we call an explosion. The expectation is we'll cut supply to gas powered electricity generation if gas supplies become marginal, as large scale power cuts are less dangerous than letting pressure in the gas network fall too low.

artyboy

Astria said:

[Deleted User] said:

Company X has a thing.  You want to buy this thing.

You offer them £1 for the thing, but they have 20 other people offering them £5 for it.

Who are they going to sell it to?

and if we refuse to pay it we might have 95% of the energy required, so do we prioritise gas and have energy black outs, or electric and cut off the gas supply...

Wonder what happens when your gas pipe runs out of gas? I guess it becomes depressurised and your boiler complains, might even damage some type of equipment?

If we refuse to pay it then we will have 0% of the energy required... or am I missing something about basic supply/demand economics?

Astria

xeny said:

Astria said:

Wonder what happens when your gas pipe runs out of gas? I guess it becomes depressurised and your boiler complains, might even damage some type of equipment?

Bad things - there's scope for air getting in the gas pipe, meeting some gas and making friends with it in what we call an explosion. The expectation is we'll cut supply to gas powered electricity generation if gas supplies become marginal, as large scale power cuts are less dangerous than letting pressure in the gas network fall too low.

I thought an explosion required an ignition source? For example, just leaving the stove on doesn't cause an explosion until you create a spark or flame.

artyboy said:

Astria said:

Deleted_User said:

Company X has a thing.  You want to buy this thing.

You offer them £1 for the thing, but they have 20 other people offering them £5 for it.

Who are they going to sell it to?

and if we refuse to pay it we might have 95% of the energy required, so do we prioritise gas and have energy black outs, or electric and cut off the gas supply...

Wonder what happens when your gas pipe runs out of gas? I guess it becomes depressurised and your boiler complains, might even damage some type of equipment?

If we refuse to pay it then we will have 0% of the energy required... or am I missing something about basic supply/demand economics?

Well we could always just cut off supply to large sites which use a lot of gas (such as electricity generating stations as stated above), thus reducing the amount of gas needed.

Section62

Astria said:

I thought an explosion required an ignition source? For example, just leaving the stove on doesn't cause an explosion until you create a spark or flame.

Some materials can react explosively without an ignition source - one example being pure compressed oxygen if it comes into contact with oil/grease, hence using oil/grease on oxygen cylinders being a very big no-no.

In terms of gas mains, if the supply failed or the pipe is damaged, then it is normally necessary to purge the main before restoring the supply to properties.  This ensures that only 'gas' to the correct specification is supplied - to avoid damage to equipment, and/or having an explosive mix in the pipework.

Because of the time/effort required to purge gas mains, heaven and earth will be moved to make sure the pipes remain full this Winter.

Section62

Astria said:

Yes, we all know the real reason, but when BBC also post articles like "British Gas owner Centrica and Shell have posted huge profits due to rising energy prices, as UK households face even higher energy bills.", you can understand why people are confused over the whole situation.

And then you get -

'I live on ready meals as my electric cooker costs too much'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-62631659

Astria

Section62 said:

Astria said:

Yes, we all know the real reason, but when BBC also post articles like "British Gas owner Centrica and Shell have posted huge profits due to rising energy prices, as UK households face even higher energy bills.", you can understand why people are confused over the whole situation.

And then you get -

'I live on ready meals as my electric cooker costs too much'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-62631659

and people visiting Costa Coffee every day because "I can't afford to be at home all day with the heating on".