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April 2023 Electricity Prices

The Grid is busy working out how future demand and generation will work. In essence the Grid of the 1960s-1990s has been turned on its head. Instead of central plants generating power and sending it out to the fringes of GB the fringes are now generating the stuff and sending it back into the major cities. The wires are too thin at the edges and need to be reinforced. But it isn't that simple, the transformers and switch equipment along the grid needs upgrading too and modified to send power in the other direction.
A good example is the North of Scotland system. There is a 132 kV circuit up to Dounreay and down to Beauly just outside of Inverness. Another line runs along to Peterhead where there is/was a power station. Sutherland has developed a lot of on shore wind farms and the Moray Firth is home to almost 3 GW of projects. That with other power coming down from Orkney and Shetland means that 400 kV circuits are required. Already SSE (Grid operator in Northern Scotland ex Scottish Hydro) has built one circuit from Beauly to Denny in the Central Belt which involved replacing the old towers with new higher ones and new transformers but already that link looks as though it will be under stress. An HVDC link will run from Wick to near Peterhead and another from Peterhead down to Drax. Though these carry a lot of power you can't beat 2 big circuits at 400kV which can carry as much as 7 GW. And as I said in an earlier post Scotland may well be generating 25 GW with some 10 GW coming from the Pentland Firth and further north. Pumped storage is a pretty efficient way of storing electricity but you need hills and dams for that. The electric mountain in Wales uses old slate quarries and works really well but is designed for high capacity over short bursts rather than steady output over long periods of low wind. That is where interconnectors to Ireland and Europe come in. Spread your wind farms and you will find there is always wind somewhere. And Norway has considerable hydro power which peaks in the summer when the snow melts rather than in the winter when it is windy. So swapping plentiful wind power with the Norwegians and other hilly countries is a benefit for all involved. Ultimately though, demand side following the production of cheap power will be the best answer. We will need to automate processes so that we can turn the wicks up and down without disrupting the workers lives too much but it won't take much to persuade people to work on annualised contracts etc in order to get people to work flexibly when the power output is high. Cheap power equals better pay! The brick makers, steel industry, fertiliser industry and cement industry will all be good customers for cheap power at peak output times, even if it means working flat out during winter nights. At least the wind guys have the means to accurately predict their output a few days ahead now.
 
Our problem is a government that does not govern. in the case of energy they have done precious little to improve the insulation of our housing stock. as regards ev use , a massive opportunity has been missed by failing to incentivize the development of fully bi directional cars and chargers which could have given massive support to our grid to avoid any black outs this winter. witness their current dither about on shore wind generation. headless chickens. energy chaos.
 
When in doubt blame the government.

I'm sure there were schemes to insulate homes running till a couple of years back. my neighbour had a load of loft insulation put in for free.

"Bi directional cars" are already a thing and don't really need government incentives, not least as much of the car design doesn't take place in this country anyway.

Witness the general public moaning on about onshore wind farms. And offshore ones for that matter. even when they aren't directly affected.

Energy chaos is a worldwide problem, There is a war going on which is having a massive effect.
 
The government believes in the freedom of the individual and the market. That was the cause of disarray with Covid lockdown and planning for an epidemic. Trust the people was the mantra. Unfortunately the people are not very bright and were not educated to understand the dangers of the epidemic. That it has never happened before was hogwash. The far east fully understood how to deal with it. Boris took it seriously once he had had a dose.

I was in New Zealand and was party to their lockdown. The rhetoric there was look after your family, work from home, organise 'a bubble' that was the household that you belonged to plus any care that you gave or received and then do not stray outside your bubble.

That allowed some small builders to carry on by not mixing with other trades on site (most homes are built as single developments and not big housing estates, certainly outside the cities). And only key shops were open, supermarkets and chemists and corner shops. They did benefit from the summer weather where it is warm and sunny through to May and that allowed people to roam freely in their local areas to get exercise without coming into close contact with anyone. The light traffic in our neighbourhood left us to chat to neighbours across the street literally.

And so when it comes to housing standards in the UK modern homes built correctly may not be PassivHaus standard but I would suggest they are good enough. The housing stock built prior to the 1960s is the big concern. Houses without cavity walls were common in the 1930s in London, draughty suspended floors and chimneys that should be removed to get air movement down. In truth this needn't be expensive for the do it yourselfer but it needs guidance and help from building inspectors and where professional help is required around roofs and chimney stacks some organisation through councils might help. What we lack is the will to get stuff done co-operatively.
 
The first cold spell of the European winter had has a rather instant impact on electric pricing. Whereas next day unhedged pricing was as low as 12p/kwh last week in the UK, now it's above 40p/kwh and the latest pricing shows today's peak hour pricing being £1.20/kwh! I'll be keeping tabs on this as there's some very cold air moving West out of Russia.
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And this is the reason why we have not wind generation. But Denmark, Germany and Poland do have it and so this is why interconnectors are important. By Thursday Ireland will have considerable wind but not yet the wind farms, some 15 GW is in the early stage of planning, this exceeds their needs. And so looking in the future when we have wind farms in the Pentland Firth, planned for 2030 we won't be completely without. The middle east and the Sahara will have solar and wind, we just need to get it all organised. And with luck, the work involved in those regions will bring jobs and money to the many, currently with time on their hands to cause mischief. As they say, the Devil makes work for those with idle hands, having some purpose might change the politics of the region. We can hope anyway.
 
View attachment 13148


And this is the reason why we have not wind generation. But Denmark, Germany and Poland do have it and so this is why interconnectors are important. By Thursday Ireland will have considerable wind but not yet the wind farms, some 15 GW is in the early stage of planning, this exceeds their needs. And so looking in the future when we have wind farms in the Pentland Firth, planned for 2030 we won't be completely without. The middle east and the Sahara will have solar and wind, we just need to get it all organised. And with luck, the work involved in those regions will bring jobs and money to the many, currently with time on their hands to cause mischief. As they say, the Devil makes work for those with idle hands, having some purpose might change the politics of the region. We can hope anyway.
A European grid could work very nicely, but it will require some countries investing above their own needs - eg Spain going for solar whilst it's currently self sufficient, Norway, Scotland and Alpine regions going for stored hydro to provide rapid battery like power for peak demand etc.
 
A European grid could work very nicely, but it will require some countries investing above their own needs - eg Spain going for solar whilst it's currently self sufficient, Norway, Scotland and Alpine regions going for stored hydro to provide rapid battery like power for peak demand etc.
It also needs guarantees of supply in times of shortage. I am skeptical that we can rely on interconnectors from other countries when they run short of power.
 
It also needs guarantees of supply in times of shortage. I am skeptical that we can rely on interconnectors from other countries when they run short of power.
It's almost as if political co-operation across a large land mass and market was a good idea after all😏.

The way a European grid could work would be a legally binding framework of funding for supply, with the market giving extra incentive to do the right thing.
 
The first cold spell of the European winter had has a rather instant impact on electric pricing. Whereas next day unhedged pricing was as low as 12p/kwh last week in the UK, now it's above 40p/kwh and the latest pricing shows today's peak hour pricing being £1.20/kwh! I'll be keeping tabs on this as there's some very cold air moving West out of Russia. View attachment 13145
Interesting to see how out of step the UK is compared to Europe as a whole.
 
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