Posted by: @derek-m

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I do believe that at the moment 5 GW capacity undersea cables are being installed down the east coast, though I'm not certain of the cost. There have been reports that a shoal of Cod raised complaints

I think that's a misquote.

The problem is that undersea cables are at risk of being damaged. The east-coast route will lie on top of a number of existing cables between offshore wind-turbines and the shore. That makes it very expensive to repair damages. Essentially the marine cables are uninsurable.

Or, as the engineers' report stated, any claim would be dismissed as "an Act of Cod".

@transparent

Posted by: @transparent

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I'd be interested to know if those pylons (aka Transmission Towers) are made from Port Talbot steel.

That did occur to me too 🙂

Did you train spot much as a lad Transparent? 🤓 🤣 

(Full disclosure: I did)

No, not a train spotter, @bontwoody
... but I did commute to school by train pulled by a steam loco. 🤓 

Can I please provide a link to a particularly good map of the British Electricity Supply Network by the Global Energy Network Institute.
It's at a nice high resolution.

Open the page, then click on the fuzzy map at the top.
It will open up into an in-focus version.

The best set of High-res maps from National Grid themselves are in a group of Power Flow diagrams to illustrate Future Energy Scenarios.

@transparent Would that be a 4-6-0 or 4-6-2? 😆 

I'll see if i can get a nice high res print of the map. 🤣 

It was 4-6-2 @bontwoody
4-6-0 was used for Hogwarts.

@transparent And you said you weren't a trainspotter 🙂

@transparent I’m not a trainspotter either but used to travel from Yeovil Junction to Exeter Central behind the Sir Winston Churchill to attend my boarding school. Toodles.

Posted by: @bontwoody

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And you said you weren't a trainspotter

I'm not.
But Hogwarts was one of our main rivals.
We used to pass them en-route to Kings Cross.

You could easily identify them from their chant:
"Come on Hogwarts: Four-Six-Oh
Training is the way to go".

I wasn't particularly good at sports like Quidditch, but I did meet Hogwarts Teams at academic challenge days.
We usually trounced them at Science and Maths, but then lost to them at English.
Our grammar and comprehension was OK, but they were better spellers.

Posted by: @transparent

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Our grammar and comprehension was OK, but they were better spellers.

Ouch.

Taxi !!!

You’re going to get bored with posts about the announcement of a price cap rise on 25th February. Here are the important mistruths you should avoid, and why it's not important:

An increase of £85 in annual bills, currently about £1,700 is about 4.5%. CPI inflation is about 3%. Energy is always one of the most volatile components of inflation. Compared to the dramatic swings of recent years, this is nothing drastic. Headlines about spiralling bills are misleading especially links to longer term shifts toward decarbonisation. Furthermore, we’re going into the spring and summer months when household energy usage is drastically lower in any case.

It’s also misleading for the mainstream media to always talk in terms of annual bills, when the price cap actually changes every quarter and household energy demand is so seasonal, especially for gas. By annualising the figures they use, the media get to exaggerate the magnitude of changes and extrapolate them. The announcement this week has no bearing whatsoever on bills after 1st July. The demand for gas for households in a month like June is a bit like the price of sun-screen in January; it’s probably at best 1 or 2% of a typical annual energy bill as there is very little demand for central heating in summer and hot water and cooking are a very small fraction of total energy usage.

We’re living in really strange times and the gas market is no exception. Given Europe is reliant on gas ultimately from Russia or the US, that’s no surprise. However, the simple truth is the wholesale gas price is not moving much at all over the next 12 months or so and if anything is heading slightly downward. In fact, there is no discernible increase at all in prices moving from the warmer summer months into next winter. This is not the typical pattern, gas is normally cheaper in summer. For UK consumers, this bodes well.

However, the price-cap is a crude regulation that is increasingly irrelevant as households switch onto competitive tariffs. In its current form and with the current state of markets, its main outcome will be to punish households for not being active switchers in the energy market. However, were geopolitics and tensions to deteriorate, it could quickly become relevant again.

PS - the propping up of summer gas prices is in large part explained by EU rules mandating the replenishment of storage facilities. Following the German election, there may be some changes.

 I don't think tomorrow's announcement is anything to get too excited or worried about.

Posted by: @kilowatts_io

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Given Europe is reliant on gas ultimately from Russia or the US

In 2023 European gas imports were Russia - 15% and USA - 19% (mostly in LNG). I find it slightly misleading to frame the supply as you have. I am not suggesting that they are not important players just that they are not the ultimate sources.

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/where-does-the-eu-s-gas-come-from/

@abernyte they're the marginal suppliers that drive the market - Norway is basically baseload

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kilowatts_youre-going-to-get-bored-with-posts-about-activity-7299676938065899520-vwVb - video here