Posted by: @scalextrix

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Doing the right thing can be bad politics.

I can accept that to an extent, there is, after all, scope for disagreement over what is 'right'.

What I cant accept is that telling the truth has become bad politics, or that it moral to justify your version of 'right' on the basis of a pack of lies.

@toodles the irony being whether it's "Norwegian gas" or "British gas" the British public own neither and buy it at international market rates anyway.

The more interesting energy news today being Norwegian hydro plants reservoirs are low and they may run into problems unless it rains really soon, and interconnects may stop sending electric to the UK.  The usual suspects are crying about calamity, but if Norway is in need of electricity imports, that's an opportunity for the UK grid to not curtail wind generators this winter.

It's an I'll wind...

I'm amazed by the childishness of the argument to do nothing about global warming. "There are not doing it so why should I" Mothers correct there young over it.

I think Kurt may have judged it right.

I know it may well be cost effective, but why let the truth spoil a good quote!

Posted by: @toodles

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@scalextrix And from today’s news, doing the wrong thing can be bad politics too! (If we don’t snaffle the fossil fuels, someone else will nick them from our seas!) Regrets, Toodles.

There's room for disagreement even here, particularly on the topic of natural gas.

The UK is going to need natural gas for at least the next 10-20 years, if we're not producing it ourselves then that will come from imports of Liquidified Natural Gas (LNG) imported and shipped around the world, but compressing and cryogenically freezing gas to liquify it, shipping it around the world, then re-gassifying it, releases a load of CO2. LNG has a bigger carbon footprint than pipeline gas produced in the North Sea, so ironically by not producing gas from the North Sea and opting to import LNG, we push up our carbon emissions rather than reduce them, that's not good for the environment.

Certainly for gas, we should be producing what we can from the North Sea to reduce our need for LNG imports, and in doing so keeping the jobs, industry and taxes it creates in the UK.

Posted by: @bontwoody

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I'm amazed by the childishness of the argument to do nothing about global warming. "There are not doing it so why should I" Mothers correct there young over it.

I think Kurt may have judged it right.

Worryingly, my son said to me the other day "if your generation don't care, why should we?" when I asked him why he doesn't bother using the recycling and just throws everything in the bin, so it's not just our generation (Greta Thunberg excepted)

@julianc I'm in for 16hrs free Sunday electricity right through Sept, into Autumn and out into Spring.

16hrs of unlimited sprites to charge the car (36kwh), batteries (60kwh), Hot Water (11kwh) and unlimited washing and drying and Air Conditioning almost every Sunday.

There's also Heat Pump tariffs.

Here's our referral code for £50 each.

EDFENERGY.COM "https://edfenergy.com/quote/refer-a-friend/showy-lion-3323"

Gas & Electricity Quote | Compare Energy Prices | EDF

EDF Energy My Account

We're in for a very cheap Winter again, so well worth looking at.

If you're really lucky (like us), while upgrading meters last February, national meter register lost our details - 18 months on and still not resolved, so using 'Back billing' rules - we'll only be paying for the last rolling 12months.

EDF have crediting us for Sunday electricity and unlikely we'll actually be billed for it.

Posted by: @temperature_gradient

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if we're not producing it ourselves then that will come from imports of Liquidified Natural Gas (LNG) imported and shipped around the world

Well, maybe.  The point was Norway will extract the gas from that one field, and most of our gas imports are from Norway already.

In my view the most sensible thing to do is reduce our gas consumption significantly, and preserve the UK territorial gas supplies that we have left.  It will only increase in value in the future, squandering it now for corporate profits of foreign owned companies is not in our national interests.

The best way UK gas could work now is if GB Energy owns it and it becomes a sovereign wealth fund like Norway do, because at least then the value is preserved.  Maybe that could be used to give everyone a free heat pump and upgrade the National Grid.

Or maybe I'm just crazy, guilty as charged.

Posted by: @scalextrix

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In my view the most sensible thing to do is reduce our gas consumption significantly, and preserve the UK territorial gas supplies that we have left.  It will only increase in value in the future, squandering it now for corporate profits of foreign owned companies is not in our national interests.

The best way UK gas could work now is if GB Energy owns it and it becomes a sovereign wealth fund like Norway do, because at least then the value is preserved.  Maybe that could be used to give everyone a free heat pump and upgrade the National Grid.

I think I can agree with that as long as it stays in the ground until needed. We dont want to be held to ransom unnecessarily by some foreign power and retaining a resource for future use if needed, whilst converting to a source that is both environmentally friendly and ransom proof, is both sound environmentalism and sound economics

Interesting article in the Telegraph about Nordic Interconnectors. 

Could be faced with "Interesting" times this winter if we get a cold snap with low winds? "Dunkelflaute"

The level of reliance we have on Interconnectors is substantial.

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK "https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/202ac238e46d89a9"

Norway’s electricity crisis is about to hit Britain

European countries like the UK have become too reliant on cheap hydro from Scandinavia

Here is a chart showing the ratio of prices (per kWh) since 2011, based on ONS data here

Make of this what you may, but its clear that, during the tenure of the previous 3 governments (and ignoring recent price shocks), the ratio was steadily increasing.  It looks like a deliberate policy and is a legacy we now have to deal with.  Its also clear that oil is currently very cheap in relation to gas, at least compared to the past 15 years.

The following chart (from Ofgem) shows the wholesale electricity price and adds strongly to the proposition that the steady increase in retail prices of electricity (but not gas) during the period 2011-2021 was a political decision