h/t Breitbart – A senior OFGEN official has warned that Britain faces a looming energy crisis, caused by excessive reliance on intermittent renewables.
Britain facing energy crisis that could see families pay extra to keep the lights on while neighbours ‘sit in the dark’
Britain’s increasing reliance on “intermittent” renewable energy means that the country is facing an unprecedented supply crisis, a senior Ofgem executive has warned.
Andrew Wright, a senior partner at Ofgem and former interim chief executive, warned that households could be forced to pay extra to keep their lights on while their neighbours “sit in the dark” because “not everyone will be able to use as much as electricity as they want”.
He warned that in future richer customers will be able to “pay for a higher level of reliability” while other households are left without electricity.
…
In a stark warning about the future of energy supply in Britain, Mr Wright said that consumers could be forced to pay more if they want to ensure they always have power.
“At the moment everyone has the same network – with some difference between rural and urban – but this is changing and these changes will produce some choices for society,” he told a recent conference.
“We are currently all paying broadly the same price but we could be moving away from that and there will be some new features in the market which may see some choose to pay for a higher level of reliability.
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Fuel poverty is already a major problem in Britain, with one estimate suggesting 15,000 people died last winter because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes.
To some extent Britain has been shielded to date from the consequences of their renewable policy excesses, through a combination of sourcing reliable nuclear power from France, and very expensive deals with private owners of small diesel backup generators, to pump up the grid when supply falters. But France is facing rising problems with their ageing nuclear systems, and many owners of private generators – hospitals, businesses, and other owners of diesel generators – will likely choose to isolate themselves from the grid in the event of a prolonged brownout or winter interruptions to fuel supply, to maintain power to their own facilities.
When I lived in Britain, there were two occasions I remember when fuel supplies became unavailable, once because of industrial action, the other time because severe winter weather interrupted supply. It could happen again. Next time the consequences might be worse than some people not being able to use their cars.
Britain has been very lucky so far, but with the current policy choice of gambling on luck instead of embracing reliable energy, sooner or later that luck will run out.
It might well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back if this happens. Brits are very pissed off by the way they are treated by the government. Brexit was the first sign of this discontent rising to the surface. A situation where people had to sit in the dark with no heating while the well off can pay to keep their lights on could well trigger an outburst of civil unrest of major proportions. We’ve had it up to here, and there must come a point where people just boil over at the contempt with which they are treated, as Marie Antoinette discovered.
Which is why the UK govt is pushing smart meters on the population. Apparently we are too stupid to know that switching the iron on, then going out for the day wastes energy. The truth is that smart people already watch their consumption – and stupid people will still be stupid. But these meters DO allow for remote disconnection, rolling power cuts, and the introduction of variable pricing, that will push the poor out of consumption during peak times – exactly the times when those with young families need power the most
I thought they had already frozen thousands to death with their fuel poverty genocide.
Fuel poverty killed 15,000 people last winter
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fuel-poverty-killed-15000-people-last-winter-10217215.html
Andrew Wright is quoted to have said “not everyone will be able to use as much as electricity as they want”. Correction: They will not even be able to use as much electricity as they need.
The solar array on the national Trust building used to display the energy produced but I think the results must have become to embarrassing to show. When it snowed the 45KW array produced 800W and guess what we needed the highest usage that winter on that day.
http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Mid-day yesterday the CCGT pointer was in the red, and the others not far from it. I’ve never seen a situation like that before. Since yesterday the wind output has doubled, and that has eased the situation a little.
We have about 14GW of wind nameplate capacity, whilst the output is typically in the 3-5GW range. If the wind stops and the weather is cold I can see there being a supply problem.
It hit 10GW last week and there is already wind capacity in the pipeline equivalent to 1.5 times what we have.
Additionally a new HVDC line out of Scotland came into use last December, a second is well under way and a third is approved. That’ll reduce/end curtailment.
(The first tidal turbine in the Meygen scheme started delivering power last week and a new grid storage unit opened in Somerset as did another form of storage in Manchester)
The MPs will not have any problem in the case of black/brown outs as they have a gas fired generator under Whitehall that will provide them with electricity and waste heat for central heating.
This could be a clever plot by the “deplorables” — introduce the “migrants” to good English winters without heat might convince them to go back to the desert (just kidding). Still, this is a crisis that has been looming for years with how it ends very predictable.
while we still have the old cold spell, I note we’re now in a nearly record warm December…
Part of our new climate pattern of mostly warm winters with 2 or 3 short very cold intervals
Meanwhile with the State of Victoria following down the path of South Australia like lemmings, the CFMEU union boys are beginning to ensure they get redundancy payouts fully sorted before they go the way of Hazelwood workers-
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-15/planned-strike-loy-yang-could-affect-victorias-energy-supply/8122784
And why wouldn’t they in the prevailing political climate?
If it is proposed that you pay a higher tariff for guaranteed supply because of smart meters then how are you neighbours with no heating, lighting, fridges and freezers thawing, react to see you in your lit warm house?
“He warned that in future richer customers will be able to “pay for a higher level of reliability” while other households are left without electricity.” –
while german environment minister Barbara Hendricks sends a letter to Belgium asking them to shut down 2 of their nuclear reactors.
Not telling them where to get reliable energy when germany produces intermittent energy and depends on their neighbours to fill the gaps.
Of course Belgics go ‘Huh’ and and only return ‘Hell, No! ‘
Cheers