From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
From Energy Live News:

Ed Miliband will warn the UK must “double down not back down” on clean energy as ministers move to break the link between electricity and gas prices, following the latest global energy shock.
Full story here.
It’s the usual head in the sand nonsense. The only real bit of news is this:
At the centre of the plan is reform of the wholesale pricing model.
Gas still sets the electricity price around 60% of the time, despite supplying a shrinking share of generation because of the marginal pricing system – where the most expensive power source sets the market rate.
That has left households and businesses exposed to global gas shocks even as cheaper renewable generation has expanded.
Ministers now want to reduce that exposure by encouraging older renewable and nuclear generators onto fixed price contracts supported by Treasury incentives.
Officials believe the shift could start to feed through into lower bills within 12 months although the scale of savings remains unclear.
It’s hardly likely that older renewable generators will settle for anything much less than what they were being paid pre-Iran. There will therefore be no saving on bills once gas prices return to normal.
In reality, despite Miliband’s bluster, gas prices have already dropped from their spike of a few weeks ago, and are not much higher than their long term average:

It remains to be seen how much he offers for these fixed price contracts, but as the report says, “the scale of savings remains unclear”.
And as we know, the actual payments to older renewables, including ROC subsidies, is much higher than the price of gas power.If Miliband really wanted to bring down bills, the first thing he would do is abolish carbon taxes, which inflate the very market price he says is too high.

