Following quite a few requests, I have started recording some video content which can be found on YouTube here:
So far, I have recorded videos about marginal pricing, and whether gas is responsible for bills being high. I have also posted a recording of a speech I gave at a public meeting in Wells recently. All of these are aimed at the general public rather than energy market insiders.
Please add requests for new video content in the comments either here or on YouTube. I can’t promise to do them quickly as I have a lot of client work, as well as trying to dig in to various areas of the market that are breaking, but I’ll do my best!
Clearly the most important mission is pointing out the insanity of what we are doing with electricity, but I would be interested in topics beyond this. Is that something you might be interested in?
Please do one on 30 minute spot pricing market for UK electricity
Request for an explainer video (or blog) about the day-ahead and BM bidding for renewables. I can’t be the only person who is baffled.
For example, if I am an NSIP solar farm with a CfD,, why don’t I just bid £0 (or less) to ensure a win, then live off the CfD? Do I get a curtailment payment if my summer midday peak exceeds grid demand? Seagreen seems to make a good living off not making electricity.
What on earth happens when it’s all renewables (2030 in Millband’s universe)? Leave aside the awkward question of what a country with a winter demand peak wants with a summer electricity source, what happens to the collective summer production spike at midday? Do we all get compensation?
(Yes, some solar NSIPs are planning batteries, but they are few and minimal.)
Thank you.
Please don’t post anything ONLY in a video. I don’t generally watch videos and I would hate to miss out.
Excellent news. I am looking forward to learning more.
Great news. Thanks for doing this.
I suspect the majority of the public dont realise that all these so called markets exist in the world of electricity generation.
Goodness knows why it has to be so complex. I suspect that complexity is part of its downfall. So many different businesses all trying to screw a profit out of electricity supply. Little wonder consumer proces are so high.
Thatchers deregulation gone mad.
I try to watch the YT posts from Modo Energy where they often try to explain all the trading that is going on behind the scenes. Would be great if you tackled some of that and gave us a clear understanding of the bigger picture – presented in your usual easy to understand way.
Could we go through the requirements for energy in the UK. Are the forecasts correct? Is their too much unnecessary infrastructure that is poorly planned. Could it be combined and distributed through the UK more efficiently?
Rushing into this using 100 year old technology at huge expense to the bill payer seems a farce. New technology is not far off.
I saw small thorium reactors being developed that can produce enough for industrial sites and can be wheeled in on a lorry.
Many other great solutions on their way if we give it a little breathing space.
Thank you for notifying me of the new YouTube channel, which is good news. I’ve watched all three videos and found them informative and authoritative, as is typical of your work.
I would very much like to see a presentation on achievable electricity cost of nuclear generation in the UK, if we went about it the right way, largely by replicating proven designs, rather than the current approach of the best reactor being the one we haven’t finished yet. Let’s assume that nuclear would be upwards of 50% of total generation. Would the government always have to be involved?
Czechia has just agreed to buy 2GW of nuclear from the Koreans for €16bn. That’s a bit pricier than the UAE paying $25bn for 5.6GW at Barakah, but that was agreed some years ago, and they use cheap imported labour for construction.
But even with EU regulation to contend with that’s a price of £7bn/GW, compared with talk for Sizewell C at over £40bn for 3.2GW. If we assume baseload output of 8TWh a year per GW (just over 90% utilisation) then we can use a capital charge of say 7% p.a. to cover financing and depreciation. So that’s about £500m p.a., or just over £60/MWh. Fuel and O&M costs are under £10/MWh, so that would be fully competitive with current has and cheaper than offshore wind, which is heading back to £100/MWh.
I should add that the Koreans offered a lower price per GW for 4GW+, but the Czechs didn’t feel they could bite off so much at one go, although the offer was tempting – they are about 11 million people. The UK could easily think in terms of 15GW of baseload: we produced a maximum of 99TWh/a of nuclear when we still had quite a bit of coal generation and Sizewell B was still fairly new. So if we got our act together (which involves a lot of things ranging from taming the ONR through establishing a high quality supply chain as the French did in the 1970s) we could in theory do better. There are huge advantages with proven technology, which avoids the need or justification for regulator interference – over 7,000 ONR demanded changes to the design at Hinkley Point!
Going for nuclear on this scale would greatly reduce the need for gas capacity for balancing, although we would still need to allow for a winter peak demand overall. It would call a halt to all the costly investment in additional grid capacity, substations, batteries, synchronous condensers etc. and any further investment in renewables, which would start to wither away.
Excellent – thank you!
Thisbis great to have another source so i now have the option of reading or watching.
However for some reason you have decided to turn off comments from the videos so now its only one way street.
Sorry that is not the way forward
Tony
A breakdown of the sources of available/potential UK energy and the basic reasons why some are more beneficial, compared to the government options and discussing how zet zero fits into that. General public perception comes from the government and I think a basic outline with facts and stats could be shared far and wide so they all see.
Great that you are doing this but I find the interruptions for advertisments (in the Wells Speech at least) a bit distracting. I also note that YT have put a ‘Context information panel’ under the video, proclaiming the UN CAGW meme.
When you’re getting flak, you know you are cloae to the target!
Really pleased you’ve launched. One of the few voices of sanity in a crazy net zero world. Looking forward to new content.
Thank you for the work you are doing. Solid and authoritative information is priceless, in the insane world of ‘net zero’. It has long seemed to me that the silence of industry insiders on these issues has been curious and unhelpful. That might also be something you could discuss in a future video. Good luck for the future.