Featured Posts
Time to accept that wind farm costs are not falling
There has been a consistent narrative that the cost of building new wind farms is falling, with falling subsidy [...]
Windfall tax harms oil and gas production and must be cut
In May last year, the UK Government introduced a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies [...]
Why Norway’s views on energy security should ring alarm bells across Europe
Norway's energy security would appear to be a done deal, yet the past couple of years have been very [...]
Addressing the high real cost of renewable generation
Over the past few months we have been inundated with claims from interested parties that more renewables are the [...]
Recent Posts
Re-opening Rough: what are the prospects for gas storage this winter?
There are growing noises suggesting that the UK’s only large seasonal gas storage facility, Rough, which closed in 2017 may re-open for the winter. Centrica’s storage licence was renewed late last month, and on 3 August, Ofgem granted Centrica [...]
Confirmation bias: ignoring the evidence when assessing the early outlook
I have received a response from National Grid ESO to some of my questions on the Early Outlook for Winter 2022. In this post I update my analysis and add some further commentary on the risks to energy security [...]
NG ESO expects to rely on interconnectors this winter: this looks like wishful thinking
Today National Grid ESO has published its early view of the Winter Outlook for 2022/23. Unbelievably, it believes the capacity margin will be slightly higher than last year at 4.0 GW compared with 3.9 GW. This strikes me as [...]
BEIS Select Committee seeks retail energy market reform
Following on from my previous post describing the BEIS Select Committee’s recommendations into improved governance at Ofgem, this post examines the specific market reforms to the retail energy market proposed by the Committee. In particular the Committee is calling [...]
BEIS Select Committee set to increase oversight of Ofgem after accusing the regulator of incompetence
This week, the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee published its report on its inquiry Energy pricing and the future of the Energy Market. This wide-ranging and damning report sets out not only the failures [...]
Capacity Market Notices in summer are a wake-up call for the winter
On Monday 18 July, National Grid ESO issued two Capacity Market Notices, the first at for 7pm which was cancelled after about half an hour, and the second for 8pm which was cancelled with fewer than 10 mins to go [...]
More grid infrastructure not locational pricing is the solution to network congestion
There has been a lot of noise recently about the prospect of a move to some form of location-based pricing in the GB electricity market. National Grid ESO is strongly in favour, seeing nodal pricing alongside a return to [...]
Financial resilience in energy supply: closing the stable door
Ofgem has recently launched a consultation into new measures to improve financial resilience within the energy sector, specifically aimed at gas and electricity suppliers. This came after half of the suppliers in the market failed last year, and highly [...]
Net Zero Watch webinar – The Energy Crisis: Causes and Solutions
Today I took part in a webinar The Energy Crisis: Causes and Solutions hosted by Net Zero Watch (it can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9sBOWYkv1M) Below is a copy of my opening remarks to which I have added [...]
Cakism in energy policy begins to bite
Politicians have been telling conventional energy business for years that they intend for their business models to become obsolete in the transition to net zero. Now they seem completely taken aback by the fact that these private businesses, which [...]
Recent Comments