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
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 [...]
Access SCR: network connections to be cheaper and more flexible
In my previous post I looked at Ofgem’s network charging reforms. Here I will summarise the conclusion of the Significant Code Review into network access (now known as the “Access SCR”), which was originally part of a wider review [...]
Network charging reform: six years and counting
One night last week I had a dream that hydro-power isn’t generated by water, but by a mouse called Lucy which is getting tired, with dire consequences for the market. The dream made more sense than the tangle which [...]
Ofgem’s failures laid bare: time for serious regulatory reform
If anyone had any residual doubts as to Ofgem’s performance in regulating the retail energy market, or whether BEIS was able to exert any sort of positive influence, they were dispelled this week when first former CEO Dermot Dolan [...]
Nuclear power is important: we need a credible strategy to secure it
EDF's nuclear worries continue In an update this week the came as a shock to exactly nobody, EDF announced a further cost over-run and delay at it's new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point C. When the project was first [...]
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