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
What caused the UK’s power blackout and will it happen again?
On Friday evening, there was a widespread power blackout across many parts of the UK, with transport systems in particular being affected. Supplies were restored within an hour although the transport problems took far longer to resolve, with the [...]
Managing the transition to a sustainable gas network
Last week I spoke about how to manage the transition to a low carbon gas network at the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum. Much of the conference covered the different available approaches to de-carbonising the gas network, in [...]
Mixed news for nuclear power projects in the UK
Nuclear power has been in the news again. There have been mixed updates on EDF’s difficult European Pressurised Water (“EPR”) projects, but the UK Governments ambitious new climate targets might open the door to re-evaluating the subsidy support available [...]
Capacity market top-up auction clears at a record low price
The June 2019 capacity auction for delivery next winter cleared at the record low price of 77p /kW, with 129 units securing contracts covering 3.6 GW of capacity. The previous T-1 auction in February 2018 cleared at £6 /kW [...]
Power grab: the proposed re-nationalisation of UK energy infrastructure
Last Thursday, the UK’s Labour Party published a plan for re-nationalising Britain’s energy networks, buying them back from private investors at below-market prices. £1 billion was wiped off the value of the National Grid overnight in response to the news. [...]
Why the excitement about coal-free days is overblown
Everyone has been getting very excited today with the news that GB has gone a whole week without using coal to generate electricity...the first time this has happened since we first started using coal in the late 19th century, [...]
Never a dull moment!
Today my energy blog, Watt-Logic is three years old! Energy markets are never dull… The big news over the past year has of course been Brexit, however as far as energy has been concerned, it has been more of [...]
Evolving markets for flexibility
The rapid deployment of renewable generation, and its impact on the electricity system in terms of transmission capacity management, balancing intermittency and frequency control has triggered the need for an entirely new suite of flexibility products. At the same [...]
Ofgem consults on new capacity market rules while legal challenges persist
Ofgem has launched a consultation into proposed changes to the Capacity Market (“CM”) rules, which aim to simplify the market and reduce complexity which Ofgem feels may be acting as a barrier to entry and inhibiting competition. There are [...]
Supplier failures, rising prices and another review – the case for serious retail market reform
The need for reform of the retail energy market is increasingly clear – the past week has seen the failure of another new entrant supplier, bringing the total number of failures in since the beginning of 2018 to 17*. [...]
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