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
National Audit Office report highly critical of smart meters programme
On Friday, the National Audit Office (“NAO”) published its latest evaluation of the UK’s smart meters programme and concluded: “The facts are that the programme is late, the costs are escalating, and in 2017 the cost of installing smart [...]
Ofgem to tighten rules for challenger suppliers and investigates RO defaults
Today Ofgem has announced it is taking action against a number of challenger suppliers that have failed to make scheduled payments under the Renewables Obligation scheme. Suppliers had until 31 October to pay outstanding sums into the late payment [...]
European Court ruling leads to capacity market suspension
Almost out of the blue, last week, while all attention was on Brexit, came a decision from the General Court of the European Union that has led to the suspension of the GB Capacity Market. This means that all [...]
Will time-of-use pricing generate meaningful changes in electricity consumption?
There has been much hype of late surrounding the advent of “time-of-use” (“ToU”) energy tariffs for domestic consumers with some claiming consumers will be able to make large savings while others suggest consumers might be ripped off by “surge [...]
UKPN to test new voltage stabilisation technology
The challenges posed to electricity grids by adding increasing amounts of intermittent renewable generation are well known, and costly to manage, however a Scottish technology company claims to have the answer. Faraday Grid, believes it can massively increase grid [...]
Another two small energy suppliers close as Ofgem reports on the state of the market
On the 11 October Ofgem published its second State of the Energy Market report, concluding that while there have been improvements in the retail market, with customers now having more energy suppliers and innovative deals to choose from, and [...]
Opening access to the Balancing Mechanism for smaller aggregated assets
National Grid recently published a roadmap to widening access to the Balancing Mechanism to smaller, distributed assets and demand-side response. The increasing de-centralisation of the electricity system, along with the growth in intermittent generation, is making the task of [...]
Rising wholesale prices challenge the business models of small suppliers
Energy prices have been in the news again, with price increases from many suppliers and the publication of the intended level of the retail price cap. There are a number of drivers of energy prices, with network and policy [...]
Future Energy Scenarios 2018: another look into the crystal ball
In July, National Grid published its 2018 Future Energy Scenarios, with the following headlines: Capacity could increase from 103 GW today to between 189 GW and 268 GW by 2050, with the more decarbonised scenarios requiring the highest capacities. [...]
Debunking energy myths: renewable electricity is not cheap
In the final post in my energy myths series, I will look at one of the biggest, and arguably most dangerous myths of all - the notion that electricity generated from renewable sources is cheap. Myth #4: Renewable energy [...]
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