Featured Posts
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
Electricity bills: the drama won’t stop until pricing becomes transparent
The press and politicians are currently full of outrage at the announcement by British Gas of a 12.5% increase in its electricity prices from September, describing the rise as "extortionate", "unjustified" and a "slap in the face" to families, [...]
RIIO reform: current regime too generous to network companies
On the 12th July, Ofgem issued an open letter launching the process for establishing the next round of price controls, known as "RIIO-2", for the GB gas and electricity systems. These price controls determine the amount of allowable expenditure [...]
Future Energy Scenarios underline the need for an Independent System Operator
In its Future Energy Scenarios, National Grid presents its views of the future of the GB energy system, which I have described here. As I was exploring the scenarios, I was struck by some surprising features of the scenarios, [...]
Future Energy Scenarios: interrogating the crystal ball
National Grid has published its latest future energy scenarios going out to 2050. The scenarios are based on the (in)famous energy trilemma: security of supply, de-carbonisation and affordability, and provide what National Grid says are "credible pathways for the [...]
Leaving Euratom: disaster or opportunity?
Since the announcement in on 29 March that as well as exiting the EU, the UK would also be withdrawing from Euratom, the European Atomic Energy Community, there has been much consternation, with fears ranging from the UK potentially [...]
Tesla’s giant electricity storage project is unlikely to solve South Australia’s grid problems
I recently wrote about the challenges faced by South Australia as it struggles to adjust to a renewables-heavy grid. I described the issues arising from the closure of large sources of inertia, noting that the technologies required to manage [...]
National Grid consults on ancillary services reform: will the changes go far enough?
The UK electricity system was designed to transport electricity produced in a relatively cheap and predictable way from centralised power stations, to users whose patterns of consumption are similarly stable and predictable. Variations around these patterns of production and [...]
US shale gas enters the GB energy mix
On Saturday the LNG carrier Maran Gas Mystras docked at National Grid's Isle of Grain facility bringing with it the UK's first cargo of US LNG since a small cargo that arrived at the Canvey Island terminal in 1964. [...]
The economics of embedded generation set to change but consumers are unlikely to benefit
The market has been waiting with bated breath for Ofgem’s decision on its proposed changes to the embedded benefit regime, since its statement in March that it was “minded to” implement a change to the CUSC that would limit the [...]
The political pressures driving new nuclear
This week has seen two significant prices of news relating to the new nuclear reactor being constructed at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Firstly, the French nuclear regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (“ASN”), has made a preliminary decision relating [...]
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