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
New York REV: a case study in whole system re-design
I have highlighted in recent posts some areas of regulatory reform that are needed in order to deliver the energy transition at the lowest possible cost. This is a complex challenge, so it is interesting to consider the work [...]
Energy efficiency measures should be a no-brainer, so why are businesses so reluctant?
This week I attended an event run by the Energy Institute on whether in the context of the UK’s industrial strategy the policy can keep up with the energy market. One comment that was made repeatedly was that UK [...]
Disruptive innovations in the energy sector
13 April 1892 saw the birth of Robert Watson-Watt, the inventor of radar, and descendant of Scottish inventor James Watt after whom the unit of power was named. Also on this day in 1960 the first satellite navigation system [...]
Finding the right business model for electricity storage
The question of how electricity storage should be treated by regulators is once again in the news, with National Grid and UK Power Networks making submissions to the UK Government setting out their reasons for wanting to be able to [...]
Nuclear power: small steps towards new nuclear in the GB market
The past couple of weeks have seen a stream of news on the topic of nuclear power. In this post I will outline the key developments and what they mean for the GB power market. Hinkley Point construction moves [...]
Solar spurs growth in turn-up DSR
The need for the new Turn-Up DSR service was clearly shown on Saturday 25 March when daytime electricity demand fell below overnight demand for the first time, due to high levels of solar PV generation. According to government data, [...]
Inductive charging: can it deliver a world without wires?
One of the downsides of the proliferation of smart devices is the seemingly greater proliferation of charging devices. Go on holiday, and one of the first questions is whether sufficient chargers (and adaptors) have been packed for all the [...]
Big Data in Energy: big opportunities and big risks
Explosion of data in the energy industry Big data is everywhere in today's energy industry and it's getting bigger. To most people, energy data is about consumption metrics, however data is changing the market in all parts of the [...]
Why energy price caps are not the way forward
Once again we hear in the news the ominous threats of energy price caps in response to retailers raising their prices, and while the desire of politicians to respond to consumer anger is understandable, this is a temptation they [...]
The shifting sands of the UK gas market
The UK gas market is facing unprecedented changes, with a conflation of declining North Sea production, threats to the UK's gas storage capability, and of course, Brexit. Historically, UK gas came almost entirely from domestic production, with a small amount [...]
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