Energy Pricing
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 need to resist. The dangerous [...]
The question of electricity market competitiveness is never far away, particularly when any of the Big 6 suppliers raise their prices. The level of concern about potential anti-competitive behaviour by the big suppliers who dominate the GB market prompted an investigation by the Competition [...]
In my last post I wrote about the increasing cost of environmental policies on the back of prices rises from npower and a capacity auction that will secure capacity for next winter at over three times the price of the scheme it replaced. Since [...]
The cost of electricity is in the news once again with the move by supplier npower last week to increase prices by 15%, arguing that higher wholesale prices together with increased non-commodity costs could no longer be absorbed by the supplier. Last week also saw [...]
Energy policy is frequently described in terms of the “trilemma”: decarbonisation, security of supply and affordability. Delivering this three-pointed objective requires a three-pointed approach: technological, policy and financial innovation. None of these in isolation can deliver the energy policy objectives. Technological innovation delivers new [...]
The Carbon Price Floor (“CPF”) is a UK government mechanism designed to support decarbonisation by making it more expensive to generate electricity with carbon-intensive fuels. The doubling in the CPF in 2015 from £9 / tonne to £18 / tonne means the CPF now [...]
I’ve been thinking a great deal recently about how policymakers can address the challenges of stalled investment in the energy markets. My post yesterday on system tightness underlines the importance of the challenge, so I was pleased to come across this excellent paper from [...]
Does the current tight system give a flavour of the winter ahead? This week has seen high peak power prices, with day-ahead prices in the N2EX auction spiking at £999/MWh yesterday, as the system was shocked by a combination of planned maintenance, unplanned outages, [...]
Last week, to little fanfare, National Grid published its review of the UK’s electricity and gas markets for the 2015/16 winter period. Despite literally dozens of reports in the press at the start of the winter warning of the very high risks of blackouts, [...]