Re: UK energy prices
Posted: September 4th, 2022, 11:41 am
Some super interesting comments and links in the discussion, better that what all of the broadcast media are putting out.
To me it still looks like speculation and that the dire announcements about power cuts and economic collapse are just the usual click bait for bringing watchers and generating ad revenue.
The chart of gas prices provided by scotview is classic of a futures squeeze that will likely collapse as happened in late 2021 and April 2022:
https://twitter.com/0_ody/status/156636 ... dOVjVU-j4A
There can be no guarantee that prices will pull back but we should note that the UK satisfies 50% of its demand from its own natural gas (see link provided by Scotview: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uk-natural-gas
and also that the UK is second only to Spain in the ability to process regasification of liquified gas: page 9. In an Emergency the UK government could seize this gas and sell it at what ever price it wants.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... e_2022.pdf
Both of these factors should give some comfort to folk who are concerned about the UK running out of gas. We should also note that Germany and other heavy users of gas are doing what ever they can to store as much gas as possible before the winter and that China are buying Russian gas and selling it to Europe, circumventing some of the Russian sanctions. We should also note that if Germany and other European nations do run low on gas the support for Russian sanctions in the population may fall so much that the sanctions are removed in exchange for Russian gas via the pipe lines.
Further we should also note that the winter months are generally higher in wind than the rest of the year so that renewable electricity may reach record levels this winter.
It is clear that the electric grid is in need of an urgent upgrade to store electrical power and once this is done the whole energy situation will be transformed. Gas is the best of the hydrocarbons for clean burning, but even the best gas power stations are only about 50% efficient so that a lot of energy is wasted whereas renewables plus storage is circa 80% efficient and more importantly means that energy generated when demand is low can be stored to be used when demand is high. Legislation to outlaw the use of gas heating in new well insulated homes seems a sensible way forward, even though domestic boilers can be very efficient, they still release co2, but it does not help those who live in poorly insulated existing homes which need to have their thermal insulation upgraded to be able to use heat pump technology.
The effects of all this fear mongering will almost certainly cause most users to improve their energy efficiency, cutting demand going forwards and helping to reduce co2 emission. As so often in life, difficulties lead to changes and improvements.
Regards,
To me it still looks like speculation and that the dire announcements about power cuts and economic collapse are just the usual click bait for bringing watchers and generating ad revenue.
The chart of gas prices provided by scotview is classic of a futures squeeze that will likely collapse as happened in late 2021 and April 2022:
https://twitter.com/0_ody/status/156636 ... dOVjVU-j4A
There can be no guarantee that prices will pull back but we should note that the UK satisfies 50% of its demand from its own natural gas (see link provided by Scotview: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uk-natural-gas
and also that the UK is second only to Spain in the ability to process regasification of liquified gas: page 9. In an Emergency the UK government could seize this gas and sell it at what ever price it wants.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... e_2022.pdf
Both of these factors should give some comfort to folk who are concerned about the UK running out of gas. We should also note that Germany and other heavy users of gas are doing what ever they can to store as much gas as possible before the winter and that China are buying Russian gas and selling it to Europe, circumventing some of the Russian sanctions. We should also note that if Germany and other European nations do run low on gas the support for Russian sanctions in the population may fall so much that the sanctions are removed in exchange for Russian gas via the pipe lines.
Further we should also note that the winter months are generally higher in wind than the rest of the year so that renewable electricity may reach record levels this winter.
It is clear that the electric grid is in need of an urgent upgrade to store electrical power and once this is done the whole energy situation will be transformed. Gas is the best of the hydrocarbons for clean burning, but even the best gas power stations are only about 50% efficient so that a lot of energy is wasted whereas renewables plus storage is circa 80% efficient and more importantly means that energy generated when demand is low can be stored to be used when demand is high. Legislation to outlaw the use of gas heating in new well insulated homes seems a sensible way forward, even though domestic boilers can be very efficient, they still release co2, but it does not help those who live in poorly insulated existing homes which need to have their thermal insulation upgraded to be able to use heat pump technology.
The effects of all this fear mongering will almost certainly cause most users to improve their energy efficiency, cutting demand going forwards and helping to reduce co2 emission. As so often in life, difficulties lead to changes and improvements.
Regards,