When will the lights go out?

[Workingman]

Ofgem is warning that our bills will rise even as energy output falls. It is warning that there could be a drop in capacity of 10% by April this year, and that the UK will have to import energy. But all the while we are shutting down old power stations before any new ones come online, so an even further reduction is in line for the future.

Meanwhile the government is to provide £37 million for more charging points for electric cars to make them more attractive!

We (our politicians) must be bloody mad!

[Kaz]

Mick and I were both talking about this last night. What on earth is the point of 'pushing' electric cars when electricity is going to become so very expensive, the way things are going.......

[Suff]

I talk about this every time it comes up. We need 3 times the power infrastructure we have today to go EV. Not going to happen.

One of these perhaps.....

[Workingman]

One of these perhaps.....

Sad, but my landlords would never go for it.

It brings to mind something I have thought for some time, though, and that is the government would quite like a lot of households to "volunteer" to go off-line. It would help to keep the capacity up while costing them not one penny.

On another tack.... I have discovered something this winter. My kitchen does not have a radiator and as it is at the back of the house, facing north, it never gets the sun. The outcome is that it is the coldest place in the flat. However, I have a little 400W heater in there which stays on all the time. It is enough to keep the kitchen warm and stops it from being a heat sink, and that makes the whole flat warmer. It costs about £1.25 per day, but I only use the CH twice a day for half an hour, once in the morning and again in the evening.

[pederito1]

I hear they are considering setting up a prayer group to pray for strong winds.

[TheOstrich]

I hear they are considering setting up a prayer group to pray for strong winds.

Baked beans will be made compulsory .....

[cromwell]

The thing is, this has been coming for years. I remember reading about this during the last government's tenure.
Due to carbon reduction targets, coal powered power stations are being decommissioned; but as for their replacements...?
Nothing has been done about a known problem for years, so they are all running around squawking now.

[Workingman]

The other thing is, these privatised utilities were picked up for a song, but now the infrastructure needs updating it is apparently up to us, via government, to pay.

Well, I have an idea. If we are paying for these new power plants etc. let us keep them in public ownership and set them up against the privatised ones. If we have some of them run on coal we could make them run on British coal and open a a few old pits in the process. Then we could sell the electricity at cost making households a priority customer.

[cruiser2]

It takes at least four years to construct a new electricity generating station, no matter what type of fuel is used. Plans for new ones have been suggested, but no agreement has yet been made and a date fixed for the start of the build. There are some small ones but not big enough to replace the existing nuclear ones which are past their sell by date.

[TheOstrich]

WM, I'm not sure how easy it would be to reopen redundant pits. Were they mothballed as such, or just abandoned to fate?

Also, there are huge obstacles being placed in the way of new open-cast coal mines from environmentalists, as they are finding out in South Shropshire, and the last remaining deep mine in this area, Daw Mill, is rapidly coming to the end of its life with geological issues. You would almost certainly have to import coal ....