I was thinking about this the other day when my energy provider went pop (Together Energy, who still used the Bristol Energy name) - I can remember two coal fired power stations in Newport alone (Uskmouth and Rogerstone), they would have been fuelled predominantly by British Coal. We had British coal, North sea oil and gas and nuclear, with a bit of hydro, but seemed to have given up on it years before carbon-fuelled energy became a talking point, so it must have been a political decision........and we let our nuclear power facilities degrade to the extent that the Chinese and the French are now dominating it. Now we have one of the lowest storage capacities in Europe so rely heavily on the spot price energy market dominated by daft named charlatan Ltd co's that run up debt and walk away, leaving us at the mercy of the 'UK Energy Supplier of Last Resort', who gets to charge us the high cost standard rate tariffs. And we are supposed to be grateful that a cap exists to stop them charging even more of a rip-off rate. I honestly can't see how anyone can support the way the energy market was privatised and de-regulated to the extent the we are now hoping the Russians don't invade Ukraine - not because we care about Ukraine, but because sanctions on Russia will threaten our gas supplies. Would Putin turn the gas off? I think that's a certainty and no coincidence that he's chosen the coldest time of year/highest gas demand............ The Germans are even more reliant on Russian gas and have refused the RAF permission to fly over their territory to assist the Ukraine. It is a shambles.
I'm sort of grateful for the cap as you want to see what happens to your utility charges if you are a business. Includes small businesses like your local shops and pubs etc
A cap being provided suggests that the risk of something catastrophic like this happening was known in advance. And the cap is being raised in April anyway - assuming there are some energy providers left by then. Perhaps it will end up with just one gas and one electricity provider left - like it was when the public owned it. Only this time it will be owned by shady overseas venture capitalists. And the French government
Germany had a cracking good one too and both used to hang out of windows together in the 1930's and ruined it's original meaning .
The Chinese are finally going to be building thorium technology nuclear reactors, which they will be able to sell to their friends, because you will find it hard to make a high yield nuclear bomb out of the spent nuclear fuel. Unlike all our nuclear reactors that also had to provide plutonium for bombs so had to use uranium fuel. BTW the UK now has something like 120 tonnes of plutonium sitting in storage ... And being first the Chinese will corner the market. Oh yes, and the trucks are queueing on the M20 because of Brexit. .. that isnt appearing much on the news. . Expect continued shortages for that reason too. I expect one political party may start campaigning pro-Europe by the next general election, as people get fed up with the annoyances.
