Britons “Paying £2 Million an Hour” to Keep Gas Power Stations Running in Freezing Temperatures
Households paid the equivalent of £2 million an hour to gas power stations today after low winds and freezing temperatures left electricity grid bosses scrambling to keep the lights on. The Telegraph has more.
As freezing weather swept into the South East, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) warned that it expected power supplies to become particularly tight between 4pm and 7pm.
The crunch forced grid operators to pay huge sums to gas power plant owners to keep them running. The cost will ultimately be borne by households and businesses through their bills.
At one stage, they agreed to pay the Rye House power station, in Hertfordshire, the equivalent of £1.8 million per hour, transparency data show.
Three gas-fired units in Connah’s Quay, North Wales, were also paid a combined £2 million per hour.
Neso declined to comment on the payments.
It comes as cold weather is expected to spark increased electricity consumption as more people stay indoors, watch television and use their gas or electric heating.
At the same time, a sharp drop in wind power and low availability of power interconnectors with Europe is also putting more pressure on the grid.
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile, Net Zero Watch reports that renewables subsidies hit new highs in 2024. The previous record of £2.3 billion in payments under the Contracts for Difference scheme was set in 2020. 2024’s total has surpassed that and is likely to hit £2.4 billion when all the data are in.
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When fantasy and reality collide…
FFS how much longer will this nonsense go on… surely everybody realises that microband’s fantasy is just pure delusional bollocks which is going to destroy whatever is left of our country after all the other shit that’s going down?
I remember the hung parliament, when the “Tories” and the “Liberal Democrats” entered into a coalition, and we waved goodbye to Milibrain and his madness. I never imagined he’d be back in power 16 years (?) later.
Did we? Didn’t the madness just continue under new management?
Destroying the country is the plan.
How to stop a runaway train? The only solution I see is derail it.
Global Cooling!
Global Warming!
Climate Change!
Climate Weirding!
Climate Crisis!
Climate Emergency!
Meanwhile…
Gas industry is not interrupting these fools.
Keep an eye on Gridwatch – updates throughout the day – real time data on power demand & how & from what source it is being met. I’m increasingly drawn to the display of the fragile state of our power supplies.
Loss of function of any one of the 7 Interconnector’s (as happened for a short time recently before Christmas) is going to be a major headache. And I’m willing to bet it will happen by accident or design.
The disasters are getting faster and faster.
The immiseration of Britain – another catastrophe brought to you by the lying fools of the LibLabCon Party.
I think we need to have a massive power failure and the ensuing chaos for the flaws of this lunacy to become real for a lot of people. Only then, will we see calls for change of plan.
What did cost per hour before the Net Zero Antics began 🤔
Electric was around 8p/kWh for a long time, and the price was stable, almost predictable. Now it is more than double that, PLUS the vastly increased Daily Standing Charge. This pays for real physical infrastructure plus gas generators to be on standby 24/7, payment to windmills when it is too windy, payments to duplicate the grid because renewables can’t be relied on, etc etc, with the operators creaming a slice off at every turn
This just highlights why heat pumps will not and do not work if too many people used them. When weather is at its coldest is when they demand more electricity from the grid which adds demand pressure when demand is already at its peak. If we all used heat pumps or other types of electric heating the demand on the grid would be many more times its capacity. Thank goodness for gas and oil boilers, despite the governments insistence on banning them, it won’t be too long before they realise in really cold weather they are and will be the only way to prevent serious power shortages and failure of the electricity grid.
If all the windmills and sunbeam collectors were to be switched off, and all the subsidies stopped, we would have enough gas and remaining nuke to power the grid priced in a competitive free market environment – as privatisation intended. Gas and nuke running continuously, as they are designed to do, means their revenue flow is continuous and sufficient to cover all costs and provide a satisfactory contribution to earnings… as it used to. Running two parallel systems, one efficient, the other inefficient = two costs + additional cost to balance the inefficiency. Thus explains why our electricity bills immediately after 05 July 2024 fell by £300… Oh. Footnote. Hinkley Point C approved in 2012, work started in 2017 at an estimated cost of £18 billion, completion running two years late in 2022 then estimated to cost circa £26 billion, then revised to circa £31 billion, final cost circa £34 scheduled to open 2029 – 2031 (after lights out), supposedly would provide electricity at a consumer price of £24 per MWh, but now – you’ll be surprised to know – it’s guaranteed by Govt at an inflation linked consumer price of £128 per MWh for 35 years operational life. This… Read more »
Nothing will change or improve until the idea that CO2 is a problem is ditched. Prior to this nonsense really taking off, massive strides had been made in cleaning up coal power station emissions – flue gas desulphurisation, electrostatic precipitation, combustion gas recirculation, etc.
We have gone too far now for coal to be resurrected any time soon, however. The pits are shut, the pumps turned off and the sub-surface equipment inundated. The stations have been decommissioned, stripped out (with turbines and alternators going to India/China in many cases), and quite often, the towers/generating halls demolished.
All of this will cost trillions to reverse, even it were admitted tomorrow that CO2 emissions are not driving climate change, but instead that it is being naturally driven by the colossal thermonuclear reaction a mere 93M miles away. As it always has been.