THE UK ENERGY CRISIS: DON’T BLAME IT ALL ON THE UKRAINE SITUATION

THE UK ENERGY CRISIS: DON’T BLAME IT ALL ON THE UKRAINE SITUATION.

Special feature by John Hatton (*pictured right).
 

The UK is now in an extremely serious energy crisis, but as the title states it’s not all down to the Ukraine situation. 

Successive Governments over the last 50 plus years, have let down the British public, as every aspect of life in this modern world is ENERGY based.  

The UK was the first country in the world to have an operational commercial nuclear power station generating electricity back in 1956.  A few additional nuclear power stations were then built, but as these were coming towards the end of their life, no plans were ever introduced to replace them. These Governments have all failed miserably ever since to plan-ahead regarding a situation to secure new energy requirements for a growing population.  

This is due to no strategic long-term planning and is the main reason we are now in this current situation. The Government is currently in panic mode regarding what we should do for electricity generation today, and in the future. 

They want Rolls Royce to produce sixteen small nuclear power stations in the UK, rather late, as this will take many years to develop. And numerous factories still need to be built to manufacture the parts for these new type of nuclear power stations.  

Currently there is a nuclear power station being built at Hinckley Point in Somerset, which should come online in 2025, built by EDF, and with a considerable amount of the cost covered by the Chinese. In fact, EDF are a French company, and they are in the process of being nationalised, as France wants to ensure the security of their energy.

The French seem to have got it right, they have multiple nuclear stations, plus hydro, and some wind and solar, but most of their electricity generation is provided by nuclear power. With the current cold weather, wind turbines are only generating a few percent of our requirements, as there is little wind propulsion, so it’s not the panacea for the future.

The UK has put a huge amount of emphasis on gas-powered electricity generating stations, in fact we are now so reliant upon it, that on average, 50% of our electricity is generated from gas.  

Putting so much faith in gas that is imported from some unstable countries, like Russia and Libya, to name but two, is suicidal, plus, the enormous industrial use of gas in manufacturing, and for domestic use, in heating and cooking.

With the UK having tidal waters, which gives four changes of water flow per day guaranteed, the Government stated that the Swansea tidal lagoon scheme for the generation of electricity was not value for money at £1.3b. However, when you consider the cost of the HS2 rail project currently running over budget by billions, it makes the tidal lagoon seem like a bargain!

 

*To show how reliant we now are on gas for electricity generation - please see the chart below:

 

The yellow in the charts shows the amount of electricity produced by gas powered generating stations. The one chart shows year averages, the other a snapshot on the 28 November 2022, which includes other generating sources, we also regularly import electricity from France.

The worst thing that has happened in more recent years, is the so say electricity suppliers, which are generally billing companies between the true generators and the user. Take the example of Bulb, they went into administration, bailed out by the Government, which cost £6.5 billion, and has now taken over by Octopus.

There should be an Electricity Board, overseeing generation and future planning, so everyone pays the same price per kilowatt, and ensures we are never in this critical situation again.

There is also a push for generating via renewable sources, wind and solar, but as the chart shows above these methods are intermittent in the generation, little wind, low generation, and solar only during hours of light.

Another fact which energy suppliers quote is, “we only supply renewable energy.” The National electricity grid in the UK Is fed from multiple generating sources.  The energy suppliers may purchase power from renewable energy suppliers, but industry and domestic users get it from multiple sources fed to the grid.

 

*See the snapshot of the electricity generating diagram above.

 

The major problem is when different governments are elected, policies change, we could be down the road manufacturing the new nuclear power stations, and a government becomes anti-nuclear.  We then have uncertainty over energy, which puts our country back into another energy crisis.