Sympathy for the government?
In last week's newsletter we reported on energy minister John Hayes dismissing claims made by SSE chief Ian Marchant that the "lights will go out" with the government significantly underestimating the scale of the capacity crunch facing the country.
Over the next year SSE is due to reduce its energy generation by 2000MW, and is postponing further investment in gas-fired electricity generation until at least 2015. Marchant said SSE's reviewed operations were unlikely to have been included in an earlier analysis by Ofgem, where it forecasted a one in twelve chance of 'the lights going out'.
The editorial piece attracted responses from a number of readers, two of these responses are printed below. Please do continue to email me with your thoughts.
I have some sympathy with the government here. 2GW closing compared to the current 47GW demand and c60GW capacity. OK we are in a recession but ...
Prof Ian F Bitterlin
CEng PhD BSc(Hons) BA DipDesInn
MIET MCIBSE MBCS MIEEE
Consulting Engineer: Data Centre Power & Cooling
Visiting Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds
I agree with the energy minister regarding the extreme improbability of
not having enough electricity to go around in 2015. And not with SSE,
who might just have an ulterior motive in commercial terms for wanting
to be rewarded sooner rather than later, for building power stations
they were going to build anyway.
Andrew Warren
Director
Association for the Conservation of Energy
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Elinore Mackay and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Electrical Review. This content represents individual perspective and industry commentary.
Recommended Reading
Electrification alone won’t solve the heat challenge
Christophe Williams, founder of Naked Energy, asks whether we are putting too much of the heat challenge on the grid.
Are we overcomplicating the path to cheaper, cleaner energy?
Pulse Clean Energy’s Trevor Wills argues that the key to cheaper, cleaner power is deploying proven technologies at speed, not waiting for miracles.
Is grid connections reform finally fixing Britain’s queue problem?
Eclipse Power’s Laura Henry asks whether Britain’s grid queue overhaul offers real progress for developers facing tighter rules and uncertain dates.