Some cold (pun intended) comfort in the UK this week as authorities there assure the population that although energy prices are absolutely spiking and creating economic pain for millions, at least there is no chance of “gas shortages” and a “three-day working week or a throwback to the 1970s.”

Wow, how far we’ve come…

Besides such colourful comments the article referenced below provides some chilling (sorry) explanations re high prices and the upcoming situation for the energy poor in that region, with the old “underlying market fundamentals” seemingly to blame.

If only those fundamentals had been built with a focus on the requirements of today’s energy poor, rather than some long-term and completely irrational view of, you know, having all 195-odd countries on the planet somehow come together to try to control the global climate via a single variable of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere for the potential benefit of humans in 2050 and beyond…

Yes, it’s all as stupid as it seems…

REFERENCE ARTICLE:

Leveraging energy flexibility to address soaring UK energy prices

KEY QUOTES:

“Dan Starman, head of assets and infrastructure at UK research firm Cornwall Insight, said: “Many of the price increases now are driven by underlying market fundamentals such as high gas and carbon prices, as well as demand recovery from COVID-19. To counter these factors, we would need long-term flexibility, such as long-range seasonal gas storage. This can act to suppress prices if summer seasonal prices are at a discount to winter and provided excess gas is available to inject into storage.””

“Much of the flexibility we have is very short in duration – operating on within-day cycles, for example, batteries and to some extent pumped storage. More flexibility here could have reduced some of the significant spreads between peak and off-peak prices we have seen over recent weeks, although it would have done little to suppress longer-term prices. Longer-term flexibility, and any shortfall in generation margin, are typically provided by assets that are fossil fuel-fired (gas being the main source in Great Britain). Replacing these marginal generators will present a significant technical challenge.”

SOURCE:

Smart Energy International

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