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Importing huge amounts of electricity from spare capacity generators is a proper market starting to function

Importing huge amounts of electricity from spare capacity generators is a proper market starting to function

Importing huge amounts of electricity from spare capacity generators is a proper market starting to function

More quite sensationalist coverage of the way National Grid is going about keeping the lights on appears in The Times.

By importing 200MWh from Irish and Welsh generators, the risk of electricity shortages was reduced and although the price paid was seven times the current (low) wholesale price, £55,000.000 seems to be a reasonably low cost compared to the economic cost of power cuts. We see this as a proper market starting to function, and those generators with spare capacity are free to sell to the highest bidder. Paying top dollar for very short term spikes in demand is certainly going to be much cheaper than building hugely expensive additional generation capacity which may be rarely needed, especially so if getting that capacity built involves throwing huge state subsidies at Chinese and French nuclear interests.

Importing huge amounts of electricity from spare capacity generators is a proper market starting to function

The real problems may come later this winter when there isn’t the spare capacity to buy on the spot market.  Increased uptake of renewables, with low ongoing generation cost beyond the initial capital investment, make centralised generation and grid distribution a poor investment. If your business depends on a reliable supply of cheap electricity, you might want to talk to us about solar generation and battery storage. Generating and controlling your own energy will remove reliance on an increasingly creaky grid supply.

Read more about this at The Times.

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