Mastodawn

The madness of the UK's energy system is summed up in the £55m paid to wind farm operators in the last couple of months to cease generation (temporarily) because the energy interconnection (distribution) system was unable to handle the electricity transfer from generation to use; at the same time £217m was paid (mainly to gas-based generators) to make up the shortfall in renewable energy the congested network caused.

The network build-out needs to be accelerated!

#energy
h/t Observer

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Graeme 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 The fundamental problem is that we live in a system where corrupt deals allow renewables to be sold at the spot rate for fossil fuel generation.
JD Vance may be a total shite, but even people like him say true things sometimes, as we he commented on UK energy prices recently. If even he can see it...

See how it should be:
https://mastodon.nz/@nickofnz/116390605062278492

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Dave Mc 22h ago

@pa27 @ChrisMayLA6 my understanding is the UK system was set up decades ago, with extremely long contacts. With the aim to encourage gas. Renewables weren't factored in, not due to corruption, but because they weren't a viable alternative at the time.

The turning off of renewables and paying for gas is due to the grid being designed a long time ago around power stations in strategic locations. Even if the dated payment mechanism was updated, we'd still need to fix the grid.

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Graeme 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@guigsy @ChrisMayLA6 Yes, but it was the usual issue, the power and oil
companies leaned on the government, as usual the civil servants left to negotiate are way out of their depth, so you get a system that benefits the power and fossil lobby. This happens time and time again, in all areas where govt farms out things to the private sector.

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Dave Mc 17h ago

@pa27 @ChrisMayLA6 to be fair, the industry wanted long term stability to make the investment to move from coal and to build a reliable grid. It wasn't an awful deal at the time. But in the decades since, renewables have become a thing. And the incumbents don't want to change the gas centric rules.