On the BBC website today but of course not of interest to BBC Scotland:
Britain is about to pass a significant landmark – at midnight on Wednesday it will have gone two full months without burning coal to generate power. A decade ago about 40% of the country’s electricity came from coal; coronavirus is part of the story, but far from all. National Grid responded by taking power plants off the network. The four remaining coal-fired plants were among the first to be shut down. The last coal generator came off the system at midnight on 9 April. No coal has been burnt for electricity since. The current coal-free period smashes the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes which was set in June last year.
The report doesn’t mention Scotland. Why should it mention Scotland? But it gives me the opporchancity to repeat this:
In Energy Voice on 28 January 2020:
‘Mammoth Highland offshore wind farms are footing a bill of around £20 million more per year than English projects to connect to the grid, according to the builder of what will be Scotland’s biggest wind venture. The levied regime in the UK, called transmission charging and set up by the energy regulator Ofgem, is understood to be a major disadvantage to projects in the windiest regions of Scotland – with a £20m per year price tag that could rise to £30m by 2025’
Not only is Scotland paying extra to connect to the grid, but the electricity is then being transferred to England, Wales and Northern Ireland to compensate for their lack of generation and to help the UK appear to be meeting its carbon reduction target. See:
Government figures reveal the massive and increasing level of transfer of electricity from Scotland to England. In 2018 only, the transfer rate increased from 13 512 GWh to nearly 25 000 GWh. 1 GWh would heat 700 000 homes!
Note that the ratio of transfers from Scotland to England compared with those from England to Scotland is 25 to 1!
And here we have an example of one of the main arguments why a country that is too wee and no very good cannot become independent – the economy of England would collapse.
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Well then Westminster should be very careful in Matters of Sect 30
As more than likely they will be dragged screaming into Independence talks
And they should be mindful of the fact
One of our negotiating cards is that of having our hand on the plug that we can pull out of the socket for them
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Except, guess where the ‘national grid’ operating stations are? Yep, in England. The company which now ‘owns’ the NG is a US company, and they operate the system for Eng and Wales, while Scot power and I think SSE operate the part of the system in Scotland.
England can switch Scotland’s lights off anytime they like, and there ‘s nothing Scotland can do about it. There were at least two very widespread power cuts in Scotland in 2014, much of the highlands being one of them.
Dig slightly deeper and all you find is that it was a fault or something like that, but I do recall back then some in the field saying unless it was interference from outer space, there could be no explanation for it.
The Britnats did say, in 2014 that Scotland could be attacked by aliens from space…so maybe that is what they meant!
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It isn’t just Scotland (though we are the biggest supplier). England gets electricity from France, Wales, Ireland, Netherland, Belgium—and it is building an interconnector with Norway.
Hinckley Point is a financial white elephant before it is even built–and no nuclear waste repository yet. Perhaps that is what Jack wants to build a tunnel for—divert it through Mullwharchar hill en route.
The most suitable geology for a nuclear waste depository is in the deep clay beds in the south of England—the very last place where any Brit Nat government would build one.
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Yep the ‘national grid’ is ugrading the system to cater for the major growth in renewables being used, in England. No such investment is taking place in Scotland far as I can see, but take a look at the ‘National Grid’ website to check that.
The system needs to be upgraded for renewables in Scotland to grow and function properly, shame we have a bullying, colonial neighbour who have the levers of power re all of that! We could be hugely left behind in how we can distribute the actual energy that we produce. There are plenty of bargaining chips to be considered when Scotland does take the bull by the horns and votes for ,or declares independence.
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We need our own grid. Then we charge them. Sent from Samsung tablet.
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Yet another reminder of what “Better Together” means south of the border, eh?
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