{"id":6539,"date":"2016-01-29T10:16:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T09:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6539"},"modified":"2016-03-10T15:06:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T14:06:24","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-facing-power-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6539","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week – are we facing power cuts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"800px-Shelby_Farms_Solar_Farm_Memphis_TN_2013-02-02_008\"<\/a>Is the UK facing power cuts in another decade?\u00a0 Perhaps the biggest story of this week has almost gone unnoticed.\u00a0 There could be capacity supply gap of up to 55%<\/a> in 10 years which will certainly mean power cuts.<\/p>\n

A bit of history first.\u00a0 At one time the electricity system in the UK was state owned. \u00a0 In those days the majority of the power came from coal with some hydro.\u00a0 Then in 1956 the world’s first nuclear power station was built.\u00a0 By the 70’s nuclear power made a sizeable contribution (around a third), with a bit of gas.\u00a0 In the 70’s natural gas arrived from the North sea.\u00a0 The first energy crisis hit in 1973 and the miners went on strike at the same time.\u00a0 I remember the power cuts as a child and sitting in the dark and its made me concerned about energy issues ever since.<\/p>\n

After the miners strike there was a wholesale switch to gas (I remember this at school) we used to play on the pile of coal and get chased off by the janitor- then one day it wasn’t there…\u00a0 Mrs Thatcher swept to power in 1979, took on the miners and privatised the electricity industry.\u00a0 In the 90’s there was a dash to gas powered generation, this cut carbon emissions, but made us dependent on the stuff.\u00a0 At the same time the first wind farms started appearing.\u00a0 Around 2000 the oil price started its increase towards its 2008 peak and a heap of subsidies for renewables started appearing including in 2010 the feed in tariff.\u00a0 At the same time as offshore and onshore wind started appearing, older plants (coal\/gas\/nuclear) started closing.\u00a0 We had record capacity supply surplus in 2003 but its been dropping ever since and is now about 1%.\u00a0 North sea gas went into decline and imports were more expensive.\u00a0 Electricity and gas prices soared.\u00a0 In 2013 the Tory led government introduced an energy act.\u00a0 This has two parts<\/a> “Contracts for difference” this a sort of market led auction of low carbon generation and “Capacity Market” which is the same type of thing but auctioning off future and current generation.<\/p>\n

The challenges we face are these.<\/p>\n