ENERGY MATTERS

[Tizer]

Had a chat with the site manager of Hinckley Point nuclear power station last night about progress on Hinckley C. They're getting there but it's still bogged down due to slow government processes - loads of paperwork and meetings. At least it looks like he's got the go ahead to start building the new ring road round the local town which is part of the Section 106 `mitigation measures'. The cost of all these measures is mind boggling, millions upon millions of pounds. They're supposed to mitigate any adverse impact of the site expansion on the local community and environment but I suspect some of it it just being extracted from EDF as a general boost in finance for the local council.

EDIT: If you need to buy oil for your central heating get an order in quickly while it's relatively cheap. The organiser of our local oil syndicate has just placed an order for our village at 53p a litre but the oil delivery companies say it will go up to around 60p in December.

[Stanley]

Tiz, I reckon people like you who rely on oil for heating are the worst hit by rising prices and have been for a long while. I first became aware of the scale of the problem when I learned of a retired couple up in Teesdale, one of the bleakest parts of the country,whose retirement home was unsaleable because of the energy cost to keep it warm.
I don't know what the situation is now but over 40 years ago many of the farmers in the valley below the road out of Burnley up to Deerplay and Bacup had access to old drift mines into the hill below the road. Long disused but still sources of coal. They had no problems with keeping warm! There is a lot of coal still available in those hills, small pockets that have never been worked out. Thirty years ago I went down a drift at Cliviger into the Arley Seam, some of the best domestic coal ever mined in Britain, it was a four foot seam of lovely coal. I've just had a look and they appear to be still in business.



The head of the drift at Cliviger in 1983. Simpson Little was the name of the owner I think.

[Tizer]

Yes, if you're relying on domestic oil to fire your boiler you've got to be careful with your money and be sure you can afford to pay the bills even if they rise suddenly. Not for the faint-hearted or those who spend to the limit. People on gas are agitated about their bills rising but those on oil can see the price change more between two tank fills than the gas user sees in several years. The prices yo-yo at a dizzying rate and are very unpredictable - when all the trouble started up with Syria and the Middle East looked like becoming inflamed we got the tank filled quickly to try and avoid the expected rise in price. We paid 60p/litre but the price then fell to 53p! Admittedly not all the changes are rises but the price does go up inexorably; it was about 17p when we came here in 1996, has been above 70p, down a bit, and is now climbing again. The delivery companies have to be very strict about payment because it's common for people to fill up and then find they can't pay. Keep in mind that a tank fill will be over 1000 litres so if the price becomes 60p/litre soon we're talking £600 + 5% VAT even if you only put in the 1000. A lot of older country folk won't borrow money on credit cards and they'll need to save carefully to pay the bill.

[Stanley]

The price of my coal seems to be very steady. I shouldn't have said that......

[Stanley]

I told you so! Ordered ten bags yesterday and it's gone up 30p a bag.... I should have known better!

[David Whipp]

Stanley, I'm surprised you're not using the treacle miners tunnels to smuggle your coal from a local drift mine...

Pendle Council put a press release out this week about people needing to check what they were burning if they lived in a smoke control area (as most of us do - not Wendy though).

[Stanley]

I am clean! My fuel is an approved 'smokeless' variety.....

[Wendyf]

I understand that a Burnley coal seam emerges in Harden Clough...and that local people opened the seam during the 1920's but they were soon stopped by the authorities and access to the seam was blocked.

[Stanley]

Wendy, the coal measures under Burnley are shaped like a big dish and there are many small outcrops on the edge of the 'dish' which have been exploited from time to time. The lane from Whitemoor down into Gisburn is called Coal Pit Lane and I once asked a geologist about it. He told me that it was impossible to be certain but he suspected that there were outcrops on many of the moors but they were thin and got planed off by glacial activity in the last Ice Age. Perhaps there were a few remnants left near Gisburn that were worked out as bell pits.

[Stanley]

Disturbing reports that the energy companies have halted their programmes of financing energy saving improvements for customers such as insulation. They have done this because in the present climate of uncertainty over 'green' surcharges on fuel bills they have no certainty of getting the money back from the green levies.

[Stanley]

It gets worse as the uncertainty is affecting other forms of alternative energy as well, investment is drying up. Never mind, the government has found the answer, they are to ask those nice energy people to freeze any costs not directly related to the wholesale price of fuel until mid 1916. After the election! Brilliant!

[hartley353]

It gets worse as the uncertainty is affecting other forms of alternative energy as well, investment is drying up. Never mind, the government has found the answer, they are to ask those nice energy people to freeze any costs not directly related to the wholesale price of fuel until mid 1916. After the election! Brilliant!

Thats great once the first world war is over then energy costs will rise. He He.

[Tizer]

.. they have no certainty of getting the money back from the green levies.

Perhaps I need my eyes seeing to, I read that as ".. they have no certainty of getting the money back from the green elves" and was then wondering if `green elves' were supposed to have stolen our money during the night.

[Stanley]

Glad that amused you Hartley. Perhaps a little allowance for the fact I'm working under difficulties at the moment? I have no near sight at all now and no point having an eye test until the IOLRs have settled in.
Latest reports of panic adjustments to the eco policies is that in order to lower the green levy, the subsidies for domestic insulation are to be halved. This is a perfect illustration of the comments recently about the lack of basic scientific knowledge inside the Westminster Bubble. The cheapest way to address improving the supply and use of energy is to improve the efficiency of how we generate and use it. Over 80% of the thermal input into electricity generation is lost before it reaches the end user because of transmission losses and in the case of gas, anything we do to improve insulation and boiler efficiency is cost-effective. Not necessarily the best place to cut costs but of course it is the easiest and most likely to give a short-term benefit in terms of possible reductions in bills. There is no hope for any improvement in energy matters while this level of ignorance pervades policy making.
Stove doing a good job, no gas used for CH yet.....
06:45. Cancel that last statement! It must be a cold morning, the CH just kicked in for ten minutes, the core temperature must have dropped below 18C.

[hartley353]

Every one loves a blooper Stanley, my mistake for believing you had a sense of humour. When you wrote So what after my posting, I took this as Wit, when I read my own words I realised that I had written so instead of saw, now edited.

[Stanley]

The 'Great Energy Bill' debate continues. There seems to be a hell of a lot of activity and no action at all as far as the consumer is concerned. Nobody is holding out any prospect of a reduction in price rises already announced and there is no clear indication of how prices will be affected in future. Do you, like me, get the impression that this is smoke and mirrors? We are being given the impression that 'things are being done'. Problem is that we are not seeing either a benefit or any prospect of one. My prediction is that nothing will happen because nothing has been done to address the basic problem. Rapacious companies screwing the greatest profit possible out of the consumer. That's right, I am not impressed!

[Stanley]

Listening to the 'debate' in Parliament on energy matters I am struck by the fact that under the present structure there is no solution. Shuffling green costs onto the taxpayer to reduce bills is simply rearranging the deck chairs. The basic fact is that we are reaping the whirlwind that was started by privatisation. Before anyone starts cribbing about lack of innovation in the publicly owned industries remember who it was that rebuilt generating capacity, expanded the National Grid, changed over to North Sea gas, installed the infrastructure to deliver it and modernised the mines improving both production, safety and wage structures. What we are seeing is the inability of the market to handle the necessary investments without resorting to either surcharging the customers or borrowing at far higher rates than are available to the government. There is also the small matter of profit extracted and paid to investors. By privatising we took the short term gain and exchanged it for relinquishing responsibility and control of this essential market. The long term effects on industry are going to be horrendous, already firms are considering moving out to systems where fuel costs are lower. If ever there was an example of the disadvantages of losing control over the commanding heights of the economy this is it and there is nothing we can do about it. All right, I'm beating a very old drum and will be seen as a dinosaur but it so obvious that this economic model is broken and can't be repaired.

[Stanley]

Just ashed out the stove and fired up for the day. CH has not kicked in. House core temperature is 19C despite the cold wind and it's 20C here in the kitchen. I've never regretted putting the stove in and it is doing its job well. By the way, the chimney breast is warm upstairs and I have little doubt next door gets a benefit as well....

[Pluggy]

The way the government is talking about onshore wind and solar subsidies, I can see the FIT being cut for my Panels......

[Wendyf]

Don't think it will be long Pluggy.

[Stanley]

Never mind, the money is spent and they're producing leccy. That's all that matters!

[Pluggy]

If the worst comes to the worst, I may have to re-evaluate forking out for battery storage to make the most of what they produce myself. They make around £250 worth a year at today's prices without subsidies.

[Stanley]

As the wind comes down from the North at the back of the Icelandic low the temperature is dropping and the CH is kicking in at low level to augment the banked up stove. No problem, the house is warm.

[Tizer]

Who says energy efficiency is a new idea? The image below shows the two sides of a bookmark put out by the Women's Gas Federation in 1986.

[Pluggy]

Our CH boiler has packed up again, it dies a few weeks back and then came back alive again for about 3 weeks, its making a sad noise now. Just paid out the better part of £1000 for a new Intergas 24/18 and the bits to fit it. The old one is 15 years old and has been repaired umpteem times in its life, its time for a new one.