Power to the people!

[Sue Durnim]

I am in favour of clean green energy, I know that present power stations will becoming off line and will be decommissioned and will need investment to build new and improved energy plants.

 

But before any customer bills are increased to pay for the investment and upgrades, shouldn?t any monies needed come out of the huge profits these power companies make, also, shouldn?t there shareholders also have to pay there share of the investment before any cost are incurred by the customer?

 

The customer has little choice to paying high priced utitilty bills, other than to go without.

 

I thought investment in a business is the business owners responsibility, not the customer!

 

A business person who owns a local shop, wouldn?t increase a chocolate bar by ?50 because he needs a new van for deliveries.

[observer]

This supposed to be the job of OfGen; to supervise this smoke and mirrors attempt at competition, rather than the reality of a cartel. Re-Nationalise them.

[Sue Durnim]

Observer, it is getting to a point that the public are there just to be abused, taken advantage of, mislead, ripped off and to be taken as a cash cow for the government and the big business culture and its invented and over-inflated tax, VAT and price rises, in the excuse that they are saving the environment and giving value for money and what little the public get given back, must be thankful for!

[Peter T]

Observer, it is getting to a point that the public are there just to be abused, taken advantage of, mislead, ripped off and to be taken as a cash cow for the government and the big business culture and its invented and over-inflated tax, VAT and price rises, in the excuse that they are saving the environment and giving value for money and what little the public get given back, must be thankful for!

 

Problem is Sue, that the public never fight back. They just roll over.

 

Have you heard anyone mention the coming VAT increase? That will be the real killer that will hit people very hard, never mind a few uni students.

It's a double whammy and raises questions as to whether it is needed on top of all the other cutbacks given that it is a decision that was taken before the election.

[Bill]

If I were building any kind of privatly power station, then before starting anythig I'd need some kind of cast iron guarenteed assurances that the power generated could be sold otherwise such a project would never get off the ground. Ironically, the more windmills we have the worse this problem becomes because we can't expect a traditional generating company to idley stand by selling nothing while the windfarms cash in on the free 'while the wind blows' power.

 

So the crazy situation is the the free power isn't that free afterall because the government has to pay the traditional providers to remain on standby generating no power because we can't live without them in the absence of wind.

 

So, we're all going to end up paying significantly more for our power just because we now have free wind power. All a bit bonkers if you ask me.

 

Bill

[observer]

As I said - "smoke and mirrors" (I guess without the smoke!). Renewables won't provide the required output; hence, they've sneaked in a few "nuclear" power stations, which will cost an arm and leg to commission, then decommission, then store the waste. Meanwhile, the Chinese are building a couple of coal fired power stations a week, so it's a bit like we're giving up smoking whilst residing in a shelter full of smokers! IF, they're serious about renewables, they should be building the full range of options, including tidal and hydro schemes (which would provid unskilled jobs and stimulate the economy at the same time): PLUS, serious measures to reduce the demand side of the equation, like providing "free" home insulation and local power generation through waste incineration etc.

[Lt Kije]

The trouble is, Are existing Nuclear Power Stations except Sizewell should have all shut years ago, Drax Power station which is coal fired and is responsible for 8% of the UK's energy needs and should have shut years ago. No government in the last 30 years has invested in Power, 80% of our Coal fired Power Stations are long past what they were designed to last for. Gas powered stations are OK, but they do not generate as much as coal stations so you need a lot more of them. Everybody wants power but nobody wants to live next door to a power station, Wind Power will NEVER be a substitute for coal or Nuclear.

[observer]

And we're sitting on a thousand years supply of coal - so it's a no-brainer!

[Lt Kije]

We shut the coal mines

[observer]

They can sink new ones or use open cast; and while their at it, they can tap into the shale oil off Blackpool; get a tidal barrier across the Severn, and capture some rainfall with a few hydro-dams. There's also a security imperitive in creating energy self sufficiency, so we are not blackmailed by Russia or any other energy producer.

[Lt Kije]

Obs I agree that we should be energy self sufficient, But to re-open the coal mines would be a massive cost, alot more than the levy we are just about to start paying. Have we not debated this point before

[observer]

Think we've debated most things before Kije, without conclusive agreement! As I said, the imperitive must be self sufficiency - as dependency on foreign supply could finish up costing us more in the long run.