‘Securing’ our energy supply in winter even though it didn’t save us a week ago …

 

 

Let me tell you what the lying liars have been lying about – and I don’t mean the politicians! No, it’s worse than that. First the ‘news’ though: we’re back in fear-porn-country. Be afraid, be very afraid, either because of a nuclear war – not with Russia but with China – or because of a General Strike If you must you’ll find that daily show of propaganda in the usual place (link). This ‘general strike’, if it come to it, might happen after the women’s footie though. I wonder if they’ll do ‘diversity’ and stick some black players in when they face Germany. After all the Beeb did admonish them for having such a white team and the gentlemen showed how one can perfectly lose a match by ‘doing woke’.

But I digress … oh, allow me just one more distraction! ‘The Star’ is rising in my estimation because of their funny headlines on their print front page. This morning it’s: ‘Tip Top Advice to Stop a Drought This Summer: Grease is the Word’. They provide the tips as well, which are: ‘don’t wash your hair, take a 5-minute shower and use the same dirty cup all day’ (link). It’s news to me that being a dirty slob prevents a drought, but I’m not a climate scientist. 

And so to what should have been ‘the story’ but wasn’t. Perhaps it’s because this might have affected London only and thus our MSM kept quiet so as not to panic the rest of the country. Perhaps it’s because our esteemed Westminster editors haven’t yet got ‘guidance’ from the usual “sources” on how to spin this event. Perhaps they simply were unwilling to sacrifice space needed for Truss and Sunak – who knows.

Here’s the timeline for the MSM’s non-reporting of news: On July 25th – three days ago – there was a report in Bloomberg on a possible black-out for London that was just avoided. Note well the date of this event:

“On July 20, surging electricity demand collided with a bottleneck in the grid, leaving the eastern part of the British capital briefly short of power. Only by paying a record high £9,724.54 (about $11,685) per megawatt hour — more than 5,000% higher than the typical price — did the UK avoid homes and businesses going dark. That was the nosebleed cost to persuade Belgium to crank up aging electricity plants to send energy across the English Channel.” (link)

For now let’s not ask why we don’t have ‘aging electricity plants’ which could’ve been cranked up, let’s just remember that ‘Teh Heatwave’ was over by the 20th of July. It didn’t make the MSM on that day though, nor did it until the Bloomberg report arrived. A quick search showed that the BBC had a very short piece two days ago – that’s Tuesday 26th July – where they turned this into a piece about National Grid having had to pay ‘more than 5,000%’ of the usual price per kWh, writing:

“Increased demand for energy across Europe, combined with a bottleneck in the grid, forced National Grid’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) to buy electricity from Belgium at the highest price Britain has ever paid to keep power flowing. Other factors, including planned maintenance outages of overhead lines and a storm in Belgium impacting solar power, put the system under severe strain. While the amount bought at the record amount was minimal, reportedly enough to supply eight houses for a year, it has exposed the UK’s reliance on importing electricity from interconnectors overseas, particularly France, Belgium and the Netherlands.” (link)

On that day the other TV providers and the Evening Standard (link) also picked this up. This morning (!), in an astonishing spin, the ‘i’ (so paywalled that I can’t even link to the headline) and The Times (I do pay for that one) have spun this event in their articles about how ‘Putin weaponising gas supply’ might lead to shortages:

“National Grid says in a report today that possible shortfalls in Europe’s gas supplies pose “risks” to Britain’s power supplies in the coldest months. Households could be paid to use less electricity at peak times under one of several measures being drawn up to ensure “secure operation of the electricity system” and reduce the risk of blackouts. “It is clear that the cessation of flows of gas into Europe could have knock-on impacts, including very high prices,” the company says.” (link, paywalled)

Note that the issue of ageing infrastructure isn’t addressed. Note that the issue of having closed our gas power stations ‘because climate etc’ isn’t addressed. Don’t even think about asking why our fabulous bird-shredder farms and offshore arrays cannot produce enough power for the national grid. However, the report in Bloomberg did address the point regarding infrastructure, linking it to the lack of investment:

“In a normal situation, without the traffic jams on the grid, the UK should have been able to send power to the southeast of England from elsewhere in the country — even from all the way in Scotland, where offshore wind farms are producing more than ever. The problem is that the UK, and the rest of industrialized nations, aren’t investing enough in their grids, leaving the system exposed. The world is investing about $300 billion per year in power grids, an amount that has barely changed since 2015, according to the International Energy Agency. It isn’t enough, as the global economy electrifies and deals with a shifting generation map, with intermittent renewable energy like solar and wind replacing polluting — but dependable — coal- and gas-fired stations.” (link)

It’s not as if these issues are totally unknown. It’s not as if we are the only country affected. Germany’s green government is suddenly u-turning to keep their last remaining nuclear reactors online while preparing legislation to make people use less gas for heating and closing both public and private industry offices. Given the interconnectedness of the energy market this is bound to affect us as well, and not just by us having to pay through the nose:

“Britain will rely on more imported power supplies to help keep the lights on this winter, National Grid has said, sparking fears the country will be at the mercy of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he strangles energy supplies to Europe. In its annual outlook on winter electricity supplies, the Grid says it expects to be able to draw on undersea cables sending power from the Continent this winter, but warned of “tight” periods in early December even with this support. One analyst warned that UK households risk paying £500 for power in January alone as energy supply struggles to keep up with surging demand. Experts warned that depending on the free flow of power from abroad this winter is a high-risk gamble, potentially leaving the UK in danger of blackouts if Mr Putin cuts off the supply of gas.” (paywalled link)

Oh look: bad Putin prevents us from enjoying our planet-saving ‘green’ energy! Cry for our peacocking ‘planet-saviours’ who, having made us ‘go green’, telling us peasants to bear the costs even unto blackouts, are helplessly being ‘strangled by ‘Russia’! It’s not their fault when we have to sit in the dark and freeze, not when they, the true culprits and their spin-masters, can weep crocodile tears while blaming Putin for everything.

I leave you with more evidence that Miz Liz is prancing around in borrowed finery. Not one original thought, never mind principle, is sullying her mind which is fixated on getting into no 10. See the DT headline for their daily Truss report: “[She] snapped up the finest minds in wonkland to run her bid for No 10 – The Tory leadership hopeful has ensured she has the brightest and best policy and special advisers from well-known think tanks by her side” (paywalled link). I pity the poor Tory Party members and the rest of the ‘public’ who still believe that they’re seeing a ‘genuine person’.

I pity even more all of us who will bear the brunt of Johnson’s green crap policies which neither of the two wannabe PMs seems to be willing nor able to address. Not that the lying MSM would do so – that would trash their own green crappery, according to which either Putin or climate changer both are going to make us sit in the dark and cold come the winter.

‘Tis not their fault, you understand, we just have to trust them on that!

 

 

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