The Energy Crisis

[-DL-]

https://interestingengineering.com/comp ... pest-holes

[delbert]

We have juat had notfication that our high street will be shut for 7 weeks whilst Cadent replace the metal gas pipe with plastic to "protect the long term future of gas supply".

What future? Boilers are being phased out, the government are telling us to move away from gas due to energy security.

So why waste the money?

Cadent will come along, dig a hole then bugger off. Then come back in 14 weeks time to finish off..........

[S-H]

We have juat had notfication that our high street will be shut for 7 weeks whilst Cadent replace the metal gas pipe with plastic to "protect the long term future of gas supply".

They've been doing this around my way for months.

[EvilC]

The last 24 hours has been pretty interesting.

First - Uniper (one of the large four German utilities) announced it is going cap in hand to the German government for a bail out.

Secondly, you are now seeing European gas market prices between various countries starting to delink. The UK, France, Belgium and Spain, which have plentiful LNG import capacity, are beginning to split from e.g. Germany, Italy and Holland. Gas isn't really designed to flow West to East, so there are bottlenecks. So essentially the Germans and the Italians are bidding against each other for a finite and insufficient amount of gas. Watch from afar, this could be unpleasant.

[bonzosbeard]

We have juat had notfication that our high street will be shut for 7 weeks whilst Cadent replace the metal gas pipe with plastic to "protect the long term future of gas supply".

What future? Boilers are being phased out, the government are telling us to move away from gas due to energy security.

So why waste the money?

I used to work in gas supply. Ductile and iron gas mains crack In cold weather. They should have been replaced years ago and suprised some is still about.

If one cracks and gas gets in soil it can get to houses via service pipes.

Explosions are rare but there was one in Birmingham just days ago, which shows the power of a gas blast.

The yellow plastic PE pipe is safer outside where you live Richie.

[RichieRiv]

Well thats my plan for an insurance claim up scuppered.

[Denbighammer]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gene ... -Week.html

I was looking for a steer on whether I should purchase some heating oil now for my house before the winter and didn't want to peck EvilC's head (again!) and I stumbled across this happy article.

I've ordered 1200L for delivery next week!!

[EvilC]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gene ... -Week.html

I was looking for a steer on whether I should purchase some heating oil now for my house before the winter and didn't want to peck EvilC's head (again!) and I stumbled across this happy article.

I've ordered 1200L for delivery next week!!

I'm always willing to show what is going on in my head mate.

[Denbighammer]

I always assumed it was some kind of rolling line graph of gas and oil prices

[MB]

This is interesting about the environmental impact of all these renewable energy sources. Of course it has to happen, but when you see things like we will need more copper to build all this infrastructure than currently exists above ground then you realise how tough a problem this is

[Hummer_I_mean_Hammer]

This is interesting about the environmental impact of all these renewable energy sources. Of course it has to happen, but when you see things like we will need more copper to build all this infrastructure than currently exists above ground then you realise how tough a problem this is

Damn. If only I had kept all my old toot instead of selling it, I'd have probably been a millionaire by now.

[EvilC]

This is likely to be the first in several instalments of the **** hitting the fan in Europe.

There are various possible scenarios here, I probably haven't covered them all. 1) Germany is forced to eat a lot of **** and decimate its industry. 2) Germany somehow gets the rest of the EU to socialise all this stuff. 3) The really interesting one - Germany caves in to political pressure at home when industry is on its arse in the winter/people are without heating and starts pushing to have Nord Stream 2 switched on.

The Euro is down 2% against the dollar this morning.

By Birgit Jennen and Arne Delfs
(Bloomberg) -- German officials are wrestling over how much
of the cost of rescuing troubled energy giant Uniper SE they can
pass onto consumers as they rush to put together a rescue
package for the company squeezed by Russia’s gas war.
Ministers are set to approve legislation as soon as today
that will enable government bailout packages of failing energy
companies -- including taking stakes. While that’s the prime
option, the bill will also create a tool to allow part of the
cost of surging energy prices to be distributed among all
consumers, according to a government official.
It’s not clear yet how the burden will be shared between
consumers and taxpayers as officials estimate the size of the
hole to be plugged at Uniper alone to about 9 billion euros
($9.3 billion).
Shares in Uniper, whose business model depends on the
Russian gas flows that Moscow is now curtailing, rose as much as
11% on Tuesday after losing more than a quarter on Monday. They
pared gains to stand 5.2% higher at 11:20 a.m. in Frankfurt.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said the crisis in the
energy industry risks triggering a Lehman Brothers moment, or a
domino effect in the market. Russia has already curbed its gas
flows to Germany and officials are bracing for more cuts that
threaten the fabric of the German economy.
The government needs to weigh up the threat that any extra
levy will spur inflation and voter unrest, but it also wants to
use any measures at its disposal to encourage consumers to use
less gas. Habeck has signaled that higher energy prices are on
way to motivate users to be more energy-efficient.
The cabinet is set to approve the legislation on the new
measures on Tuesday, followed by the upper and lower houses of
parliament on Friday.
Uniper declined to comment. The company said last week it
was in talks with the government to secure liquidity. Analysts
estimate that curbed Russian flows are costing Uniper 30 million
euros a day.


Officials are moving fast ahead of the next milestone: the
key Nord Stream pipeline is due to shut for maintenance on July
11, adding pressure to already fraught markets. German officials
have raised the prospect that Moscow may never reopen the pipe
after the maintenance, leaving the country without its main
source of gas.
While Uniper represents the most urgent concern, the
broader economy is also in peril as the government is trying to
contain the fallout for consumers and industry. Plans have been
drafted for rationing, with Germany’s vast industry poised to
suffer shortages. Habeck has warned that worse is to come.

[EvilC]

To give you an idea of what is happening in Germany, some of the things that are happening or are being proposed:
- Landlords turning water temperatures down.
- People getting wood burners put in so they can heat one room.
- Street lights being turned off.
- Schools to only be heated in winter between 8 and 11 a.m. each day.

[RichieRiv]

It would be some form of irony if the Greeks started to buy up German Airports.

[Hummer_I_mean_Hammer]

https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.or ... 996520.amp

Sand batteries, good idea and simple to roll out.

[EvilC]

[MB]

Germany looking to pass laws which will enable them to nationalise Uniper.

The French have already announced they will nationalise EDF.

This is going to get brutal. Those price projections are just horrific Evil.

[RichieRiv]

Isn't that state help?

[EvilC]

Isn't that state help?

Yes, but there was loads of state aid for COVID, so I assume the rules permit it. There are also loads of state run utilities all over Europe (EDF was already 85% state owned).

I’m excited to see what the fully state owned EDF does with its trading arm, which is based in London as traders won’t swallow French tax rates.

[smuts]

Said about 6 months ago are we going to hit 3 grand? 4?

Looks like I was optimistic...