Electricity plants that profit by ‘gaming’ prices face crackdown
- The Daily Telegraph
- 30 Jun 2023
POWER plant operators that manipulate the energy market to make “excessive” profits at t he expense of households face a regulatory crackdown, the industry watchdog has said.
Ofgem said it wants to stamp out a practice by electricity generators that has been used to push up the cost of keeping Britain’s lights on.
An investigation by the regulator f ound s ome power plants were holding the National Grid to ransom by deliberately scheduling downtime ahead of the busiest hours of the day.
By spinning down their plants just hours before evening meals – when electricity demand surges across the UK – operators effectively ruled themselves out of being available because of the time it takes to cool down and warm up facilities. Operators then demanded exorbitant sums from the Grid in return for staying on in the afternoon and evening, delivering significant profits.
The process is known as the balancing mechanism, which the Grid uses to balance supply with demand on a halfhourly basis. Blackouts occur when the system is not balanced.
The balancing mechanism uses a constantly running auction process to fine-tune supply with demand, with the Grid accepting bids to turn up or turn down the output of various generators every 30 minutes depending on how much demand is expected.
However, the cost of balancing jumped from an average of £500m per winter to £1.5bn in winter 2021/222, prompting scrutiny from Ofgem.
The regulator has blamed power plants gaming the balancing mechanism for these rising costs – which are borne by households through a levy on bills. It said generators had charged the Grid £6,000 per megawatt hour for up to six hours on the costliest days. Yesterday, the UK wholesale electricity price stood at about £90 per megawatt hour.
Ofgem plans to impose licensing conditions on operators that would forbid them from gaming the system. It wants the new rules in place before winter.
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Electric Power for Industry and Jobs in Wales – what nobody is challenging :-
From Ioan Richard 23 Mountain Rd., Craigcefnparc, Swansea SA6 5RH 01792 843861 aptrefor@yahoo.co.uk*************************************** .If anyone has followed the free Web Site GRID WATCH they can see up to the hour reports on Electric being Produced and fed into the UK National Grid – including details of its source and on how we rely on a hardcore of nuclear electricity constantly about 14%. The Wind can vary from NIL on calm days up to over 30% on days of strong steady wind. Likewise Solar from Nil every night up equal Wind on long sunny summer days. Both cannot be depending on, wind is very erratic. The regular main stay is gas, a carbon based fuel (forget about Hydrogen dreams for now). Coal has still been used up until a few weeks ago as a back up energy source but promises were made this past week never to use it again after this year. So the gurus have come up with a brilliant but old system on how to keep the lights on when it is a dark calm winter night. They shut down heavy consumers like cold steel mills. TATA reached agreement with National Grid for the future to pause all production at its Trostre Works, in Llanelli Wales. Trostre has four rolling mills. It’s biggest is its Five Stand Mill which has dozens of electric motors, the five roller motors and its exit re-coiler consume over 22,000 bhp continuously. Compare that to the very biggest farm tractors at just 200 bhp. To shut that down can save a big load off the Grid. It is called Load Shedding, rarely used in the past to offset Grid power loss. However, it is to be planned use stoppage as wobbly erratic renewables create a vital demand for load shedding and this was agreed (as below) and never published by the Welsh Media and the Welsh Politicians who just kept quiet about it. The plans by the likes of Bute Energy in wanting to cover large scenic hills with their 820 ft Wind Turbines will create a wobblier grid with the vagaries of wind.TATA Steel’s Corporate News 16-12-22 Press Release on the internet – overlooked by local Press and People. Quote :-“To help energy companies satisfy periods of high consumer demand this winter, Tata Steel will be voluntarily slowing or pausing some of its UK operations for hours at a time on particularly cold evenings.While maintaining its service to customers, the world class packaging steels business at Trostre in Llanelli is likely to be pausing its ‘Five Stand’ cold rolling mill and Double Reduction mill as well as reducing the highest loads on its electro-tinning lines for short periods during the coldest spells this winter”.****************************************************************.Let’s try to explain it :- The UK National Grid power use of the moment, or on average over various lengths of time, can be seen online by Googling GRID WATCH.“Solar is of course nil at night. Wind is totally unreliable and erratic. Presently the largest Wind Turbines are about 300 ft high producing 3 MW each in the most favourable windy of days but only 23% effective over a year. Soon to be 820ft high but still at 23%.Let’s look at the UK’s last Tinplate Works at Trostre, Llanelli, mentioned by TATA above. That plant has four cold steel rolling mills. The largest (as mentioned) is its ‘Five Stand’ cold reduction rolling mill. That mill has dozens of electric motors operating all its functions, with six large electric motors (each as big as a ‘Transit Van’ – to envisage size). These six motors are one each for each of the five Stands of rolls and its exit reel to wind up the tensioned steel strip into coil. It processes up to ten thousand tonnes of Port Talbot steel strip coil a week.These six motors alone consume over 22,000 bhp (Horse Power) or about 14MW.Compare that to the very largest of UK Farm Tractors at just 200 bhp.So it takes about twenty giant Wind Turbines to power, in part only, this one single steel mill in Trostre, Llanelli.A Cold Reduction Steel Strip Mill, as at Trostre, needs continuous rolling to keep a flat strip shape for tinning and eventual canning.It is now proposed to cover the scenic hills of Wales with a considerable extra numbers of gigantic Wind Turbines over 800 ft high as per the Labour Wales Government’s latest DATA MAP of many Preferred Zones enabled by undemocratic planning processes. No matter how high they ever come the same erratic issues will apply and nobody, Politician or Media / Press, is challenging all this by proper scrutiny. It’s all done under the guise of unchecked Carbon Zero Climate Change Policies by Wales Labour Government (with Plaid) who say “Wales will lead the world” – just as places like China are now opening more coal mines and coal fired Power Stations.Again the new DATA MAP and its grave implications has not been published by the Welsh Press / Media. These are my amateur thoughts in old age. What are your thoughts?Wales Labour Government magically reduces Carbon Emissions – or so it says.Wales Labour Government, formerly named Wales Assembly, reduces Carbon Emissions – or so it says.That’s ironic because any Wales mass Carbon reductions is down to UK and Welsh Labour attitudes to the Welsh economy, as a consequence of which over the past few decades several major heavy industries have shut for various reasons. Those heavy industries were inevitably carbon emitters e.g. the heavy end Blast Furnaces at Llanwern Steel works ; Anglesey Aluminium; Shotton Steel Works; Velindre Steel Tinplate Works; Rheola Aluminium Mill; Aberthaw Coal Power Station and Cement Works; Bridgend Ford, I must have missed some. With nothing useful in alternative employment terms to replace them. Labour is no longer the party for Blue Collar workers. Labour in now the party for pinko greeny oddments helped by Plaid Cymru.Little wonder carbon emissions have allegedly fallen, by closing heavy industry, but not because of the Zero Carbon Policies in recent years of Welsh Labour mis-Government (formally Wales Assembly). They’d really like to close the Blast Furnaces at Port Talbot and their attitude to that may induce TATA Steel to disastrously pull out of the UK – heaven forbid! You can’t mass produce steel via electric arc – that’s more of a useful process for recycling scrap steel or by Hydrogen Reduction. It’s already been negotiated (as above) to put the big cold steel rolling mills at Trostre Works Llanelli on stand by for temporary shut downs called “pausing” or “load shedding” to help ease any crisis with the national grid caused by “green sourced” fluctuating electric – none of which has been reported properly in the Welsh press nor explained or explored by the Opposition in Cardiff Bay!What is inevitable is that Zero Carbon will end totally what’s left of heavy industry in Wales. Is that good or bad?These are my amateur thoughts in old age. What are your thoughts?
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