With no new nuclear until 2020, UK on collision course with gas import dependency (Power Engineering)

CPS Director Tim Knox was quoted in Power Engineering on Tuesday 19th February 2013, discussing the energy crisis affecting the UK.

To view the full article, please visit the Power Engineering website

“The British power industry is burning coal “as if it’s going out of fashion” and is heading for dependency on gas imports to keep the lights on.

That was the stark message today from Alistair Buchanan, the boss of UK energy regulator Ofgem.

Ahead of a speech he will give in London this afternoon, Buchanan told BBC radio this morning that the UK has little options left to counter a capacity crunch that he says will come in the next five years.

“Coal is being run as if it’s going out of fashion – and it is going out of fashion. It was meant to go out of fashion by 2016 but its coming off now,” he said, adding that this meant that “life could get very tough from around 2015 to 2018 with regard to available power stations”.

***

Tim Knox, director of think-tank the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “Politicians have kicked the energy can down the road for too long. That can is now going to blow up: households will end up paying the price in higher energy bills and maybe even energy outages. This was both predictable and unnecessary. We now urgently need a clear policy designed to meet the twin aims of lower energy costs and greater security of supply.””

To view the full article, please visit the Power Engineering website

Date Added: Wednesday 20th February 2013