Energy Crisis - Part Two Electricity Bills

Three ways Electricity bills could be made more affordable:

1)   Most wind farms in Ireland are (hypocritically) profiting from the current higher gas prices (Weren't renewables supposed to do away with expensive dirty fossil fuels?). When gas prices were low in 2014 and 2015, wind farms were getting the gas price plus a top up to a fixed price. Now when gas prices are far exceeding this fixed price, they are receiving the massive surplus. So it is a lose - lose situation for the consumer. It is an arrangement that is indicative of the parasitic nature of wind energy which can only be accommodated in a grid dominated by fossil fuel or hydro generation. 

This win-win arrangement for wind energy could be reversed so that wind farms only receive the fixed price originally intended or if that is not legally possible, the excess profits taxed at a special rate and handed back to the consumer in the form of reduced electricity bills.

2)  Time to pass on those savings - when gas prices were low in 2014/15, hardly any of the fall in prices was passed on to consumers. See the following newspaper articles :

2015 - "most firms are dragging their heels in passing on recent falls in wholesale gas and electricity prices to consumers".

Make some electric savings by changing energy supplier - Independent.ie

2015 -  "Irish consumers pay the fourth-highest energy bills in Europe, according to EU statistics. Little of the large recent falls in wholesale gas and oil prices have been passed on to consumers".

Airtricity was paid €32m to run power station for just 50 hours - Independent.ie

Not for the first time in Ireland, a Regulator failed to do their job. Pressure could be put on the energy companies to pass on that saving now, in particular, ESB which is semi state. Failing that, a special tax could be introduced which would be based on the pro rata decrease in gas prices over that period seven years ago.  So if gas prices fell by 20% over one year back then, then corporate taxes on energy companies could be increased from 12.5% to 15% with the additional taxes passed on to consumers of course. This would provide some justification for the tax, rather than simply hitting the energy industry with an arbitrary tax. 

 3) And of course, cancelling all carbon taxes would reduce the cost of all types of energy.

The Great Electricity Rip-Off

 Joe Duffy's show on Friday did a great job of highlighting the expensive electricity bills that many people are facing now :

https://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/podcasts/

Irish Energy Blog, Wind Aware Ireland and The Academy of Engineers have all been proven right, we warned long ago that society would be locked into high energy costs for many years because of the mad rush for wind energy at all costs. 

http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/irelands-defunct-energy-plans.html

http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/whats-in-your-electricity-bill-part-5.html

And it's not just because of the PSO Levy, wind energy drives up all of the system costs of electricity, such as network costs (more here).

The impact from high energy bills during a freezing winter may have a worse impact than Covid-19. 

Greencoat Renewables Purchase Another Poor Performing Wind Farm

Greencoat Renewables have purchased another poor performing wind farm in Tipperary, Cnoc Wind Farm, which made a loss of €897,000 in 2019. Its debts exceeded its assets by €1.1 million which is an indicator of insolvency although the accounts state that up front losses are a facet of wind farm development during the operational stage. The wind farm did trade during the year however with turnover of €1.4 million. Included in the loss is depreciation of € 872,000.

Irish Energy Blog previously showed that many wind farms in Ireland are making losses.

Brookfield Renewables have today indicated that they intend to sell the remainder of their Irish wind platform.

 

£5 billion Wind Subsidy Scandal in Northern Ireland

David O’Neill, Secretary of West Tyrone Against Wind Turbines writes on the latest energy scandal to hit Northern Ireland, this time involving £5 billion wasted on wind farms.

So, Sam McBride is currently the journalistic hero for his reports last week on what was essentially a denial of funding to hard pressed public services that could have done with this people sourced money. The funding went in part to some local land owners, but also to faceless outside investors who have honed their subsidy harvesting skills by re-engineering to smaller rotors or altering outputs to lower levels to make them look smaller.

I noticed however that this was almost immediately on the release of the NI Auditor General’s publication of the investigation into subsidies in the wider energy field. It was good that he reported this, but was he merely reflecting the AG’s (and possibly others) work? Let’s not forget that he also reflected on a Daily Mail report by Sam Greenhill on small wind, who in turn was assisted by the research efforts of Dr John Constable and his team at the REF. Dr Constable is painfully aware of bad energy policy with stakeholder influence acting in union to obfuscate the real and meaningful figures. His report is thanks to the development (hard work) of largely markets based database systems. Also deeply concerned about fuel poverty and security of supply; he keeps his other eye on UK grid data. Incidentally he does not attribute the EWIC to much by way spinning inertia. He is extremely busy but has found time to work with Professor Gordon Hughes, leaving me with no doubt of more revelations to come.

Higher Electricity Prices and Higher Emissions

What consumers were promised :

"We are introducing structural changes in the electricity sector that will create a more attractive investment climate for existing and new players, deliver increased competition, reduce the cost of electricity and offer greater choice for consumers” - Minister Dempsey, 2007

Electricity costs will fall in the longer term. The wind is going to be free forever and a day — there is no cost on that — the only cost is getting the technology in place - Minister Ryan, 2008.

DOUBLING the amount of wind energy on the national grid is key to preventing higher electricity bills in the future according to Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte, 2014

To date, developer-led onshore wind energy has been the most cost effective technology available to Ireland - Minister Ryan, 2020

What has happened in reality :

From 1st October 2020, electricity bills are to rise by almost €90 a year for more than one million customers. Electric Ireland will increase their prices by 3.4%, which will add €35 a year to the average bill, and PrepayPower will also be making a similar hike.

The PSO Levy will rise by 130% from about €38 to €88 per year. 

Electricity network operating costs and the cost of wind energy are the respective reasons cited for these hikes. Of course, the electricity network needs to be built out to facilitate more wind energy so this is an indirect cost of wind. 

And we are no better off as emissions have risen anyway :

Emissions from EPA 

I wont be advising you to switch energy supplier, the problem is a system problem, and switching just avoids us addressing the main issue here, which is our obsession with expensive and ineffective wind energy.