Fuel Comments

Independent Newspaper 2017

2.28m British households now living in fuel poverty

Citizens Advice 2017 Calculations by Citizens Advice revealed gas prices rose eight times higher than the average income in the UK, and this trend is continuing into 2018. Global unrest, increases in consumption, economic uncertainty and resource availability are all expected to cause fuel bills to continue to rise for the foreseeable future. The UK is fortunate to be spatially located next to a large gas reserve in the North Sea. This resource is, however, finite and there is a real lack of investment in renewable technologies to provide the energy mix needed to reduce our reliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels in the near future. Schemes like Feed-in-Tariffs for solar and onshore wind exploded onto the scene and subsequently crashed. As an individual, there is little that can be done to affect average wage or energy prices in the UK, but energy efficiency is a positive step that can be taken on a personal, local and national level to help reduce fuel poverty.

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Bloomberg

Why Britain Has to Be Really Nice to Norway and Russia Anna Shiryaevskaya and Kelly Gilblom
21 June 2017, 00:01 BST 21 June 2017, 10:54 BST

• Reliance on Russian fuel.
• U.K. has been net importer of natural gas since 2004.
• Already buffeted by political chaos at home and abroad, the U.K. gas market must now operate without its biggest stabilizing force - the giant Rough gas storage facility under the North Sea.

The planned permanent shutdown of the Centrica PLC site, able to meet 10 percent of peak demand in winter, means Britain is becoming even more reliant on imports of liquefied natural gas or pipeline fuel from Russia and Norway. That sets up the possibility that traders would have to outbid Japan, the world’s biggest LNG buyer and others to keep millions of homes warm.