Don’t pay UK protest: thousands of consumers pledge to not-pay their obscene energy bills

What will electricity companies do if a million UK customers say they won’t pay their bill? We might find out in six weeks or so.

A group called Don’t Pay UK are gathering pledges from fed-up UK consumers, and so far 75,000 Brits have signed up. The Twitter account @dontpayuk started in June, and already has 91,000 followers. The group draws inspiration from the Poll Tax protests thirty years ago which likely ended Margaret Thatchers reign as PM.

As commenter MrGrimNasty says the latest estimates have the UK energy bill price cap at a [shocking] £4,700 by April next year, remember it was about £1200 hardly 2 years before then.

With 12 million people in the UK facing energy poverty, there may be plenty of takers in the civil disobedience movement. The nation is only 6km away from 1,000 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. OK, so it’s 6 kilometers of solid rock, but if it were war-time, how long would that take? (Especially when the hole is already drilled. The hardest rock apparently is the paperwork just to stop it being concreted back in.)

Don't Pay UK, Energy Crisis, Civil disobedience.

Don’t Pay UK

It’s simple: we are demanding a reduction of energy bills to an affordable level. Our leverage is that we will gather a million people to pledge not to pay if the government goes ahead with another massive hike on October 1st.

Mass non-payment is not a new idea, it happened in the UK in the late 80s and 90s, when more than 17 million people refused to pay the Poll Tax – helping bring down the government and reversing its harshest measures.

The group DontPayUK, looks pretty polished. They are organizing mass leaflet drops, signing up local volunteers, and promise that they will only do this if a million people sign up and agree to cancel their direct debit payment if the price hikes keep coming.

Ofgem begs customers not to boycott paying their gas bills

Brits have been urged not to take part in a growing civil disobedience campaign over the rise of energy bills.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ofgem’s CEO Jonathan Brearley warned this could hike up costs for everyone.

After his interview with the BBC, Don’t Pay tweeted: ‘Boss of Ofgem on £300,000 a year tells us to suck it up.

h/t Graham Lloyd, The Australian, John Connor II

9.9 out of 10 based on 82 ratings

142 comments to Don’t pay UK protest: thousands of consumers pledge to not-pay their obscene energy bills

  • #
    John+in+NZ

    It is not as if they were not told that wind and solar power is expensive.

    They will blame it all on Russia.

    631

    • #
      TdeF

      What we are not told is that coal is really cheap and near limitless. And the price would halve instantly if the government repealed the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2001. The whole point of this act is to send your cash unearned to owners of windmills and solar panels while starving cheaper suppliers out of business. And it is working exactly as planned to create an artificial shortage, along with Daniel Andrews strangling cheap supplies of coal and gas and even timber in Victoria

      571

      • #
        Ted1.

        Exactly as planned!

        That’s what people don’t understand. Or didn’t understand.

        Soon they should understand.

        280

        • #
          Lawrie

          Some people don’t pay attention until the 4×2 hits between the eyes. A few blackouts and horrendous bills might do just as well.

          130

      • #
        TdeF

        And there is now a simultaneous attack on food supplies by denying access to essential fertilizers, as in Sri Lanka but also behind the worldwide farmers protests, so big in Nederlands and not even being reported. The World Economic Forum is strangling electrical power and and strangling food supplies through denial of access to fertilizer. Starvation and cold will drive the Global Reset they dream about. There are so many people who want total power, the UN, EU, China and the WEF. Starvation and cold drives every revolution, so that is their very obvious plan. There is no other reason to attack the Dutch farmers, the world’s most productive. And Sri Lanka has collapsed completely into anarchy. The press say nothing about the reason.

        400

    • #
      Dennis

      Of the many misleading claims renewables industry dishes out for public indoctrination one ignored is that on average every 20 years the original installation must be removed and replaced at significant cost as compared to power stations that for accounting purposes are given 50 years but well maintained could generate for 80 years or more.

      The other is the sales pitch based on Nameplate or Installed Capacity and rarely mentioning Capacity Factor.

      360

    • #
      Jeremy Poynton

      Actually, we were told renewables would REDUCE prices.

      Not that I ever believed it, but that’s what we were told.

      100

  • #
    John Galt

    This protest is an example that all taxpayers should follow.

    592

    • #
      Scissor

      What can they do? Take everyone’s property and throw them out onto the streets for nonpayment?

      Probably, yes.

      241

      • #
        Ian

        “What can they do? Take everyone’s property and throw them out onto the streets for nonpayment?”

        I don’t think they need to be so drastic. Other less drastic measures such as increased debt, and the chance of being put on a prepayment meter, or charged extra are more likely and in the final analysis just switching the power off to households and businesses that refuse to pay is a very powerful deterrent.

        916

        • #
          John Connor II

          Actually, there was a TV series a year or 2 ago in the UK where renters had bailiffs (with court orders) enter houses and put everything outside and then change the locks as a result of rent arrears, or water/power arrears if paid to the owner.
          Tenants came home to all their possessions out in the street.
          Don’t think it won’t or can’t happen.

          The tipping point gets closer by the day…

          151

      • #
        Ted1.

        What can they do?

        What do they do?

        1. Disconnect the supply.

        2. Then take property.

        121

        • #
          Dennis

          In tenanted properties just read the meter when the next tenant applies for connection and charge the new tenant.

          30

        • #
          Lawrie

          That’s why they need a million or so. Nothing like a few politicians about to lose their jobs to incentivise (is there such a word?) a change of attitude. Give it another year here and Bowen might be under pressure too and not from the useless Teals.

          110

  • #
    Graham Richards

    That’s the best idea, where dumbass government & their policies are concerned, that I’ve ever heard.
    Government are always creating problems for the electorate so let’s turn the tables on governments. Maybe they’ll wake up!!

    Can’t wait to see the energy ministers face go really red! He’ll really need a drink 🥃 🥃 then!!

    420

  • #
    David Maddison

    It is not the energy companies that are causing the high prices but government policies.

    It seems the wrong people are being blamed.

    Free up the market and the free enterprise system will work its miracles as it always does.

    However, deliberately starving the people of energy (domestic electricity and gas), as is now government policy in all Western countries will not end well. Neither will the developing war against food (“nitrogen” in agriculture and meat production) and liquid fuels for transport.

    761

    • #
      erasmus

      Correct.
      Nor will further tomfoolery from governments and “health authorities” taking away our personal freedoms to flatten the curve re some virus or other. They blew it big time, theirmsolutions didn’t work, and revealed their inner totalitarian.

      601

    • #
      Gary S

      That’s right, David, but the people now have no choice with winter on the doorstep. Punishing the energy companies may encourage those conglomerates to push back against government policy. World governments are way past listening to those whom they (nominally) represent. And don’t for a moment think that the energy giants don’t appreciate the extra largesse they have been garnering from all this. The imbeciles with their hands on the levers all around the world have no idea how ordinary people live or feel any more. Time we all stood up and pushed back don’t you think?

      451

    • #
      John Connor II

      It is not the energy companies that are causing the high prices but government policies.

      Yes, but who sets government policy…
      We all know who’s running the show globally don’t we..

      40

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    To put one aspect of this in perspective, let’s look at the reward give to those who have presided over this insult to common sense.

    “The Boss of Ofgem on £300,000 a year”.

    That means that in the modern world any executive who can almost quadruple the price of the comodity they are in charge of, in two years, is worthy of a salary of AUD$525,000 per annum.

    Bearing in mind the main factor behind this price increase is the ridiculous, perhaps criminal, allocation of funds to the installation of near useless wind turbines which are planted on land and in sea.

    Demolition costs in ten years has not yet been estimated as the executive team responsible will be long retired to Davos.

    President Xi is over-awed at the gullibility of the West.

    His traveling buddy, President O”Biden, would like to remind all that the seventh booster is now available at no cost:
    go for it!

    592

    • #
      Gerry, England

      It should also be noted that the lying warmonger PM Tony Blair changed Ofgem’s remit so that is DOES NOT support the consumer since it no longer allowed to point out how much subsidies for wind and solar and the introduction of unreliable generation have pushed up the cost of electricity. Not to mention the taxes to fund other parts of the green lunacy. In fact Ofgem is more of an activist on unreliable generation.

      80

  • #
    David Maddison

    Once Great Britain has an area of 209,331 km².

    They have 11,000 subsidy-harvesting windmills.

    That’s one for every 19 sq km but taking into account urban areas where they don’t put windmills, it must be difficult to find anywhere where you can’t see one, including ones at sea where they must be visible for a long way from land.

    I haven’t been there for a while but the visual pollution of this once “green and pleasant land”, as William Blake described it, must be appalling.

    611

    • #

      David

      I can’t think of the last time I saw a wind turbine, they are mostly on uplands , it’s solar farms littering the countryside that concern me with a enormous such farm propsed in prime Cambridgeshire farm land.

      To date houselds with pensioners will get a £900 rebate on energy and those on benefits rather more. No doubt other subsidies will come our way as the contenders for PM make their pitch

      This doesn’t get away from the fact that many people switched to cheap or ‘green’ energy companies, who were under capitalised and collapsed when prices started rising and we all are paying some £250 pa in those bills to bail out the greenies.

      Hopefully it will demonstrate to people the need for reliable, reasonably priced energy and those people smiling benignly at weather dependent renewables will realise they are not the answer to their perceived problem.. Also hopefully it will make people realise the value of saving and of not being so frivolous with their money and to spend a bit more wisely without the expectation of being bailed out. Our farmers are suffering as people won’t pay a fair price for food. In the meantime a third nail bar has opened in our small town

      491

      • #
        Lawrie

        But Tony those rebates will just be paid by real taxpayers or other consumers. The government does not have any money other than what they have taken from taxpayers and companies all of which makes those entities poorer. As Alan Jones was want to say “we have no problems that were not caused by government in the first place”. Imagine a power grid twenty years ago when electricity was plentiful and cheap and then along came the Greens and John Howard with his renewable energy mandate. The rot began and is now turning gangrenous.

        510

      • #
        MrGrimNasty

        Allowing those little power companies to set up was just about the gov. maintaing the lie, buying time. They kept telling us it was the greedy big energy companies making electricity increasingly expensive, not the drive for renewables/subsidies, whereas in reality the profit per customer was tiny.

        291

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        “third nail bar”. Maybe it’s because the green-oriented city dwellers have more money than sense – ie. they think they are wealthy enough to survive green lunacy. Or maybe it’s because highstreet retailers cannot compete with online, and therefore highstreet shops are switching to personal services.

        181

      • #
        Ronin

        At least with the windmills, the farmers can plough around the windy thingys.

        30

  • #

    This s the solar farm I referenced in 6.1 . It is some 2700 acres which is a vast area on our small island. Outrageous really as we need to grow more of our food and the plans obviously haven’t been thought through. Solar farms have around12% efficiency at our latitude, so the number of houses that could be powered by this monster needs to be downgraded accordingly

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-60693030

    321

    • #
      David Maddison

      Tony, tragically that solar subsidy farm on prime farm land fulfills the twin objectives of both (a) the war against inexpensive and reliable energy and (b) the war against food, by removing a massive amount of productive farmland.

      451

      • #
        Stuart Harrison

        It also means that when the panels are defunct the site is classed as a brownfield one and can then be sold for housing.
        More megabucks are then made by the site owners.

        200

    • #
      Eng_Ian

      Tragic is realising that without batteries, it will supply exactly zero houses at night.

      If you include the load of the inverters and other equipment, including security lighting etc, the farm will actually be a drain overnight of a significant number of houses. Did you see that in the glossy flyer?

      310

    • #
      Honk R Smith

      Solar farm?
      Funny word combination.
      Aren’t farms already solar?
      Strikes me as a term concocted by people truly disconnected from … farms.
      Isn’t the UK planning a large undersea wire to hook up to ‘solar farms’ in Morocco?
      Think I heard that from you.
      Ya’ gotta bring Sun to Newcastle from somewhere … probably outside the UK.
      Makes sense if you think food comes from a phone app and men can get pregnant.
      Or, you are a large construction conglomerate.
      Green makes green if you’re in the right business.

      Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the Empire of Wokeness California.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility
      Needs lots of fossil fuel NG fertilizer to grow power.
      Does Morocco have a good source of natural gas?

      170

      • #
        David Maddison

        Honk, the Morocco-UK extension cord, four of them, will be 3,800km.

        That is slightly less insane than the proposed 4,200km extension cord between the Northern Territorystan and Singapore.

        121

      • #
        Scissor

        The word “farm” seems to have acquired a negative connotation to the elites. I think they might now prefer to call them solar concentration camps.

        50

      • #
        Gerry

        Good point Honk …..the sun provides plenty of energy to the food plants and pasture for growth…. That energy gets converted into energy for cows, sheep (pastures) and humans and animals with grains. The grains growing and the pastures are original solar collectors.

        40

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Best hopes for this to be successful, and also let’s hope it spreads worldwide

    175

    • #
      el+gordo

      Totally agree, particularly in south east Australia where the gas companies have been enjoying windfall profits at the consumers expense.

      Last night’s ABC News, Alan Kohler was scathing.

      28

      • #

        Don’t blame the gas-related companies – they have been trying their hardest to explore, develop and pipe this commodity throughout eastern Australia but have been blocked at every level. It was rank naivety to expect any other outcome – economics 101 – supply and demand.

        220

        • #
          el+gordo

          Our governments are to blame for locking us into contracts with China, which gets the bulk of our gas. The free enterprise model stinks to high heaven.

          72

          • #

            Our Vic/NSW State Governments are to blame for locking up, in the ground, known gas reserves that were set aside decades ago for domestic use. Sure, the export gas deal with China is not good, but there was a domestic supply plan in place that has been scuppered for political expediency. If free enterprise had its way, there would be plenty of gas flowing in SE Australia.

            242

            • #
              el+gordo

              Looking to the future, Narrabri gas is owned by Santos.

              Dominic Perrottet declared that Australia would need gas from the state’s Narrabri project “as soon as possible”.

              An election is coming up and Santos want them to put in the pipes, so I expect we’ll have gas on tap at an affordable price by 2024.

              50

              • #

                Unfortunately E-G, the damage has already been done. The long-running campaign against coal-fired generation has switched peak and base load top-up generation to gas. So domestic and industrial gas users will still be short-changed and pay through the nose. Narrabri by itself is just not enough. Victoria has to also come to the party.

                Just take note of what is happening in Europe with the move back to coal – there is no talk about renewables saving the day.

                130

              • #
                el+gordo

                The Narrabri project could supply half of NSW, the most populous state, a pipeline from Narrabri has to link into the Moomba-Sydney pipeline.

                Each state is responsible for their own energy mix and as Victoria’s gas is running out they’ll have to start gas mining, or be politically annihilated.

                I fully support new Hele coal fired power stations to carry baseload.

                50

      • #
        Sambar

        Loved that E.G. “gas companies have been enjoying windfall profits ” so absolutely spot on. As the winds have been quite light to none existant over the past few months
        we have indeed experienced a “WIND FALL” allowing gas to fill the void. Thanks for the unintended early morning belly laugh.

        121

    • #
      David Maddison

      Peter, are you now for inexpensive and reliable energy?

      Where will it come from?

      It certainly won’t happen with windmills, panels and Big Batteries.

      252

      • #

        There is a massive difference between an orderly transition and a rank “leap of faith”. The speed proposed for our move from a fossil-fuelled economy to a variable renewable energy (VRE) economy is actually worse than a rank leap of faith – it’s economic suicide. It all hinges on using grid-scale batteries to remove the variable aspect from VRE suppliers.

        Can anyone get on-line and find any country in the world that has a battery-backup system that can run an entire national grid for, say, 4 hours. Anywhere. VRE generators habitually go to sleep during winter nights in Australia. All we need is a battery backup system that can supply 20 GWh of power each hour for 4 hours. Point me to one and I will eat humble pie. Otherwise, admit that Albo’s 43% leap of faith before 2030 (only 8 years to do it) is into an economic abyss that I do not want my grandkids to live through. The kids are sensible enough to avoid being exposed to “climate extremes” despite their biased schooling, but not economic vandalism.

        120

    • #
      Graham Richards

      Talk about having an epifany . Welcome to the real world!👏👏

      71

  • #
    exsteelworker

    Tim Buckley, Climate Energy Finance director on Sky news this morning, world lithium needs will double every 2 years, plus the dozen or so other minerals, rare earths that need to be dug up and processed, smelted, to build Albos renewables energy revolution.
    How is that good for the environment?
    Replacing 1 mineral, coal, that gives us unlimited reliability in power generation, with dozens of new minerals that will need thousands of new mines across Australia and the world. Processed, smelted, shipped overseas to China, shipped back here to give us unreliable renewables energy, see EU,ENGLAND.
    Exsteelworker here, digging up trillions of tons of new minerals and processing and smelting is not pollution free, take my word for it, lol.

    Again, HOW IS THAT ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY?!!!

    Albo, Bowen, Bandt ALP/GREENS/TEALS and Tim Buckley need to do a week long 12hour day shut-down at a sinter plant, stock house and the Blast furnace. Open their eyes to the reality of processing trillions of tons of minerals.
    The ALP/GREENS/TEALS are going to be responsible for the environmental devastation of Australia.

    341

  • #

    IMHO, Civil Disobedience is a civilised way to protest. Much better than violent disobedience. And it worked with Gandhi.

    240

  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    Sounds like a great idea until you get cut off and have the bailiffs emptying your house of valuables. The reconnection charges and the subsequent compulsory installment of a prepayment meter….

    120

    • #
      Mike Jonas

      A million?

      100

      • #
        MrGrimNasty

        Enforcement in the UK is a well oiled machine, no court orders etc. required to break in and disconnect, and they have all the recruited smart meter installers to switch to disconnection duties, so yes, any likely level of disobedience wont be a problem from that perspective.

        31

    • #
      Hasbeen

      & a huge long lasting to your credit history that could make getting a future home loan impossible.

      81

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Yes; tread carefully.
      But they have indicated that the first step will be to disconnect from automatic deductions of bills.

      Knowing how much modern ripoff merchants love this, it will be a good start. Then if people are a week or so late in paying their mailed accounts it’s going to be a nice little tweak to the management’s tail. Any penalties for late payment could be taken up in person with the local MPs office.

      All communication to be hard copy via snail mail.

      Time to push back.

      160

      • #
        MrGrimNasty

        Yes, go for mass pay on demand instead of DD, go slow, wait for the last reminder letter before paying by cheque not card/transfer, much better idea as a protest.

        60

    • #
      Ronin

      There’ll be those who refuse to pay and those who simply can’t pay, they’ll all be shivering.

      40

  • #
    David Maddison

    Has Drax run out of other people’s forests to cut down and burn?

    191

  • #
    david

    el+ gordo
    Alan Kohler of course is very anti fossil fuels and writes some inane articles in The Australian. He will never accept that gas and coal are cheap and plentiful. Governments are mostly responsible for the energy crisis and they blame the Ukraine war and CC to save their own necks. Disgraceful and unnecessary.

    261

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      I agree; the ABCCCC is disgraceful and unnecessary; and for persistently and permanently propagating propaganda that is demonstrably false, they should be prosecuted; Individually.

      A criminal organisation may also have accruals, such as Stupendous Superannuation, earned in dubious circumstances, Cancelled.

      Let’s think about this push back.

      131

  • #
    Rick

    Hmm…. DON’T PAY W.A has a nice ring to it.

    120

  • #
    red edwards

    FREEZING BRITONS TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING!

    Nice slogan, no?

    140

  • #
  • #
    David Maddison

    Don’t lose sight of the fact that another front has been opened up by the Left.

    Now that the war against inexpensive and reliable energy is almost complete they are starting a war against agriculture such as against fertilisers, against meat and they are starting to promote what they call “alternative protein” which is primarily insects.

    If you want to know where the Left stand on agriculture, watch the first 3 mins 5 sec of the following video, if you can’t watch all of it.

    https://youtu.be/Ww4yXnIaITE “The WEF’s War on Farmers”.

    221

    • #
      Philip

      Yes, don’t believe those bumper stickers “Farms Not Coal”. Greens loathe farms.

      191

      • #
        Dennis

        Greens don’t need farms, they have supermarkets.

        /sarc.

        110

      • #
        Ted1.

        It’s the people who own the farms that they hate. Their primary goal is to abolish all private management of industry.

        And that includes the house you live in.

        80

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Germany’s energy U-turn: Coal instead of gas

    Berlin has realized it will never again import as much energy from Russia as before the Ukraine war. So the challenge is to wean Germany off its dependence on Russian energy sources, and quickly. The question is how.

    Starting this week, German hard coal-fired power stations are restarting operations, which were being phased out because of the hugely detrimental climate impact on a world already ravaged by global warming. Germany’s goal had been to phase out all coal-generated electricity by 2038.

    But now, the government is swallowing the bitter pill of allowing coal-fired power back onto the grid. It is hoped that this will replace the gas-fired electricity that currently makes up some 10% of Germany’s overall energy mix.

    Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of temporary emergency measures “imposed for a very short period of time that don’t take anything away from our climate targets.”

    “What must not happen is that we slide into a global renaissance of fossil energy, and coal in particular,” the chancellor warned.

    But at first glance, last year’s global data seems to suggest that is precisely what is happening: Never before has the world used so much coal to generate so much electricity. And the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that the same pattern of high demand and high production will be repeated this year.

    Finding other suppliers is not the problem, say German coal importers. These include sources in South Africa, Australia, the US, Colombia and Indonesia, says Bethe. But these various kinds of coal each have different characteristics and qualities, he explains. It’s important to see which mix is the best for the German power stations. And tests are underway.

    More difficult perhaps, according to Bethe, are the transport routes for coal. The big sea ports like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp are all booked out. Inland shipping routes taking coal by ship or train from the big ports to the power stations are at their limit. This is also in part due to Germany’s shortage of skilled labor.

    Brown coal comeback as well?

    220

    • #
      Richard+Ilfeld

      Coal has many advantages, and when logistics fail, another appears; One can haul coal in almost anything that can handle tonnage.
      One can store it in piles on the ground, it doesn’t have to kept cold, or warm, or pressurized, or be delivered in a particular timeframe.
      If one has the “misfortune” of excess supplies showing up, they are easy to handle. While modern plants with modern controls are a bit fussy, and the most modern are technical marvels, there is also some pretty old and ratty equipment that can be pressed into emergency use and expected to work, if the alternative is freezing to death. A steam engine would still pull a train, if coals was all one had. It earned its role as a fundamental fuel and industrial feedstock over centuries, and may yet have to save our civilization from ourselves.
      Many probably knew this at some fundamental level; in most of the rational world plants were mothballed, not destroyed.
      In most of the rational world.

      150

      • #
        Ted1.

        In Australia when a coal fired plant is closed demolition commences immediately. This ensures that the plant cannot be reopened to generate cheap power.

        90

    • #
      OldOzzie

      When the sun switches off the solar panels

      The more the sun shines in the southern German town of Aurach, the more likely it is that Jens Husemann’s solar panels will be disconnected from the grid—an exasperating paradox at a time when Germany is navigating an energy supply crisis.

      “It’s being switched off every day,” Husemann told AFP during a recent sunny spell, saying there had been more than 120 days of forced shutdowns so far this year.

      Husemann, who runs an energy conversion business near Munich, also owns a sprawling solar power system on the flat roof of a transport company in Aurach, Bavaria.

      The energy generated flows into power lines run by grid operator N-Ergie, which then distributes it on the network.

      But in sunny weather, the power lines are becoming overloaded—leading the grid operator to cut off supply from the solar panels.

      “It’s a betrayal of the population,” said Husemann, pointing to soaring electricity prices and a continued push to install more solar panels across Germany.

      Europe’s biggest economy is eyeing an ambitious switch to renewables making up 80 percent of its electricity from 2030 in a bid to go carbon neutral.

      Grid bottlenecks

      There were 257 days last year when it had to cut off supply from solar panels on parts of the grid.

      “We are currently witnessing—and this is a good thing—an unprecedented boom in photovoltaic parks,” Rainer Kleedoerfer, head of N-Ergie’s development department, told AFP.

      But while it takes just a couple of years to commission a solar power plant, updating the necessary infrastructure takes between five and 10 years, he said.

      “The number of interventions and the amount of curtailed energy have increased continuously in recent years” as a result, according to N-Ergie spokesman Michael Enderlein.

      “The likelihood is that grid bottlenecks will actually increase in the coming years,” while resolving them will take several more years, Enderlein said.

      According to Carsten Koenig, managing director of the German Solar Industry Association, the problem is not unique to solar power and also affects wind energy.

      Some 6.1 terawatt hours of electricity from renewables had to be curtailed in 2020, according to the most recent figures available.

      With an average consumption of around 2,500 kilowatt hours per year in a two-person household, this would have been enough to power around 2.4 million households.

      60

  • #
    Philip

    I hope that takes off. It is so insane and so predictable it makes one rage! The Poll tax gives me hope it will, but I’m not sure people will be prepared to have their power cut off or take the risk. There is consequence this time, unlike last time. Certainly there is more hope of it happening in UK than Australia, Australians would never disobey.

    141

  • #
    David Maddison

    NOTICE FROM THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

    “Climate change” is now called “climate breakdown”.

    Please update all your propaganda to reflect this change of terminology.

    Thank you,

    Marketing Department

    241

    • #

      Noted. Here in the Canberra bubble, the winter climate is starting to neatly break down into spring climate – the wattles are out in full bloom and the days are now regularly above 12°C, although -ve nights persist.

      This is my favourite “climate breakdown” of the year.

      130

  • #
    Philip

    It is a blessing really that all these price hikes have happened now, gives a chance for people to wake up before it really is too late.

    110

  • #

    Talk about unintended consequences, with the fossil fuel economy that certain noisy groups are trying to shut down rebounding to the point where it is now critical to national survival, and it is the coal, gas and petroleum producers fault? That is twisted economic thinking.

    However, with the immense profits the FF’ers are now reaping, they can go out and buy up all of the struggling wind/solar producers and neatly offset their dastardly main FF product with renewable certificates and become net zero or 100% renewable, just like the ACT – what a neat solution.

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      OldOzzie

      However, with the immense profits the FF’ers are now reaping, they can go out and buy up all of the struggling wind/solar producers and neatly offset their dastardly main FF product with renewable certificates and become net zero or 100% renewable, just like the ACT – what a neat solution.

      Not only in FF Profits, also Water in Australia

      This fund just made 22pc buying water

      Alternative agriculture manager Kilter Rural, backed by Regal Funds Management, has made a 22.28 per cent return on its water fund after prices for permanent water entitlements in south-eastern Australia surged to record highs.

      Its straight play on water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin came in higher than its Murray-Darling Basin balanced water fund, an impact investment vehicle launched with the Nature Conservancy in 2015 to invest in permanent water entitlements and restore threatened wetlands.

      Even so, the balanced fund delivered an impressive return of 17.47 per cent in the 12 months to June, even after making one of the largest private environmental water donations in Australian history.

      After the devastating floods of the past year, the abundant supply of water across the Murray-Darling Basin has failed to stop a rally in prices for the “permanent” water entitlements that give owners a perennial right to extract a certain volume of water from the river system.

      “In a wet period like this, you would expect the devaluation of the entitlement. But outside of that little glitch at the start [of the year], they have just continued to trend up,” Kilter Rural chief executive Cullen Gunn said.

      “That’s driven by the market becoming more sophisticated with a more mature outlook about what’s going to happen.

      “In the past, the market was quite short-sighted … they would say ‘it’s wet now, it’ll be wet forever’ and prices will come off a lot. That’s happened with [the price of] allocation in the spot water market at the moment. But the entitlements have trended up this whole year. That and the lease rates have helped our performance.”

      He expects the market to stay strong. In the past 20 years, the periods of water shortage in the Murray-Darling Basin – the key driver of price – have become more common. At the same time, demand for further environmental releases, and for the irrigation of high-demand crops such as almonds, is expected to rise.

      ‘They just pay us rental’

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        Kalm Keith

        Why?
        Why is there a “Market” in water.

        Why is there a Market in basic services like electricity. It’s as if the structure of modern Australia was specifically designed to allow some people to indulge in a big Skim.

        We have been Whaitlamised. Go NRMA and my once non profit health fund.

        We are done for when we even have a company that operates on the basis of getting a kickback for recommending cheap water, electricity, gas, health funds and insurance.

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          Philip

          How else do you decide who gets to take water out of the river ? The murray darling has long been a problem in the natural resources sector. No one can solve the problem of how to divide up the at times scarce resource.

          The obvious solution imo is to put water into the system from the north, a big price but worth paying because it is forever. Then the resource is way more plentiful and easier to manage, no need to fight there is plenty for all.

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    John Hultquist

    it was about £1200 hardly 2 years before then.

    The plan ought to be ‘pay what you paid 2 years ago’.

    The money that has been and is being paid to the landowners, politicians, NGO researchers, and those owning the companies should be “clawed back” because it is they that created the mess.

    To not pay anything is stepping into a swamp.
    The Community Charge, or Poll Tax, was a different matter. There was no immediate personal need (heat & cooking) to fund what the Poll Tax was intended to pay for.

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    Zane

    And don’t forget this is all happening under a ” conservative ” (ha ha) government in the UK. Imagine what will happen after the next GE when Labour (British spelling) gets into power again!

    There will be a wind turbine on every street corner.

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    OldOzzie

    Justin Trudeau just landed in Costa Rica with private jet, wearing no mask.

    🍁 Climate change is for Canadian peasants, not for him.
    🍁 Masks are for Canadian peasants not for him.

    Everyone is equal. Some are more equal.

    Meanwhile in Canadian Peasant Land

    CHAOS: Montreal Trudeau Airport giving local voters what they asked for. One mother is screaming for her lost child (next video), and people are begging and fighting to skip the line to make connections. Meanwhile, Trudeau is laughing on the beach, source: https://thecountersignal.com/trudeau-and-family-caught-bare-faced-on-rcaf-flight/

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    T Man

    I’ll say it again. Transition to poverty is intended by these neo marxists.

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      DOC

      If you planned to take over a nation ie stage a veiled coupe, how would you do it? Precisely the way the left have done it since Whitlam’s time. Take the Institutions first. Take education, especially of the youngest. Control the police. When set up, break up the two most vital industries to human existence – Energy (fundamental to everything) and Food. That creates the dependency and poverty necessary to take governance. It also creates social upheaval at which the marxists are experts.

      Easy to do with a population overtrusting of government, believing it governs for the national good (not international ‘good’) and not noted for using its intelligence to examine any future beyond next week. Unfortunately, such hubristic people will not react until hurting enough to actually consider whether they have been duped by the loudest voices, or consider there is there a better way.

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        Honk R Smith

        If you wanted to take over a planet … occupied by carbon based life forms … you might convince the unwanted tenants to ‘decarbonize’.

        Just sayin’.
        Or you might send in language sappers to drive them insane.
        Like confusing them with pronoun usage, making reproductive roles unrecognizable.
        And that extermination of their gestated offspring moments before emergence is a ‘human right.’
        (They’re just gonna grow up and do anthropogenic stuff anyway.)
        Change definitions of words, like ‘vaccine’, and ‘recession’ overnight … then act like nothing happened.
        Prompt them to convince their offspring (those allowed to live) that there is no future because they themselves are unnatural and the only threat to the harmony of the planet.
        You might teach them that math is colonialist and science is settled … by Dr. Fauci.
        Obesity is beautiful.
        Because exercise is a gateway to extremist political views.
        That inanimate objects such as statues and flags are offensive and violent.
        And to cover their their faces for ‘safety’, destroying the evolution of communicative social cues and their immune systems all in one shot (with another shot, or five, for the coup de grace).

        You might also create little addictive machines that reduce their attention spans and continually repeat and track compliance with the above.

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    Bruce

    Here in Oz, the “new” talking point, as enabled by “THEIR” ABCess, etc., is that “renewables” and “batteries” are the CORE of our salvation and decreed to be the primary (only?)source of all future energy needs.

    “Energy poverty” goes hand in glove with FOOD poverty and REAL POVERTY and ultimately, LIBERTY “poverty”.

    And THAT is the plan, Stan.

    How do you run a (selective) global population “reduction” operation without racking up a substantial “different” gas-bill or ammo bill?

    Watch the following all the way to the end:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o74rQmLRqtA

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    Neville

    BTW their campaign is always shifting and the war against Nitrogen is just gaining momentum.
    We’ve seen the Sri Lanka disaster unfold very quickly, but the loonies won’t rest until they’ve further wrecked OECD economies.
    In the meantime have a look at the big drop in USA nitrogen levels at the link and start to THINK.

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-8-6-net-zero-is-not-just-for-carbon-emissions-now-its-nitrogen

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    Serge Wright

    This is a perfect lesson in “You get what you vote for”. However, it’s probably not all the fault of the naive public and much of the blame can be attributed to the left media and Marxist educational institutions that push the RE falsehood and brainwash the more gullible people in society.

    With the UK in turmoil, we all need to closely observe the outcome of the crisis because this is exactly what will happen down here now that our new government has set the RE bar at an unachievable level and pulled the levers on local FF production, as noted by the coal mine cancellation in QLD last week, under the fake guise of saving the planet. Will the new (tba) UK PM back down and move back to coal, or will the government declare war on the public and place caveats on the assets of people who refuse to pay their bill ?.

    My guess is that the Tory government will go hard and squash the movement before it gets traction. Down here we can expect an even worse outcome with the Green’s calling the ALP’s shots. The Green’s hate the country and would love to send all non-green voters to jail for life and take all our assets and gift to themselves, given half a sniff.

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    Gbees

    Could we do a ‘Don’t Pay your Council Rates’ until the potholes are fixed?

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      Not really as they will still not fix the pot holes, or keep the streets clean, or collect your rubbish, or look after the Libraries, or, or, or, many more things……….

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      • #
        yarpos

        But they will spend time and ratepayer dollars developing a “climate change strategy” , ours is

        I sent them some public consultation input a couple of days ago

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        • #

          Half the Councils – at all levels – in the UK seem to have declared a ‘Climate Emergency’ already.
          Although quite what Little Dozing Parish Council seeking to fit solar panels to street lamps will do is never clearly explained.
          Perhaps the appropriate committee members get a modest discount on their own suncatchers . . . .

          Auto

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    • #
      Dennis

      They would blame the state government, like Leichhardt Council’s Leichhardt Oval stand collapse on the weekend apparently a lack of maintenance, now blaming the state government for not delivering part funding for renovations and upgrading and instead directing the money to flood victims and to councils repairing damaged infrastructure.

      Leichhardt Council is the landlord and several sporting groups are the tenants, and the tenants are also complaining that the state government has not proceeded the funding application.

      In my opinion natural disaster floods should rank way above sport.

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      • #
        yarpos

        If they new it was suspect they should have closed it and made noise, not let it collapse and point fingers after.

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    • #
      Serge Wright

      Due to enormous mechanical and tyre replacement bill and extreme inconvenience caused by potholes on sealed roads, I was forced to sell my BM and now drive a very large diesel powered 4×4, raised suspension (ARB) with high performance gas shocks and springs and with 17 inch 285/75 BF Goodrich light truck AT tyres that come with 7 ply sidewalls. Problem now solved and I don’t even need to swerve. On the downside, welcome to 3rd world Australia 🙁

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      Gerry, England

      In the UK non-payment of council tax will see you put in prison without a criminal conviction. But to be fair to the idea of the subject of this page, if you get a million or more to agree to it then you can’t all be put in prison so there is some truth to ‘power to the people’ in a way that doesn’t exist at the ballot box.

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  • #
    Robber

    Here in Victoria this morning, to meet electricity demand of 6,866 MW at 7.30am, solar 25 MW, wind 13 MW, battery 117 MW.
    Yes, we’re ready to double or triple our unreliables.

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      Dennis

      It is being claimed that the proposed offshore near Gippsland Victoria wind installation of 1,300MW capacity (Installed or Capacity Factor not identified in promotional material) would amount to 20% of Victoria grid baseload requirement.

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      • #
        Zane

        This Gippsland installation wouldn’t even provide 20% of Vic’s required baseload on a regular basis I would have thought; it will take all 3 Latrobe Valley coal generators running smoothly to keep the juice flowing in Victoria. This is all about big money for CFMEU workers at offshore rates. Dandrews has to take care of his union buddies. I’m interested in who actually pays for the offshore turbines and construction. From what I can see a lot of the Renewables industry is funded by super fund money. The big boys in Super are the industry funds, run by, you guessed it, the unions. Follow the money.

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          Zane

          Sorry, meant to say the wind farm won’t even provide 20% of its stated capacity. It might run at 10%. So 100 to 200 MW out of 1300 MW. Since it’s intermittent it needs to be backed up by coal all the time. This is about virtue signaling to inner city purple haired greens but even more it’s about $200k plus jobs for CFMEU guys. It’s classic Dan Andrews. The unions run Victoria. Jug ears just asks how high he has to jump for his bosses.

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    robert rosicka

    Numbers here are the key to ultimate success , one million plus defaulting payment on their energy bills are also one million plus angry voters and when the government of the day are on the nose the government will be getting very nervous while the opposition and other parties will seize the opportunity to gain favour and votes of the disgruntled public .

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  • #
    Neville

    You have to laugh when you try to talk to young people about our atmosphere.
    I once asked a very upset young person “what percentage of our atmosphere is co2”? You’d think I suggested he should go away and cut his throat, but of course he didn’t have a clue and couldn’t answer.
    Alan Jones asked Tania Plibersek the same question a few years ago and after much embarrassment she admitted she didn’t know. Just unbelievable but TRUE.
    Anyway hardly anyone knows anything about the gases in our atmosphere and the percentage of each of them. Here they are…..
    Nitrogen – 78.084%

    Oxygen – 20.946%

    Argon – 0.934%Total of

    Total – 99.964%

    Then come the trace gases like…
    co2- 0.0420% and that’s 4 hundredths of 1 % of the atmosphere
    and then other trace gases. But Water Vapour is not included in the above gas list and varies from very low at the poles and deserts etc up to 30000 ppm at the equator.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth

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    Kosta

    Problem is, I’d imagine the vast majority are not thinking about what’s causd the massive price infation in the first place – renweables.

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    • #
      Ronin

      Even they recognise Australia isn’t Norway and likely never will be.

      Give it up you green clowns and learn to live with the microscopic amount of Carbon dioxide in the air.

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      Philip

      Written by a 13 year old, so of course bias towards emissions and “transition”, but not a bad article really, and the CEO of Mitsubishi is on the right thinking (apart from his faith in climate change). For me PHEV is the perfect solution to gaining extra fuel efficiency and lowering air pollution in cities. I don’t see any need for EV at all, unless you’re satisfied with a low range car. But no, the greens want to phase out PHEV already.

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    Ronin

    Has Elbow asked A Dam Bandit if the watermelons are ok with the massive amount of new mining to source the minerals for all the batteries, copper wire, magnets etc.

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    […] JoNova; Skyrocketing UK green energy bills have finally provoked a response, with 90,000 Britons and […]

    00

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    Ronin

    On the NEM, wind is providing a whopping 1.8%, hey Elbow, we’re nearly there mate.

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    SC70

    Just got a note that from 1 July 2022 electric vehicles are able to be packaged free of FBT (I am not sure of the detail at this stage). So this will result in effectively more subsidies to EV makers and will “incentivise” the rapid uptake of EV at taxpayer (and great environmental)expense.

    I am not sure how the infrastructure is going to handle this let alone the environmental degradation and loss in tax revenue as this gets rorted.

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    • #
      Ronin

      Just moving the emissions from the tailpipe to the power station stacks.

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      And lots of company EVs parked cheek by jowl underneath their offices, ready for an accidental bonfire.

      Great idea.

      Cheers
      Dave B

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  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Gareth was worried about the future with Global Warming, and the lack of progress to 100% renewables. He’d done his best, voted for the Teal Candidate in his expensive inner suburb, put up Climate Action Now signs but with China & India burning more coal than ever, and Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria and the UK all increasing their use, rather than closing down plants he was despondent.
    So Gareth drove his car into his garage at home, carefully sealed up around the windows and doorways of his garage, selected his favourite radio station and sat in his car with it at a slow idle. A  day later, his neighbour realising she had seen no sign of Gareth for a while, peered through the garage window to see Gareth at the wheel of his car. Immediately she phoned emergency services.
    Police, fire and the ambulance arrived promptly. After pulling Gareth from his car and giving him a sip of water, he seemed as good as gold.
    Gareth drives a Tesla. It now has a flat battery.
    Apparently, he is also a member of The Greens…which might explain his misunderstanding of the real world.

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      All this can be dealt with easily by just declaring a Thought Emergency.
      With a hard Thought Lockdown.
      A 24 hour Thought curfew.
      No exceptions, even for thought exercise.
      Any thought caught outside your brain without Official approval, will result in Resilience Confinement.
      (BTW, whatever happened to those Resilience facilities?)
      Two decades to flatten the curve.
      Oz, NZ, Canuck, and UK police already seem up on Thought Policing, our US constables will require a bit more training.

      Hope Dan and Justin are listening.
      We don’t want to wake Joe.

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    […] JoNova; Skyrocketing UK inexperienced vitality payments have lastly provoked a response, with 90,000 […]

    00

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    OldOzzie

    Coming to Victoria soon

    Va. Ratepayers to Front Costs for $9.8B Offshore Wind Farm

    The State Corporation Commission (SCC), which regulates public utilities, recently approved a new Dominion Energy-backed $9.8 billion offshore wind farm, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (CVOW), 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.

    Unsurprisingly, Virginia ratepayers will pay more to “transition” away from fossil fuels as stipulated by the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act—Virginia’s “Green New Deal” signed into law by former Governor Ralph Northam (D-VA). Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) has pledged to repeal the VCEA but can’t unless Republicans retake the State Senate next year.

    The project’s supporters claim the 176 planned wind turbines will each produce “14.7 megawatts” to power upwards of 660,000 homes.

    But there are major problems befalling the project.

    Most notably, the CVOW contains a “revenue requirement of $78.702 million for the rate year of September 1, 2022, to August 31, 2023, to be recovered through a new rate adjustment clause (Rider OSW).” The Rider OSW, the SCC noted, will have a base monthly bill increase of $4.72 but a peak monthly bill increase of $14.22.

    Isn’t clean energy like wind supposed to help lower costs? It doesn’t here. Talk about unreliability.

    This year alone, many Virginians will pay a solar tariff amounting to $20 in additional electricity costs. This is compounded by Dominion Energy’s request to charge its five million Virginia customers seven percent more across three years to reportedly combat inflation. Another estimate, however, points to the electric utility potentially raising fees by 12 to 20%.

    Given this, the CVOW isn’t a cost-savings measure.

    As electricity prices continue to soar, how would this expensive project be a remedy to include in the Commonwealth’s power grid? It isn’t.

    Virginia already has two offshore wind turbines that cost $300 million. Has wind’s inclusion been reflected in the power grid? Has it led to our energy bills decreasing? Hardly.

    Per the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Virginia’s was predominantly powered by natural gas (61%) followed by nuclear (29%), biomass (6%) and coal (4%). No mention or listing of solar and wind.

    Obviously, natural gas and nuclear are still king in Virginia. Why discourage their use in favor of unreliable solar and wind?

    The CVOW’s costs and limited electricity generation aren’t the only red flags. The project’s potential negative environmental impact has yet to be seriously discussed and considered.

    Here’s an inconvenient truth: offshore wind farms (OWFs) greatly interfere with fish migration patterns.

    Oceanography, a magazine of the Oceanography Society, noted OWFs may act as artificial reefs but boast many ecological consequences like turning some OWFs into “no-go areas”— thereby making them “no-take zones.” The magazine also notes there could be adverse effects to “sensory environment related to sound, as well as electromagnetic fields and physical alterations of current and wind wakes, may have as yet unknown impacts on fisheries resources.”

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    Ronin

    “Several former UN insiders allege a wide range of sexual abuse and corruption across many UN agencies, with first-hand accounts from whistleblowers with decades of experience at the world’s top diplomatic institution.”

    4 corners tonight.

    Let’s hope the scumbags in the UN are ratted out good and proper.

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    Zane

    Drawing a connection from overpriced energy bills to overpriced toothbrushes, I saw a toothbrush in Woolies today which has a replaceable aluminum handle and cost a cool $15.

    They banned plastic bags. How long until plastic-handled toothbrushes become extinct?

    There is no end to the green agenda, once the train starts rolling.

    We haff vays of making you recycle your toothbrush, mein herring. Ja voll.

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    Ronin

    QLD, the cheapest power on the NEM @ 17:45, must be all that coal. LOL.

    40

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    Ronin

    SA, 17:50, 0.7% wind, solar about to go AWOL, the rest is gas and imports of brown coal power, what a pathetic joke.

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    • #
      Philip

      A no wind day all over the country. NO wind power anywhere today. We actually had a cold southerly on the east coast.

      Small populations like SA with large land mass actually do have the potential to run on WnS. The small population being the key. SA with its small demand, often runs pretty much on wind. Problem is it often stops completely too. And of course this requires a 100% capacity backup. No two ways about it, and no way out of that sticky dilemma.

      60

  • #
    Gerald the Mole

    The sheeple are getting what they voted for.

    40

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    John Connor II

    Electricity Thefts Hit Record Levels In UK As Cost-Of-Living Crisis Worsens

    A record number of people stole electricity in England and Wales last year, according to new figures released by the Home Office.

    Police forces received 3,600 reports of “dishonest use of electricity” in the 12 months to March 2022, an increase of 13 percent on the previous year and the highest level since records began in 2013.

    It comes after a protest website launched recently urging people not to pay their electricity bills from October.

    The average annual UK gas and electricity bill rose from £1,400 in October 2021 to £2,000, after the government removed a price cap, which limited how much suppliers could charge customers.

    Another hefty rise is expected in October 2022.

    It was originally predicted average energy bills could reach £2,800 in the autumn but the latest forecast is £3,358.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/electricity-thefts-hit-record-levels-uk-cost-living-crisis-worsens

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    Gerry, England

    If you don’t pay your energy bills then you will be taken to court and get a judgement against you that will ruin your credit rating. This will mean that you will have to live life paying up front for everything. The energy suppliers will use their legal right to enter your property and fit a pre-payment meter so you will again have to pay up front and at a higher rate. I can see that if a million or more did do this the system would be overwhelmed as a lot of how the country works is down to compliance.

    60