Free Gas is no Laughing Matter

[ifm]

Did you know that the water bill is the only one that you cannot be cut off from if unpaid?

[RED-DOG]

Did you know that the water bill is the only one that you cannot be cut off from if unpaid?

Well I wouldn't mind being cut off from my electricity bill, or any other bills.

[tikay]

But my real point was that we have a finite amount of energy on earth - & we are giving it away. (To whom, & where do they keep it, one muses?).

It's OK, tikay, it's OK... The gas doesn't actually go anywhere. Physically it stays in the system. It's just that all the companies that deal with gas on the wholesale market are trying to sell the gas that they currently own in the system, and which they can't sell to you because your boiler's turned off, to each other. PowerGen, for example, doesn't have the right to have all that gas sitting in a pipeline, waiting to do your cooking. That gas is getting in the way of tomorrow's supplies from Norway, and powerGen is effectively going to get fined for that. So the best thing PowerGen can do is try and sell the rights to that gas to someone else - say npower. But if npower has the same problem, then it isn't going to want to pay for the gas, because then it will get fined. So npower will only take the gas off PowerGen if PowerGen pays it to do so.

It's like any market, responding to supply and demand. But on a short-term basis, because of the restrictions of the infrastructure, prices can be exceptionally volatile. If you've got too much gas, you can't just press a button to stop gas coming out of the sea bed in Norway.

It doesn't mean there is any more gas or any less, or that the long-term value of the gas has changed - it just means that the value of gas for wholesale gas traders has changed, today. None of them wants it.

Of course, situations like this do eventually have an impact on wholesale prices for this winter and next year, and further down the line that has an impact on retail prices and your gas bill. Eventually...

In fact, you know the promotions from British Gas etc about fixing your gas price till 2010 and so on... Probably very poor value, just taking advantage of headlines about how much gas is going up now. Wholesale prices for next year and further out are almost certainly lower than they are for next month. So if you don't fix your price your bills will probably fall from this point on rather than rise.

Bless you. I feel better now. Rant over. It's like when you pass wind, it's such a relief.

[ifm]

sigh, the only natural resourse that you cannot be cut off from..............

[tikay]

Did you know that the water bill is the only one that you cannot be cut off from if unpaid?

Thats wonderful. I think they should give a Knighthood to Severn Trent. Arise, Sir Severn. (£13,30 & rising, how good is that?).

[ifm]

Did you know that the water bill is the only one that you cannot be cut off from if unpaid?

Thats wonderful. I think they should give a Knighthood to Severn Trent. Arise, Sir Severn. (£13,30 & rising, how good is that?).

They are the pits, absolutely useless, next to no customer service and hopeless to get stuff fixed.
Obviously their directors are multimillionaires, the only catch with the business is where their supply actually comes from.................

[tikay]

Did you know that the water bill is the only one that you cannot be cut off from if unpaid?

Thats wonderful. I think they should give a Knighthood to Severn Trent. Arise, Sir Severn. (£13,30 & rising, how good is that?).

They are the pits, absolutely useless, next to no customer service and hopeless to get stuff fixed.
Obviously their directors are multimillionaires, the only catch with the business is where their supply actually comes from.................

At last. Thought you were never gonna bite. I laid bait everywhere, & not even a nibble.

[ifm]

do you know even know where the supply is from?

[tikay]

do you know even know where the supply is from?

Without checking, no, I suppose I don't. My guess would be....

The Severn

The Trent

Aquafers

Natural or man-made surface Reservoirs.

Recycled sewage & effluent.

And the correct answer was.....?

[ifm]

Wales

[yt]

Meanwhile, we are told to cut our water usage, while 30% of Thames Water's product disappears via leakages in the system. The raw material that Thames Water uses is, well, water, which they collect, free of charge, from rainfall, via rivers underground reservoirs & aquafers. They then lose a third of it, & charge us an arm & a leg for mending their leaks.....Ah well, my Severn Trent shares are sitting cosily at £13+, so all is well within the water world.....

Water leakage is just not that big a deal. It leaks right back into the same groundwater system they took it from. The Water is never truly lost (apart from some via evaporation) it just joins the cycle again.

You just have to pay for the cost of treating it and making it clean again.

[Dewi_cool]

. Did you know, for instance, that there is a facility in Wales where they STORE Electricity?.......Well thats nonsense of course, but in effect, thats what they do. They use spare generating capacity at night to pump water to the top of a hill (well, a great big shaft actually), & the water runs back down durung peak times, turning the turbines to generate more 'leccy. Repeat, rinse. Clever, eh?



I live 5 mins away from this place, called the Dinorwic Hydro Scheme, and thought the other day about posting a pic of the place!!

[ifm]

Dewi, taking pictures of power stations puts you right up there with train spotters mate

[Dewi_cool]

Suppose your right, age thing perhaps?

[tikay]

. Did you know, for instance, that there is a facility in Wales where they STORE Electricity?.......Well thats nonsense of course, but in effect, thats what they do. They use spare generating capacity at night to pump water to the top of a hill (well, a great big shaft actually), & the water runs back down durung peak times, turning the turbines to generate more 'leccy. Repeat, rinse. Clever, eh?



I live 5 mins away from this place, called the Dinorwic Hydro Scheme, and thought the other day about posting a pic of the place!!

Do they do Tours of it Dewi? How cool would THAT be? Post that Pic - NOW. Please.