Comment by bee_rider
3 years ago
The whole system as detailed in the article seems pretty artificial and not great. For some reason prices appear to be set at the national level, ignoring the fact that Scotland has an excess of wind energy. If consumers could see that the price difference on their end, I guess there’d be more incentive to upgrade the infrastructure and get it down to England more efficiently.
If gas is setting the price as the most expensive form of energy, then it acts as an incentive to build cheaper forms of energy because your margins are that much higher.
Alas, England doesn't allow on-shore wind power, and there's not sufficient capacity (in terms of HVDC lines) to transfer enough power from Scotland down to England to move all of the excess energy.
That seems like a good way to spur early development. I wonder, though — if consumers could actually see the cost benefit of the wind power, might gas have been just priced out of the system by now? (Or relegated to some backup status). (Supposing the transmission infrastructure were upgraded to allow for the higher flow, or England changed its laws to be more in line with economic realities).