Power Surges to Record as Europe Scrambles to Keep Lights on – Electricity prices surged to a fresh record as Europe scrambles to keep the lights on in France, the region’s second-biggest market. France, usually an exporter of power, is boosting electricity imports and even burning fuel oil.
2 comments
>burning fuel oil
How barbaric, what is this, the 60’s? Next step blackout and reopening the *forbidden* coal mines.
I wonder how much of the remaining gas reserves could be saved on a daily basis were thermostats to be lowered and people to bundle up in warmer clothing.
I’m not a “reduce standard of living” sort for the long term, but if supplies are going to run short this winter, cutting usage earlier rather than later makes any reduction later in the winter not need to be as sharp.
I’m not sure whether it’s possible to ration natural gas to residential consumers if they have pilot lights and things that need to stay fueled.
When I’m googling, I see reference just to cutting off industrial customers, not residential, as I assume that industrial customers are better-equipped to have the gas flow cut.
https://www.voanews.com/a/is-the-kremlin-stoking-europe-s-energy-crisis-/6324955.html
>”We have a solidarity mechanism inside the EU, so we should be in a position to switch off industries somewhere to make sure residents are still warm in their homes elsewhere,” he said.
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>In normal times everything works smoothly with the EU’s energy solidarity mechanism, which prioritizes households over manufacturers, says Bros, who represented France at the International Energy Agency, or IEA. He warns, though, that during the coming frigid months, “we may see some very difficult implementation of this solidarity mechanism.” As an example, he asks, “Are we going to switch off some French industries to warm Germans? Or are we going to switch off some German industries to warm the French?”
https://www.netzerowatch.com/net-zero-watch-governments-years-of-irresponsible-neglect-has-left-britain-at-mercy-of-putin/
>The gas crisis in the United Kingdom is now so severe that there is open discussion of the possibility of rationing natural gas to industrial consumers in order to secure supplies for electricity generation and for domestic household heating.
That sounds like in both the EU and UK, industrial consumers get cut off before residential consumers.