Gridwatch: New Belgian interonnector is up and running.

A lot of demand for the weekend, though.

Just as well we have some wind - given that it has been quite a windy day I would have expected more unless it is just windy down the East Coast.

Cheers

Dave R

It's windy all the time. It just moves around. The purpose of these interconnectors is to "follow" the wind about as the Atlantic low pressure systems transit the UK and Europe.

Poor old TurNiP hasn't worked that out yet.

What's the import tariff on electricity under WTO rules?

Under the WTO rules, any country is free to have any tariff is likes just as long as the same tariff applies to imports from all countries that don't have a trade agreement with that country.

And it's rare to have a tariff on an intangible like electricity anyway.

Well basically we only import leccy from the EU countries and export it to them, so any tarriffs would vut both ways. Since we import more than we export (exceopt to Ireland) teh net effect of tarriffs woul dbe tyo increase electricity prices in GB and Ireland. And reduce profits in the EU.

We dont NEED to import. Its just chepaer as France has a lot of spare nuke power.

Cheapest way to make another nuke here??

A 2 GW cable to Frogland:)..

Poor old Harry and some wallah's at our council haven't worked out that if you covered the whole UK that you will still be short of power as the wind doesn't blow as much as you think it might!..

This week the great and good at our local council proclaimed that they were to get rid of those fossil fuel burner cars and go all electric.

But they have also stipulated that no power station shalt burn fossil fuels to power them!!

Now seeing that we have around 5-6 GW of Nuclear power around 6-8 GW of wind on a windy day around 3 or 4 of Solar on a bright sunny day sod all Hydro and then theres the imports from Nuke driven France.

Never mind the fact that we can on some days of high demand barely meet the existing load.

What I'd like to know is how do they sleep at night publishing such UN-thought thru Bollix?..

Except France isn't so committed to nuclear power going forwards ...

I wonder how a connector scores for energy security given the French have their own issues with future generating capacity (and I assume would have a switch at their end).

Correction: Macron and the EU are not,

Competes with their chums windymills. And Russian Gas.

Well Harry.

I built Gridwacth to get a figure in that exact point.

They are simply terminally stupid.

IFA2 is 1GW and Eleclink the same, both for completion next year so your wish is granted. Just in time for the French Nukes to start large scale decommissioning

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The Interconnectors to the UK are really nothing to do with following the wind, The orignal cross channel link was built in 1961, when wind turbines were used for pumping water and nothing more.

IFA (1986) was built around the time the UK had precisely one grid connected wind turbine, and the French were still burning a shitload of coal. Imports over the link now average around 90g/KWh, almost without exception this is nuclear excess.

BritNed was under construction before the UK climate chage act came into force and as of today it carries generation at an average of around 500g/kWh CO2, either gas or coal or lignite

Nemo Link to Belgium imports and exports carbon based generation averaging somewhere around 350g/kWh, clearly well in excess of 'low carbon' wind

IFA2 and ElecLink (2020) will connect to France, a country still with overwhelming levels of Nuclear generation and not much wind generation (less than the UK in both absolute and percentage terms)

Viking Link (2023) will connect to Denmark, a country where they have almost the most expensive energy on the planet because they routinely spill 'excess' wind onto the Euro grid at zero or negative prices and import from Norway/Sweden/Germany at max prices in total desperation most days

North Sea Link (2021) will connect Norway and the UK, Norway has, in the words of Paul Daniels, not a lot of wind generation.

The two links to Ireland, East-West to the republic and Moyle to the North might possibly have some degree of permitting wind following compared to the mainland of the UK, the former far more than the latter, but the amounts are quite piffling.

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No, tariffs are on imports, so we could have zero tariffs on electricity imports. If the EU want to impose tarrifs on our exports that's up to them.

I was assuming we did a tit for tat to punish them...

Hardly surprising considering the lies about nuclear power perpetrated now and in the past by idiots like TurNiP.

They've had their cheap electricity, now the French taxpayer will have to foot the decommissioning bill. You can expect more riots over the tax hikes.

There will have to be lots more turbines and other sources of renewable energy. Nuclear power is being abandoned on cost and safety issues. Gas will tide us over the long period needed to set this up.

In the USA

Punish them or punish consumers here?

So what is it going to use then?..