We are too dependent on gas for our energy

NEWS that the Government has approved a new 1,500MW gas fired power station to replace the former 1,000MW coal fired plant at Thorpe Marsh, near Doncaster, is to be welcomed on the jobs front but it raises deeper questions about the direction of UK energy policy.

Since electricity privatisation in 1990, some 75 per cent of the investment in new power plants hasbeen for those reliant on gas to generate electricity. There have been no new coal plants approved since Drax was completed in 1986.

Over half of the UK’s electricity is now regularly generated by gas-fired plant and over half of the UK’s gas needs are now imported.

This dependency will rise to eighty per cent by 2020.

The UK is becoming over-dependent on gas for its energy generation and this will have implications for electricity prices in the future as the gas price will become more and more closely tied to the electricity price.

Gas on the wholesale market has risen 40 per cent this year alone. New cleaner coal plants are long overdue in order to diversify the UK’s generation mix and provide a long-term market for economically produced indigenous coal.

The Government’s headlong rush into foreign gas dependency will hold implications for the UK far into the future.