If only there was a way to make billions in tax from these operations, reduce money going to funding violent gangs, improve the safety of the people near the farms and solve the energy theft problem all while reducing police enforcement costs and spaces needed in prisons all at the same time.
I mean if there was a single solution that would do all of that we’d be pretty fucking stupid to not be pursuing it, right? I wonder if any other countries have figured out the answer…
Britain looked at this and concluded: “make it a class B drug instead of class C”
Either the government can enforce prices of electricity to what it was before the Russia-Ukraine 2022 war, aka 30% of what it is now, or they can fuck off with making people pay for crimes they didn’t commit. The only way people can offset the money stolen from them by capitalist pigs is to steal it from elsewhere
UK’s uniform pricing is intended to ensure renewables are artificially profitable, incentivising more production. In most other countries, suppliers charge competitive rates, and brokers buy on an open market. This allows demand-based generators (like gas) to charge more during high demand periods (when wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining). The flip side of this is that prices crater during high wind and sun periods. This leads to volatility which can be smoothed with futures contracts. The net effect is that renewables become less profitable, but consumers pay a lot less for electricity.
The UK needs to restructure their energy market to better align with the rest of Europe. It would significantly reduce prices for everyone.
Britain looked at this and concluded: Brexit
While I agree that energy-intensive businesses should always be pushed onto flexible-pricing contracts, as a private consumer, uniform pricing is an advantage imo. You don’t need to think about whether running the washing machine will cost you 0.2¤ or 0.6¤ or whether there’s a price surge, and it’s even more expensive.
Keeping renewables a good investment also has its merits, in terms of hopefully higher buildout speed. Albeit, the most cash-focused investors aren’t necessarily the kinds of high-minded people you’d want on those projects; which in turn may create public anger at e.g. new wind farms. And in purely monetary terms, this is also primarily benefitting the rich at the expense of the poor.
While I agree that energy-intensive business should always be pushed onto flexible-pricinv contracts, as a private consumer, uniform pricing is an advantage imo. You don’t need to think about whether running the washing machine will cost you 0.2¤ or 0.6¤ or whether there’s a price surge, and it’s even more expensive.
Fixed pricing happens in Europe too. The retailer prices the volatility into a fixed pricing plan. It still ends up much cheaper than how the UK has structured their grid, which ensures electricity companies are making massive piles of money.
Thanks! I noticed I don’t know how it works in the UK. Is there a good article explaining it?
