PROVE ME WRONG – PLEASE!!! UK HOUSEHOLDS PAYING 400 TIMES MORE THAN THEY SHOULD FOR ENERGY BILLS!!!

Government enforced price gouging of natural gas – the cause of energy poverty globally that is a form of regressive tax impacting the world’s poor and elderly the most –

I hope you are still buckled up!

First, a quick side track.

Is natural gas a renewable energy source?

If you put that question in your browser, you will receive an answer back that says natural gas is a “fossil fuel” and is NOT renewable. A gas is a fossil fuel? Really?

If you put the question “how is methane created by nature”, (methane is natural gas) you will get this answer using Brave browser:

“Methane is created by nature through various biological and geological processes. Here are the primary sources:

·        Anaerobic Bacterial Decomposition: In the absence of oxygen, bacteria in wetlands, marshes, and swamps break down organic matter, such as plant material, into methane and carbon dioxide. This process occurs in sediment and waterlogged soils, where microorganisms like methanogenic archaea thrive.

·        Methanogenic Archaea: These microorganisms, found in oxygen-free environments, produce methane as a byproduct of their metabolism. They inhabit environments like deep-sea sediments, salt lakes, and the digestive systems of ruminant animals like cows and termites.

·        Plant-Microbe Interactions: Certain plants, like rice and sugarcane, have symbiotic relationships with methanogenic bacteria in their roots and rhizomes. These bacteria produce methane as a byproduct of their metabolism, which is then released into the environment.

·        Geological Processes: Methane is also generated through geological processes, such as:

o   Thermal Maturation: Organic-rich sediments, like shale and coal, undergo thermal maturation, leading to the formation of methane as a byproduct of diagenesis and catagenesis.

o   Biogenic Methane: Microorganisms in sedimentary basins, like those found in oil and gas reservoirs, produce methane as a byproduct of their metabolism.

Key Points

·        Methane production occurs in oxygen-free environments, such as wetlands, sediments, and the digestive systems of certain animals.

·        Microorganisms, like methanogenic archaea, play a crucial role in natural methane production.

·        Geological processes, like thermal maturation and biogenic methane generation, also contribute to methane formation.

·        Methane is a natural component of the Earth’s atmosphere, and its concentration has increased over the past 200 years due to human activities and natural processes.

Recall that many livestock farmers around the world are being thrown off their land (with the evicted Dutch farmers banned from the industry forever) because of methane and laughing gas emissions from livestock in order to promote “re-wilding” and marsh/swamp creation. I wonder if a comparative analysis was done between swamp/marsh gas and livestock.

Ok, recall that the UK has just completed another auction for offshore wind turbine electricity.

Record UK renewables auction gives boost to offshore wind | Reuters

Note how devious the reporting is:

“In Tuesday's sixth auction result, the electricity price contracts for offshore wind were 54.20 pounds to 58.90 pounds per megawatt hour (MWh) in 2012 prices, government data showed.”

What relevance do 2012 prices have? Here’s the updated price paid – lower down in the article:

“Analysts at Jefferies estimated the price awarded on Tuesday would be worth between 82.60 and 89.70 pounds/MWh in 2027 prices - when the first projects would be expected online - when including inflation.” There is no detail on the forecast inflation rate for the next three years up to 2027.

Side note, the previous auction failed. From here, you get a sense of how the price of electricity is impacted by the renewable wind turbine electricity scam:

UK raises offshore wind ceiling price by 66% for 2024 auction | S&P Global Market Intelligence (spglobal.com)

“The maximum strike price will rise from £44/MWh to £73/MWh for fixed-bottom offshore wind in 2024's contracts for difference (CFD) auction after this year's bidding process failed to award a single offshore wind contract because of the low ceiling price.”

Suffice to say, foreign companies have agreed to buy the electricity produced by the wind turbine farms that rise as high as a 100-storey building, for around 80-90 pounds per mWh.

I have been trying to reconcile the price of deliverable contracts of natural gas o commodity exchanges of around 2 bucks for 10,000 MMBTU – with prices charged to households for electricity and natural gas in the UK (the same principles apply globally),

I converted the 10,000 MMBTU for a standard futures contract to kWh, by using an article by E. Scott Frazier here, that said that 1 million BTU converts to 3,412 kWh.

True Cost of Energy Comparisons – Apples to Apples | Oklahoma State University (okstate.edu)

“Electrical energy is described by Kilowatt-hours, which can be directly converted to Btu’s if describing heat energy (1 kWh = 3,412 Btu).”

The futures contract for 10,000 MMBTU = 10 billion BTU. Divide that by 3,412 BTU to get to kWh ad you arrive at around 3 million kWh (3,000 mWh).

For around 2 bucks.

Gas fired power stations that produce electricity operate at just 33% efficiency, so adjusting for that, we get 1 million kWh (1,000 mWh) for 2 bucks.

There is no mention of the operating efficiency of the wind turbines, or how much stand-by electricity has been budgeted for when the wind doesn’t blow (or how much marine and flying critters are destroyed).

Now we can compare “apples with apples” – “wind turbines with natural gas”.

Wind turbines around 82 pounds per mWh.

Natural gas around 2 pounds (or dollars) per mWh.

Both are “renewable”. The UK has cancelled all future il and gas exploration in the North Sea ad has just jacked up the “energy price cap” by 13% AND abolished the winter fuel benefit for pensioners.

Is this malice, price gouging, stupidity – by me or the UK regulator and UK politicians and civil servants spanning decades?

Let’s go back to the comparison with UK household electricity prices (leaving the direct supply of households to one side for now.

British Gas (BG) charges 22.407p per kWh plus 38.846p per day plus 5% VAT on the total, for electricity.

(Don’t forget, the UK energy regulator, OFGEM, has jacked prices by around 13-14% by January 2025 (and the government adds another 5% of that increase on top).

The latest auction for electricity from wind turbines = 82 pounds per mWh. That is equal to 8.2 pence per kWh compared to 22.407 pence per kWh charged currently to households AND just 2 pounds per mWh = 0.02 pence per kWh (adjusted for just 33% efficiency in producing electricity from gas fired power stations.

OFGEM will probably keep increasing the price cap by 10-20% a year for the next three years to pay for the “great renewable scam” that serves as a de facto tax on electricity consumption.

Note that the price paid in the auction of 82 pounds per mWh is NT the price that consumers will pay. The foreign operators will on-sell that at multiples of that – and the UK government has probably already agreed they ca do that – and then OFGEM “cements” the price gouging I it “energy price cap”.

Now let’s float a trial balloon (not a hydrogen Zeppelin!).

The UK has around 22 million households - all connected to electricity (around 19 million are connected to gas).

From the regulator, OFGEM, here:

Average gas and electricity usage | Ofgem

“We estimate the typical household in England, Scotland and Wales uses 2,700 kWh of electricity and 11,500 kWh of gas in a year.  “

Kust replacing the electricity fuelled from all sources (natural gas, oil, coal, renewables etc), the average UK household consumes 2,700 kwh of electricity.

The average household will pay around 600 pounds for those 2,700 kWh of electricity at 22.407 pence per kWh.

If all the electricity was provided by natural gas fired power stations, instead of paying 600 pounds for its electricity, the average household would pay just 54 pence.

At the national level this means that the UK’s 22 million households are paying 13.3 billion pounds instead of just 12 million pounds (excluding standing charges and VAT).

Consider that natural gas-fired power stations can produce 1,500 mW. Just 50 of these would produce enough electricity to power ALL UK households. Capture the CO2 and water vapour emissions and build a bunch of hydroponic greenhouses next to these “plants” and you could also reduce the need for tons of food imports with high value foods, rich in nutrients!

That’s not all. Let’s check out natural gas supplied directly from fields through pipelines to households.

19 million UK households pay 5.285p per kWh plus a standing charge of 30.504p per day plus 5% VAT on the total for the average 11,500 kWh they use each year.

From what I can gather, there is just a few percent lost in transit.

The average natural gas bill for ALL those 19 million households is similarly around 608 pounds a year, instead of around 44 million pounds a year – even assuming just 33% efficiency (when it could be a third of that 2.3 pence per kWh!).

So, an average UK household should be paying only 2 pounds thirty pence a year for their natural gas.

In total, UK households should be paying around 3 pounds a year instead of around 1,200 pounds a year.

This same phenomenon is being played out all across the developed world.

Now, I am still waiting feedback from experts, but, on the basis of these numbers, UK (ad all countries) are paying around 400 times more than they should for their household energy bills.

 I have not done calculations for manufacturing, industry, agriculture, banking, insurance etc. Burt the prices these sectors charge to consumers is “inflated” by the price gouging and indirect taxation f natural gas prices. It is this which is depressing GDP ad inflating consumer prices.

Onwards!!!

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