Russia rescued British energy consumers by ensuring a steady flow of gas into the power network as supplies from Norway faltered during the cold weather, industry customers users said today. As the National Grid warned of a "high" possibility of shortages in the north-east and south-west owing to another cold snap, the Major Energy Users' Council said Britain had been lucky to survive without shortages. Eddie Proffitt, chairman of the council's gas group, said: "The [British] gas industry has coped very well but we have been lucky. It would have been desperate if we had seen the kind of disputes between Russia and Ukraine that have reduced gas flows on the continent in the past two or three Januaries."
As the National Grid warned of a "high" possibility of shortages in the north-east and south-west owing to another cold snap, the Major Energy Users' Council said Britain had been lucky to survive without shortages. Eddie Proffitt, chairman of the council's gas group, said: "The [British] gas industry has coped very well but we have been lucky. It would have been desperate if we had seen the kind of disputes between Russia and Ukraine that have reduced gas flows on the continent in the past two or three Januaries."
This winter has shown the system we have devised does not have the resilience it should have. It runs on a 'just-in-time' principle which has economic benefits when it works but risks ending up in a 'just-too-late' if all goes wrong," said John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley. "If the Russians had hit the kind of problems with its neighbours seen in previous years then we would have toppled off the knife edge we have been sitting on with our gas supplies." The disruptions to supplies from Norway - normally seen as highly reliable - left Britain importing gas through the interconnector pipeline which runs from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Bacton in north Norfolk. In previous years shortages from Siberia have led German and Dutch suppliers to halt gas exports to Britain.
"If the Russians had hit the kind of problems with its neighbours seen in previous years then we would have toppled off the knife edge we have been sitting on with our gas supplies."
The disruptions to supplies from Norway - normally seen as highly reliable - left Britain importing gas through the interconnector pipeline which runs from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Bacton in north Norfolk. In previous years shortages from Siberia have led German and Dutch suppliers to halt gas exports to Britain.
Russia's lack of usual evilness saved Britain! LOL!
Except that it's never been shortages in Russian deliveires that led to reduced supplies to the UK, just higher local demand and priority given to local clients under existing contracts at times of normal Russian deliveries...
Way to rewrite history. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Now these people discover that efficiency harms resiliency? En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
So, the UK has a "competitive" market but no gas. Europe has a dysfunctional market and all the gas it needs. Tell me again, who it was who got it wrong?
