Rough

[albie]

No, not life in general....although it is!

The government actually do something right shocker;
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/15/rough-gas-storage-site-cleared-start-filling-within-weeks/

Mind, it was on their watch that Centrica mothballed it in 2017.

[normal rules]

This has been a ticking time bomb. We used to store huge reserves of gas in the uk. Current storage allows for demand for four or five winter days at most. Germany has 16 times the storage capacity of the uk .

[BillyStubbsTears]

This has been a ticking time bomb. We used to store huge reserves of gas in the uk. Current storage allows for demand for four or five winter days at most. Germany has 16 times the storage capacity of the uk .

That's what happens when you  a strategically important utility to be entirely managed on market principles.

[normal rules]

I remember as a lad seeing them big gas towers all over the place.

[normal rules]

This has been a ticking time bomb. We used to store huge reserves of gas in the uk. Current storage allows for demand for four or five winter days at most. Germany has 16 times the storage capacity of the uk .

That's what happens when you  a strategically important utility to be entirely managed on market principles.

Wasnt there a rather large cost implication to maintaining gas storage facilities also?

[albie]

Not compared to the cost implication of failing to do so, NR.

Trouble is it will be you and me that pick up the tab for this reckless error by Centrica.

Now that the storage has a future use for green hydrogen, it makes sense to restore it for gas in the meantime, then as we move off gas in the next few years, transfer over to hydrogen from the North Sea windfarms.

All this was known in 2017, which makes it all even more deplorable.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This has been a ticking time bomb. We used to store huge reserves of gas in the uk. Current storage allows for demand for four or five winter days at most. Germany has 16 times the storage capacity of the uk .

That's what happens when you  a strategically important utility to be entirely managed on market principles.

Wasnt there a rather large cost implication to maintaining gas storage facilities also?

Aye. There's a much bigger cost in maintaining an Army, Navy and Air Force when you don't need to use it most of the time.

I also insure my house every year, but I rarely have to call on the service that I'm paying for. Is that wasted money?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Thing is, Centrica's argument will be "the protection of the UK's strategic position in a shifting geo-political environment is nowt to do with us Guvnor. We can save money by cutting that service and if that puts the country in trouble down the line, that's someone else's problem."

A sensible Govt would step in at that point and take over.

[ravenrover]

If my memory serves me well...
Weren't there large Gas Towers as you went in on the left over the old North Bridge

[Ldr]

If my memory serves me well...
Weren't there large Gas Towers as you went in on the left over the old North Bridge

I remember them RR think a bit further up the riverbank from where the college is now

[drfchound]

Correct ldr, opposite Dockin Hill Road.

[Donnywolf]

... and one in Thorne opposite where Fire Station is now

[drfchound]

... and one in Thorne opposite where Fire Station is now

Yes Wolfie, I remember that one too, although you jogged my memory on that one.

[ravenrover]

Town gas they used to call it I think

[Donnywolf]

Abolishing Gas storage exactly akin to Peat on Moors in my day

Each year they would harvest Peat , not for that year , nor the next year but year 3 . It needed to be done that way

It carried on like that year after year , until the Accountants decided it was wrong "cost wise" and we should change to storing it only for the following years

Eventually a few wet summers meant nothing much could be harvested , and then it couldn't dry in only 1 year and when it was needed it could not be boosted with new stuff as that too was too wet

Result ... Buy in millions of tons of Bale's from Canada and Russia and Shipfuls of stuff from overseas

Of course all that expenditure possibly eclipsed the slow and steady spending on the traditional and tried and tested way of doing it BUT I never did hear anyone admit it

[danumdon]

Accountants, know the price of everything but the value of nothing, always been this way.