From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Philip Bratby

News from the Telegraph:

Eastern European-style power systems could leave households ‘stuck’ with unaffordable energy

The eastern Ukrainian city of Alchevsk was in the throes of a cold snap when the heating to thousands of homes was suddenly cut off.

Pipes used to pump hot water from a central power plant to residential apartment blocks had fractured and broken down in the icy conditions, leaving some 60,000 people facing near-freezing temperatures for weeks.

Although it was 2006, the ageing communal power systems installed during the Soviet era in Ukraine were still in use.

Disputes over responsibility for the pipes’ upkeep had caused them to fall into disrepair and made them susceptible to failing. When they did, the consequences were a danger to life.

Alchevsk’s experience should serve as a stark warning for Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, as he eyes the roll-out of similar district heating systems for as many as five million households in Britain by 2050.

Billed as a way to reduce consumer energy costs and support the transition to net zero, the new systems would replace individual boilers in homes and civic buildings. Instead, these properties would be heated by waste power from central heating sources pumped via underground pipes.

Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has said the networks “will play a crucial role” in bringing efficient, low-cost heating systems to households.

But if Eastern Europe’s experience is anything to go by, the plans risk coming back to haunt the Energy Secretary.

Full story here.

As the article points out, billions of central govt funding will be funnelled to local councils, so they can dig up streets.

The Telegraph go on to list numerous examples of Soviet failures in their local heat systems. But most worrying of all is the imposition of state control of people’s home heating systems.

Given the horrifying inefficiency of local government, costs will undoubtedly rocket. And homeowners will have no alternative but to pay the bill, as they will be invoiced on a fixed annual basis, whether they use the heating or not.

From the Telegraph report:

Researchers at the Central European University in Budapest found that communist-era heating networks had contributed to high levels of energy poverty across the former Soviet bloc.

For example, following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, energy poverty in Bulgaria – where district heating serves more than one in four households – jumped to 20pc, compared to an EU average of 10.6pc.

This is because households are typically charged by apartment size or on a fixed annual fee rather than by how much power they use. Without the option to “shop around”, households have no choice but to absorb higher fees when operating costs rise at the centralised power plant.

Mike Foster, of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, says this gives rise to “crazy” examples of people opening windows as a way of cooling their properties.

“There’s no incentive to save money because you’ve already paid for the heating,” he says.