Gas shortage?

[Maxyboy]

My brother has just arrived back from work to say for the second time in two weeks he has been told to turn his gas off in his factory.

This time they have been given no clue as to when it may go back on again so basically the factory is working at a fraction of it's capacity as they now can't produce steam.

He tells me the top 50 users in Scotland have been told the same. Apparently so domestic users can keep theirs on.

Anybody else heard of similar?

Also, the company I work for has around 2000MW of wind energy at their disposal, and how much have they got going today?

2MW!! Or one turbine!!

Its not going to be long until the electricity is off too!!

[Tipex]

There was something about this on the news a month or so back, same story about needing it for domestic customers.

[Andy_Bangle]

Time to call the Daily Mail?

[Maxyboy]

He says it's escossia gas who told him to shut it down via a handling company.

He's got 100+ men walking about with paint brushes and mops because his boilers can't run on oil as he hoped.

Not a good sign, but maybe a sign of the times.

[bazza_g]

This was being reported on Channel 4 news this evening, some industrial customers being told to seriously reduce consumption in order to keep domestic supplies flowing

[Maxyboy]

They were told to reduce last week but they sneakily just turned it down a few notches, but this time he has been told in no uncertain term it has to be off or risk sizeable fines.

He's not a happy bunny.

He knows of one other in the town too and they have no oil back up whatsoever.

[bazza_g]

I know its a real pain in the rear but it will be written in to his contract with the gas company that in times of exceptional demand they will do whatever it takes to maintain the domestic supply - the choice between keeping a factory running at full capacity or some elderly people freezing to death because their heating fails isn't a tricky one....

He's also going to be on an "interruptible supply" contract which means that he gets a discounted gas rate in return for the gas supplier having this option to reduce/cut his supply when needed.

Edited December 20, 2010 by bazza_g

[Andy_Bangle]

DIdn't the same thing happen last year? I remember a thread on here from last winter.

[stooH]

Shouldn't of sold all your gas to subsidise us south of the border...

[Scotty]

So should we all be jumping on capped rates now then?

[Milo]

I renewed our deal with eon in November and this is the first time I haven't been on a 14 month fixed rate for a while. The reason being, fixed rates were just shy of 25% more than the best variable deal which means they knew what was coming re wholesale prices and they are obviously expecting a couple more substantial consumer price increases over the next year.

Since 2008, their fixed rate deals were only marginally higher (if not lower as in the 2009 deal) than the best variable so to see them pegged so high means they know we're in for a year of energy price rises.