More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#2This is crazy. Was the UK dependent on Russian gas too?
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#3No post body was provided.
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#4This is crazy. Was the UK dependent on Russian gas too?
Well, when Europe/Germany started buying gas from anywhere, gas prices went up (basic supply and demand...), even India is seeing price shocks because well, the ships carrying liquified gas suddenly turned around to deliver their goods to Germany.
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#5Ironically, here in Norway we're usually WELL covered as far as energy surplus goes. 95% of our energy comes from hydropower, and our electricity prices have usually been some of the lowest in Europe.
But just to be on the safe side, energy (transfer) cables to Europe were expanded - on the off-chance that we'd need to import energy during times like drought.
That, of course, backfired - right now energy producers in Norway are exporting power hand over fist, and half the country is stuck with energy prices which are 15-20x historical prices.
Norway is divided into five energy regions, the two northernmost regions have been shielded, for no other reason than that the transfer capability between North and South is too poor/low. Right now the most expensive region in Norway (around 580€/MWh) is paying over FOUR HUNDRED times more for energy, than the cheapest region (around 1.4€/MWh).
So luckily the government has stepped in, and subsidizes / caps the utility bill to private citizens, after a certain price. But that is not the case for businesses - where many, especially smaller business operate on spot contracts. The large and energy intensive industries tend to operate on long-term contracts, spanning over years, but it's worse for restaurants / pubs / mom'n pop retail stores / etc. that suddenly see a hundredfold spike in utility bills.
Winter is going to be absolutely brutal.
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#6This is crazy. Was the UK dependent on Russian gas too?
Not really. We mainly rely on LNG so can get it from anywhere. Problem is the market has pushed gas prices up, also our interconnects are pushing electricity and gas to the mainland as fast as we can.
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#7Ironically, here in Norway we're usually WELL covered as far as energy surplus goes. 95% of our energy comes from hydropower, and our electricity prices have usually been some of the lowest in Europe. But just to be on the safe side, energy (transfer) cables to Europe were expanded - on the off-chance that we'd need to import energy during times like drought. That, of course, backfired - right now energy producers in…
> In Norway ... 95% of our energy comes from hydropower,
Meanwhile, in the Uk, the current leader is AWOL, and as for the next one, well: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/truss-suna...
> Winter is going to be absolutely brutal.
in the UK, agreed. English people don't usually take to the streets in protest, they prefer to stay warm at home watching TV, or go to the pub; but what will happen when people can't afford to turn on the heating and TV, and the pub is closed?
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#8This is crazy. Was the UK dependent on Russian gas too?
As you can see from this map [1], there is a lot of pipeline capacity between Great Britain and neighbouring countries.
Currently, gas is being shipped to southern Britain where there are LNG terminals and piped to Germany etc -- Britain lacks gas storage, Germany has storage space but lacks LNG terminals.
Britain sources about 40% of gas from British bits of the North Sea and another 40% from Norwegian North Sea. I'm not sure if all the rest is LNG imports. [2]
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Colour-online-European-g...
[2] https://oeuk.org.uk/norway-is-now-uks-primary-gas-supplier-a...
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#9This is crazy. Was the UK dependent on Russian gas too?
Not really. We mainly rely on LNG so can get it from anywhere. Problem is the market has pushed gas prices up, also our interconnects are pushing electricity and gas to the mainland as fast as we can.
Slightly under 80% of gas used in Britain comes from the North Sea, split roughly evenly between British and Norwegian gas fields.
Re: More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar
#10Color me skeptical. Demand for a pint isn't about to disappear just because energy costs are rising. Surely the more likely outcome is that pubs will pass along rising costs to consumers, who will absorb increased prices because: *A)* pubs are a centuries-old English social institution with no readily available alternative and *B)* alchohol is habit-forming.