OFFICIAL: Scottish Energy News thinks big first with the big think-tanks

The London-based Centre for Policy Studies – one of the UK’s most influential think-tanks – recently published a report on the threat to British electricity supply.

Respected academic author Tony Lodge said in his report, ‘The Great Green Hangover’ that that decades of energy policy mismanagement have overseen the shutdown of energy plants vital to Britain’s long-term energy security.

Analysis in the report showed that for the first time Britain will not have enough dispatchable energy generation capacity to cover forecast demand from next year due to the systematic early closure of power plants.

New data for the report showed that the average dispatchable capacity remaining by the end of March 2016 is now calculated to be 52,360MW, this contrasted with National Grid’s 2015/2016 Winter Outlook demand forecast of 54,200MW.

This was reported in full by Scottish Energy News and – to varying degrees – 24 hours later by a pack of catch-up London-based daily newspapers.

• The Telegraph:The UK’s energy ‘policy’ is an act of national suicide
• The Times:New gas and nuclear plants to see off coal
• The Mail on Sunday:Green taxes ‘could cause blackouts next year’
• The Times:Another week, another policy
• The Sun:Britain’s last coal plant to close within 10 years
• City A.M.:Energy demand to outpace National Grid supply in 2016 – Centre for Policy Studies
• The Yorkshire Post:Tony Lodge: Energy security and the premature death of coal
• Energy & Environment Management:Report urges Government to act now to avoid energy crisis
• Scottish Energy News:Think-tank urges Govt. to act now to avoid UK power cuts in 2016
• World Coal:On the verge of an energy crisis