Great article, Jackie. May I suggest that Dumfries and Galloway should be added to your list since The Scottish Borders is a distinct region. Scottish Rural Action might have useful stats on the severity of the issues.
I agree with every syllable of this, Jackie. During the General Election, I lost count of the number of times these issues came up in hustings or on the door. I believe we need to push the new Highland MPs to try and resurrect Drew Hendry’s Highland Energy Rebate bill which was thwarted at every turn by the then government. Perhaps if we can get the Lib Dem’s now in office to try, it might have a chance of being brought to birth. It won’t be as good as independence but it might act as a sticking plaster over the red Tories winter fuel cuts.
Thanks. I think areas that don’t have access to the gas grid should get a different tariff. That’s a big chunk of Wales too and possibly Cornwall. Localised pricing is really a no brainer if Labour is serious about boosting economic growth. The grid is nowhere near being able to take the amount of renewable power from Scotland that it should. Sadly it seems a lot of people with the ear of the regulator have been making more money from the interconnectors. The ownership structure in Scotland is a bit different. Privatising this stuff has had all kinds of consequences for Scotland and the UK.
Following on, do either you have any thoughts about rural provision and dependancy on single phase supply? It might be irrelevant in the scheme of things, I don't know.
A lot of rural Scotland is constrained by the capacity of the local network. There seems to be some technological innovations going on around that. There was one in Applecross to use local hydro to power a rapid EV charger but I can’t find any recent info about it online. Is there anything going on like that in D&G?
Great article, Jackie. May I suggest that Dumfries and Galloway should be added to your list since The Scottish Borders is a distinct region. Scottish Rural Action might have useful stats on the severity of the issues.
Yes, they should. I’ll stick that in
I agree with every syllable of this, Jackie. During the General Election, I lost count of the number of times these issues came up in hustings or on the door. I believe we need to push the new Highland MPs to try and resurrect Drew Hendry’s Highland Energy Rebate bill which was thwarted at every turn by the then government. Perhaps if we can get the Lib Dem’s now in office to try, it might have a chance of being brought to birth. It won’t be as good as independence but it might act as a sticking plaster over the red Tories winter fuel cuts.
Thanks. I think areas that don’t have access to the gas grid should get a different tariff. That’s a big chunk of Wales too and possibly Cornwall. Localised pricing is really a no brainer if Labour is serious about boosting economic growth. The grid is nowhere near being able to take the amount of renewable power from Scotland that it should. Sadly it seems a lot of people with the ear of the regulator have been making more money from the interconnectors. The ownership structure in Scotland is a bit different. Privatising this stuff has had all kinds of consequences for Scotland and the UK.
Only one other European country privatised its National Grid, Portugal, and it was forced too on a fire sale of assets
Following on, do either you have any thoughts about rural provision and dependancy on single phase supply? It might be irrelevant in the scheme of things, I don't know.
A lot of rural Scotland is constrained by the capacity of the local network. There seems to be some technological innovations going on around that. There was one in Applecross to use local hydro to power a rapid EV charger but I can’t find any recent info about it online. Is there anything going on like that in D&G?