[quote MojoMoon]@OhYouBadBadKitten
The single market/internal energy market are the same thing - the basic principle being there should be unfettered flow of electricity and gas between EU member states (and some non members who are in the IEM).
So governments should not be banning exports or imports or putting punitive taxes on them
It makes the continent more robust and more efficient. Rather than each individual state needing to build lots of surplus capacity for emergencies that wastes resources sitting idle, you can share the risk over many countries.
In one of the early Ukraine - Russia gas conflict for example, some member states (in the east/central Europe) were more exposed to gas flows stopping from Ukraine. By having an internal energy market, they could adapt and import easily from other neighbours instead (who can get gas from the North Sea or via LNG).
In this case the issue is gas is expensive everywhere right now. Japan is having a similar issue as Spain and UK. As is coal, for anyone claiming we should burn that. China has told heavy industry in some areas to switch off as they are low on coal.
There are a few factors driving this - it was a cold winter last year so stocks of coal and gas were depleted, then a hot summer in parts of Asia meaning ongoing gas demand to make power for air con.
Plus Covid meant maintainance at gas fields, coal mines and power plants that should have taken place was delayed last year and has to take place this year. The UK has a few nuclear power plant units that are not running at the moment for example - because they are off for maintenance. It would have been helpful if they were able to run but they cannot.
And then a few extra surprises like a big fire at the cable which brings us power from France.
The long term answer is to continue to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, where you are always at the mercy of global supply and demand fundamentals that you cannot control
If we covered most of our demand by wind, solar, hydro, tidal etc power plus a bit of nuclear, then we'd not be exposed to this sort of issue.
That also means switching away from gas heating![/quote]
Thank you Mojo, I appreciate you taking the time to answer so comprehensively. I was reading earlier about Nord Stream 2 as well and how Europe might be being held to ransom by Russia over it?
It does all sound rather perfect stormish.
We were due to be having solar panels fitted this summer, alongside a battery. The irony is that a shortage of panels has severely delayed the scheme that we signed up to.