Energy crisis: UK's EU exports enough to power 5.9m homes... as millions face poverty
OVER THE past few weeks, Britain has exported record levels of fuel to the EU, even as energy bills have soared for millions of Britons.
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The UK has been playing a critical role in helping the EU cut its addiction to Russian fossil fuels. Thanks to its geographical position, Britain has received shipments of oil and liquid gas from all over the world, which it then pumps to the rest of Europe. Acting as a “bridge” to the EU, the energy supplies flowing into Britain’s ports are set to replace the shortfalls in Russian gas supplies as EU begins to phase out Putin’s energy exports.
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According to Ying-Chin Chou, a senior gas analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights, since April, the pipelines sending gas from Britain to the continent had been “maximised”, with British consumers receiving a "substantial" discount to the export market as a result.
Data from S&P shows that since February, the UK has been exporting energy, rather than being an importer, with far higher exports than the 2016-2019 average.
Rob Lalor, director of analytics at electricity market specialists EnAppSys, observed that a similar trend has been taking place more recently with the electricity trade.
He said: “Since May 9 our power prices have dropped off, whereas in Europe they have pretty much stayed as they were over the previous months.
“That is pushing power into the continent. Looking back to the start of 2015, I can’t see a comparable period.”
According to statistics from the last week that was made public by UK_imports, an automated Twitter account that highlights the amount of energy in the UK’s grid, we imported a net total of 74.82GWh.
Meanwhile, interconnector data found that Britain exported 424.4GWh of energy to the EU and an additional 95.83GWh to Norway.
Of that 424.4 GWh, France received a bulk of it at 272.56GWh, followed by 122.79GWh to Belgium and 29.05GWh to the Netherlands.
According to calculations using Government data, this amount could power 5,914,982 homes in one week, or 113,749 in a year.
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These exports to the EU continued on Wednesday, with 59.48GWh being sent to France and 3.80GWh sent to the Netherlands.
These high export levels to Europe come as UK households are set to face crippling energy bills.
Earlier this week, Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee that he is expecting an increase to the energy price cap in October “in the region of £2,800”.
As a result of the April increase to £1,971 a year, there are 6.5 million people in fuel poverty.
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Mr Brearly also added that he expects around 12 million people to be thrown into fuel poverty, where energy bills eat up a significant share of their income.
In a bid to save millions of Britons from fuel poverty, Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a £15billion emergency support package that is set to provide £1,200 boost for 8m households.
The Chancellor also pledged help for every household in the country with a £400 discount on energy bills this winter.
