Next generation

On Thursday morning at 9am I checked on Extranet what the GB electricity supply situation was. Total GB demand was

45,000MW. The flow from Scotland to England was stated as 4,400MW. This means that Scotland was supplying almost 10 per cent of England’s electricity as well as its own demand, which itself was probably around 4,400MW. This comes about because Scotland has a large installed capacity of windfarms which obviously produce a lot of electricity in windy weather.

I say all this not because I think we should be cheering, but because we should in fact

be wary of this direction of travel. Nowhere do I read in the press that, on the above figures, England is dependent on Scotland to keep its lights on. We almost take for granted that a lot of electricity always flows from Scotland to England.

But what if the electricity flows were in the other direction. How Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and her Unionist allies would take great pleasure in pointing out to Scots how dependent we would be on England to keep our lights on if we were ever to become independent.

Yet that is the direction the Scottish Government is allowing us to travel in.

Energy policy is reserved to Westminster, although from the many optimistic statements from the Scottish Government on energy matters you would be forgiven for not really understanding the significance of this.

What is not being publicly highlighted by the Scottish Government is that despite record amounts of intermittent wind farm capacity being constructed, our dispatchable capacity is being systematically shut down and is not being replaced.

We have lost Cockenzie and Longannet, and Hunterston B will go in the near future.

We desperately need a new gas station to maintain a selfsufficient Scottish Grid but the Scottish Government is powerless to get one built. We also need the proposed hydro pumped storage plants to store much of that wind generated electricity we presently send to England.

The lights will not go out in Scotland, we will be assured. Those interconnectors that are presently taking our renewable electricity south will happily be used to bring English dispatchable gasfired electricity north when the wind isn’t blowing up here.

Do we really want to move from self sufficiency to dependence?

My message to the SNP Government’s energy minister? Get the finger out and demand that electricity generation policy is handed over to Holyrood.

NICK DEKKER Nairn Way, Cumbernauld