Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Not enough power

First published in Oxford Times Oxford Mail
Sir – Recently there was yet another annoying power cut in Magdalen Road that affected a few homes and businesses.
 
Sadly some of the  local small businesses, including the popular cafe Oxfork, had to throw away food as the fridge had no power.
 
During the previous power cuts I was assured that it was just  a technical fault that would soon be fixed.
 
It looks increasingly likely that these power cuts are a direct result of our flawed energy policy to close down fully operational power stations such as Didcot.
 
We have lost a huge amount of generational capacity as a result of this decision. We should ideally have 25 per cent spare capacity but we are now down to just four per cent which is not enough to cope with peak demand.
 
It is not the case that Didcot Power Station was past its sell-by date, as is the case with our ageing nuclear reactors. Didcot had recently undergone expensive improvements to its chimney stacks to give clean air emissions.
 
Consumers are being encouraged to curtail energy use which is a good thing.
 
However there are plans to build a lot of new homes in Oxford. These homes will all require electricity and therefore the situation may become critical.
 
Susan Thomas, Oxford
 
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