There are, as I used to preach endlessly, three imperatives which must guide any energy policy worthy of the name – security of supply, affordability and carbon reduction. But the greatest of these is security of supply.

If there was any need to be reminded of this, it was provided in Spain and Portugal this week. For up to 24 hours in some parts of these countries, power was lost and the ramifications were immense. Every train stopped, every ATM stopped paying out, industry ground to a halt, every screen went blank.

A commission has been set up to deliver definitive answers about why it happened. Inevitably, many fingers have been pointed at Spain’s reliance on renewable energy, particularly solar power, which may or may not prove to be the culprit. At one level, it doesn’t really matter.

The most important outcome is to remind governments that one of their non-negotiable duties is to keep the lights on. While public opinion might just about tolerate the novelty of a national power cut, it certainly will not expect it to happen again. No matter how many companies or regulators are involved, the buck stops with politicians.

There is no imminent threat, as far as we know, of anything similar happening here. Rightly, security of supply is given precedence over everything else. So we pay whatever the market dictates at any given minute of the day to ensure that supply stays ahead of demand, though sometimes it is a close-run thing. That’s one of the reasons we pay so much for electricity.

Read more by Brian Wilson........

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