The value chain for any modern economy has as one of its earliest elements energy. Often that energy is delivered in the form of electricity. So you'd think, wouldn't you, that a political party interested in the well-being of the UK economy would be interested in electricty delivery. So why the silence on this in the run up to the election?
Electricity generators are on the horns of a trilemma. Allowing the lights to go out is very bad news. We expect the flick of a switch to work every time. But that means having sufficient capacity - including back-up for those pesky peaks in demand. Problem - this capacity costs money that has to come from the consumer's pocket. And consumers want cheap electricity. Trouble is - there's a third factor to take into account - lowering emissions. Fine - so let's have lots more green energy - except that it costs more and the cheapest forms are intermittent (wind, solar). Oh - we need more back-up!
It's a bit like rock-paper-scissors - there appears to be no win-win. All the main political parties appear to think that a free market solution can deliver (a rigged- and interferred-with-free market that is). Will the much vaunted capacity mechanism work? Don't hold your breath.
Perhaps the only way out of the trilemma is to consume less. That will require intervention on the demand side from parties that only intervene on the supply side when thay are dragged kicking and screaming to the decision point.
Silence may normally be golden but on this subject it is plain worrying.
