Open Letter To Claire Coutinho
By Paul Homewood
At the end of February, I penned this open letter to Claire Coutinho, following a dearth of wind.
One of my contacts is actually in her constituency, so was able to write to her as a constituent. He passed this letter on to her with a few personnel comments of his own.
This presented a great opportunity to get the answers straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. Similar letters to MPs are normally answered by a bog standard response from some lowly civil servant.
He has now received a reply, which I will publish tomorrow. It confirms all of the fears we have had that ministers in charge of energy policy have no idea about how our energy system works, and continue to believe the fairy tales they are fed by the green blob, who are the ones really in charge:
OPEN LETTER TO CLAIRE COUTINHO – SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ENERGY SECURITY & NET ZERO
May I start by asking if you are aware of the electricity mix during the windless spell last weekend. According to official data from the grid, in the 24 hours to 10.00 am on 25th February, wind power supplied only 2.5% of total generation. This works out at an average of 0.7 GW, just 2% of Britain’s wind capacity.
Meanwhile solar power only contributed about 1.4 GW, 8% of its capacity. However this is not dependable, as it often drops to about a quarter of this figure on cloudy days in winter, as it did earlier that week.
It is also worth noting that we are still using coal, despite your promise at COP28 that it would have been phased out by now!
This sort of weather can last for several weeks at a time in winter.
As it is the government’s plan to totally decarbonise the grid by 2035, (and by 2030 for Labour!), could you please explain how we will be able to run the grid without gas and coal then? Building yet more wind/solar farms won’t solve the problem – twice nothing is still nothing!
Battery storage, as I am sure you know, is of little help, because it can only supply enough for an hour or so. As for green hydrogen, not only would we need to spend tens of billions building electrolysers, seasonal storage, distribution and a fleet of CCGT power stations to burn it, there would simply not be enough wind and solar farms to provide the electricity needed in the first place. It is not conceivable that any of this could be in place by 2035, nor any new nuclear after Hinkley.
Switching demand from peak to off peak will also be of no help, because we will be desperately short of power at all times of day, and for weeks on end.
Carbon capture is often quoted as a solution, even though there is no evidence it actually works at scale. But, more pertinently, CCS cannot be fitted to nearly all of our CCGT fleet, as it is far too old. That would mean we would need to build a whole new fleet of CCS ready gas power stations, all at colossal expense. It would, of course, increase our dependence on fossil fuels, not reduce it, as CCS is a very fuel inefficient process. And we would need to begin that construction now, something which there are no plans for currently.
The problem is actually worse than I have laid out, because electricity demand is projected to be much higher in 2035, with EVs and heat pumps.
We are already far too dangerously reliant on imported electricity, which provided a quarter of our power in the above 24-hour period. When there are low winds here, the same usually occurs in the rest of NW Europe as well. On the same day that our wind output dropped away last week, Germany’s fell to less than half its usual level.
When the EU has also closed its coal and gas plants, it will also be desperately short of electricity during windless days. What guarantees do we have that we will still be able to import it then?
The first half of your job is “Energy Security”. I suggest you focus more on that, and less on the other half!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Good letter Paul. I have sent her several letters and always get a gobbledygook reply. I have reached the conclusion that the civil servants working in DESNZ are technically incompetent / illiterate. They are more concerned with producing some kind of defensive response than they are in providing some form of truth or reality.
May I introduce you to Brandolini’s Law. “The bullshit asymmetry principle, also known as Brandolini’s Law, states that the amount of energy required to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. This is the challenge of fake news.”
It’s not just Coutinho. I pointed out the absurdity of a house’s energy performance being reliant on someone with a few hours of online training wandering around your house guessing what was behind the walls and under the floor, then suggesting you spend £6,000 to save £30 a year electricity. I said the banks would be the problem and would stop lending on houses rated D or worse, but all I got was disingenuous replies from Lord Callanan.
Euan, I was an avid reader of your Energy Matters blog. One particular point you made that always sticks in my mind was in your “Blackout” series where you advised every one to have a stash of cash readily available in order to buy goods/services when the power failed.
Perversely now, though, even having cash seems to be of no use. I recently walked out of a Sainsbury’s supermarket leaving over £100 of shopping on the conveyor belt as an “I.T. issue” prevented the tills working. I had the cash but they couldn’t/wouldn’t even try to take it.
All of this seriously surprises me. Until recently retiring I used to apply for contracts under the “OJEU” process where the Pre-Qualification Questionaire (PQQ) nearly always requested proof of systems resilience to adverse events notably power or telecoms outages. It rather seems to me that now there is becoming a begrudging acceptance of system’s failures in much the same way as we now accept driving along rutted cart tracks that were once quaintly known as roads.
I guess my point is that it seems to have gone beyond simply saying that the politician/civil servants/advisors are as thick as mince to the view that this ain’t accidental.
Hi Ray, I’m on two correspondence lists 1) Geol Soc London Rebel Group and 2) CO2 coalition. Over 250 members, many exceptionally well qualified, all on the same page. Howard Dewhirst runs the former and Will Happer the latter. Both are signed up to the idea of Green Billionaires subverting the fabric of our society.
My current round of activity is prompted by “a plan” to build a 6GW, 400kV power line that will pass to the W of Aberdeen. This monster will have towers 70m tall, double the height of normal pylons. I am not directly affected, but value our countryside and understand the anxiety caused to those along the route.
I have a correspondence group of about 10 Tory politicians (I am a member of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party) and one of them was surprised at the insinuation that the Tories were to blame for this power line. Unable to make the connection between the Climate Change Act, renewable targets everywhere, and the need for power lines to transmit the electricity from point of origin to point of use. So I think there can be widespread ignorance alongside good intentions. The local MPs and MSPs are all very much on board in opposition to this development, but getting through to Claire Coutinho is a different matter.
One thing massively overlooked by the evolution of our e-system, is the trouble that old people have coping with it (I am rapidly approaching that group). Also the need for £1000 “smart phone” to exist in today’s world.
It’s no accident Ray, it’s definitely planned and run with military devotion
Britain is broken and has been for a long time now – sad but true.
“Proof of systems resilience to adverse events notably power or telecoms outages”
And that aspect concerns me as a former telecom engineer. BT/Openreach are now forcing us down the “Fibre to the Cabinet or House” route, with VOIP if we still want a landline phone. This means you lose the back up of old copper lines, which derived their power from the exchange, all of which have batteries & diesel gensets. Not so the thousands of “Street Corner” cabinets, which rely on local mains and only have battery backup. Once they go flat you’ll have no internet OR landline phone – even if you have power for the router and phone or adaptor. And don’t assume a mobile phone will save you because the above will apply to virtually all base stations as well. The only ones which might still work will be those sitting on top of exchanges or comms centres, and they’ll quickly be overloaded by desperate people…
You don’t need a £1000 smart phone – I bought a Samsung for £120 a year or so ago.
Well said Evan – love the Energy Matters btw
Euan sorry, blooming auto spell check must be programmed by Gates!
I got rid of my spell chequer years ago. I now basque in the glory of making my own spelling mistakes!!!!!
My guess is that Coutino has no qualifications or, saving that, the nous to even understand the concepts covered in your letter. My bet is that she will shift it sideways for an answer just like Claire Wosname did when I wrote to her years ago. It’ll be intresting to read what kind of response you get.
I understood she was an Oxbridge maths graduate, so, if she can’t grasp the basic arithmetic involved, it’s a poor lookout for the rest of us.
I hold a different view on “Pure” Maths graduates – they are not necessarily that good at real world practicalities nor even really understand them.
I graduated in Physics, (maths was rather important) and moved into engineering as a profession (maths was exceptionally important!) BUT….it’s a “different type” of maths.
Running cabling calculations though Young’s elasticity modulus is a world apart from anything a pure maths graduate would be familiar with. They most likely would only understand it in an abstract numerical way on a sheet of paper/computer screen rather than even knowing what the cable may actually look like. Even if they did, they would have no real world understanding of the relevance of the numbers they crunched.
It is also worth pointing out her degree was in one of those rather ephemerally fashionable courses of “Mathematics and Philosophy ” i.e. a “soft” degree for the “elite”.
As a professionally qualified and competent Electrical Engineer and HV Project Manager, in the Energy & power generation / distribution network sectors, with a keen academic interest in Applied Maths & Physics, for 40+ years, I would be happy to advise Claire on net zero renewables if she were interested in the other side of the debate, but she isn’t and her boss isn’t so it’s swiftly off to the cliff edge, where an incoming Labour Govt can throw us off it!
Maths with philosophy. Not the same thing at all.
Yes, sounds like a BS degree. My parents met at Birmingham when my mother (late for the lecture) sat next to my father in one of the few seats at the front that were available. That spark set the next 70 years in motion. My mother read maths and my father physics, some shared lectures. My father went off to fight the Japanese in Burma and my mother to work in a munitions factory and then be part of a team designing a supersonic wind tunnel. Fairly confident they would both have agreed with my assessment of ‘BS degree’.
Sounds to me like there are people on here who would cross the road to start an argument with themselves.
“Sounds to me like there are people on here who would cross the road to start an argument with themselves.”
You’re gonna have to explain that comment a bit more for the likes of us alleged road crossers.
Oxbridge now almost completely captured by the Thermaggedon cult, with a few retired exceptions. Any ambitious academic has to cite climate change to get published and get grants.
By accident I discovered Claire pitched up here
https://hysata.com/our-company/
What a wonderful excuse tor a trip to the Sydney opera.
I have written in similar vein to my MP Flick Drummond and have had no coherent reply. She sent me a piece of word processor boilerplate about how successful COP28 had been. Failed to mention the absence of the major coal burning countries. Sad, laughable, worryingly dangerous.
Written by AI no doubt
I haven’t bothered writing to my MP, Margaret Beckett, for a number of years. She didn’t reply to a couple of letters about 12 years ago, probably off caravaning somewhere, I assume she’ll be demob happy now.
One issue here may be the ease with which one can write to an MP, via an independent website. I wrote to my MP via this website asking him to attend an Andrew Bridgen debate about excess deaths, got no reply, and was not expecting one, because of this ease. You can imagine that armies of lefties flood this website on a daily basis, for every departure of the Lefty Outrage Bus Service.
I doubt that the Civil Service is involved in replying, probably a solitary lowly-paid assistant to the MP.
I avoided using such means for that very reason. Instead I wrote direct to my MP requesting he attend the latest Bridgend debate on 18 Apr 24. I did get a reply but not until 24 Apr in which he (or an aid) wrote “I was busy with pre-arranged parliamentary activities on 18th” – standard get out clause? The debate was on a Thursday afternoon and it is standard procedure for MPs to decamp in the morning.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the political class, bar a few, are totally captured by the globalist socialism agenda, of which AGW and its net zero are one facet – no one high up in DESNZ has the slightest clue about, or competence in Energy – they rely on 20 something Grad SPADs, who know less than them and biased activists, benefitting quangos and those eco warriors in suits at Ofgem, to form policy for them, all aligned to the globalist net zero drive
Couthino has an investment banking background, many MPs are lawyers, doctors or PPE career politicians, not an Engineer to be found in WEFminster
I would write to my MP on this subject but…I’m not 100% confident she could even begin to understand it. At least I am confident she can read, but anymore than that is open to question. By her own admission she was stunned to have been elected and if there was any fairness in our voting system she would not have been. The vast majority of local permanent residents do not want anything to do with her and she does not represent their views.
So how did she get elected? Well having the world’s highest student to resident ratio (Canterbury) and allowing the students the option of where they chose to vote rather f@cks things up. I just pray we have the next election outside university term time and we can get rid of Rosie (Covid lockdown didn’t apply to me) Duffield.
p.s. she doesn’t even live in the same country as her constituency FFS. But then again her (umpteenth) partner is a wannabe impresario in the film industry and wants to hang around Ryan Reynolds in Wrexham. But like the Guinness, I’m not bitter!
Things could be worse Ray, you could have Helen ‘wet lettuce’ Whately as your MP. Her seat is so safe that I think she may end up as leader of the rump conservatives (the last MP standing). I’ve been moved to the ‘lunatic fringe’ by her SpAads and don’t even get a reply now.
My MP, see above, got 51% of the vote without the students.
Just looked up Helen Whately on wikipedia. She is 20 years (to the exact day) younger than me. They say you are getting old when the coppers start looking younger. I must be getting very old because I thought she looked young enough to be my grand daughter!!!!
I’m older than the Archbishop of Canterbury, an alarming thought.
Ray S; if memory serves, Rosie Duffield does at least have some backbone and the strength of her convictions in that she stood up against Labour’s posturing on the biological woman question, as recently acknowledged by Keir Starmer. Of course that doesn’t make her any good as an MP!
Good piece! The truth at last!!
Paul, if you response is anything like the responses I have received from our local Labour, CONsocialist and Liberal MP’s, then it will be written by a wonk with no intention of covering up the fact that any question asked is answered by addressing a completely unrelated point/s.
These energy pundits say…
UK Needs to Double Clean Energy Deployment to Meet Net Zero Target – May 01, 2024
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/UK-Needs-to-Double-Clean-Energy-Deployment-to-Meet-Net-Zero-Target.html
🥱
They work to gain riches and power as fast as they can, they fear that the truths may someday get accepted and put them out of business and out of office.
Problem is, people who are working or hold office, lose their position whenever they go against the consensus.
More people speak out, after they retire with a secure income, but there are not enough of us with enough influence.
@ gezza1298 May 2, 2024 1:06 am
The type of phone you have is irrelevant: if the base stations go down for lack of mains power (and battery backup), you’ll have no signal even on an old Nokia. This might not be quite so serious if you have a conventional landline which continues working, but with internet dependent VOIP you’ll have NO contact with the outside world. Should you be elderly and/or suffer from health issues, this can literally mean life or death. And it’s not just about you being able to call for help – the emergency services are heavily reliant on mobile data services as well…
Get a PLB perhaps?
https://gtc.co.uk/collections/personal-locator-beacons