National Grid CEO John Pettigrew
(Picture: REUTERS)So, where’s that Energy Security Strategy, eh?
The government was due to publish its big report into how we wean ourselves off international oil and gas — read: protect ourselves from the Kremlin — last week but publication has been pushed back again and again, amid reports of divisions between No. 10 and No. 11 Downing Street over spending.
Meanwhile, investors are wasting no time snapping up the UK’s energy assets. The French are today pouring £3 billion into a new wind project off the coast of Yorkshire and National Grid has offloaded 60% of the UK’s gas pipe network to a consortium of investors led by Australia’s Macquarie. That’s the same Macquarie that owned Thames Water for a decade until 2017, taking fat dividends and leaving it with a huge debt pile when it sold up.
The assets it has just acquired play “a critical role in the UK energy landscape, reliably transporting the gas needed to heat homes and power industry and electricity generation,” Macquarie says. It promises to keep the network “secure, safe, and reliable while enabling the UK to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels, at least cost to consumers”.
Of course, it would say that. Should we believe them? Sir Vince Cable, a former business secretary, tells the Times Macquarie’s “record as owner of Thames Water raises questions over its suitability to run a crucial utility”.
The government may well decide to step in and seek more iron-clad assurances from the new Aussie owner, which was once dubbed the “vampire kangaroo” by socialist paper Morning Star.
But the deal highlights the bigger issue facing the government: how can we have energy security when we are dependent on overseas cash to fund our infrastructure? Perhaps answering that head scratcher is what’s slowing down the government’s strategy.
