Potential Food and Energy Shortage Across the World

What amazes me most is that they don't give an explanation for the rising electricity prices. We don't get electricity from Ukraine - so that cannot be used as an argument. So it is all made by ??? Don't know what people believe.
Yeah, it's pretty scary going to the supermarket now.

The market prices for electricity and energy in general are all connected to a certain extent. In the UK we import relatively little gas and oil from Russia (4% of gas imports last year) but the price of gas here has increased hugely. 100% renewable based energy tariffs are no cheaper than those based on fossil fuels, it all is based on the supply from the same grid. It is an exploitative scam, and I think it always will be, whatever the source of energy, whilst the pathocrats remain in control. Interconnectivity should make us strong, not vulnerable, but that only works if it is fair. That's why there is hope for organisations like BRICS etc.
 
The price of electicity is oriented on the gaspricing, so the most expensive raw material for electricity generation.
I was waiting to be back at home to make a copy of my electricity bill.
Here in Spain the government has created a new "tax" on our electricity bill until May next year approx.
My total bill in July was 103 euros with new tax of 33 euros for gas. Yes, gas they say they use to produce electricity. Heu... excuse me?! In summary, I used 70 euros of electricity which should be my bill but with the new tax... 103 euros. The gas price 0.12 vary everytime depending on market price at time.
In August I had to pay 202 euros. 77 euros gas price @ this time 0,15. 125 euros electricity resulting in paying 202 euros.
How less fortunate people are going to manage? Even I won't be able to keep it up for long.
How on earth did the new tax passed? With the push for "greener," so more electricity, they created a tax which forces you to pay gas you are not using in your daily life, but they say they use for the fabrication of my electricity ??
Will there be an electrical tax also for the gas you are using. Ridiculous!!
I feel better now venting my frustration...
 
The price of electicity is oriented on the gaspricing, so the most expensive raw material for electricity generation.
Thank you! So it is like they can do what they want! There is no need to do this, at least a person with some common sense (Hausverstand) would say, I guess.
Today I was visiting a friend and we talked about our situation. She said she did not order gas for the winter, has no warm water, only will turn on her storage for warm water every 2nd week. Same as I do. I have a boiler that works with electricity and I only turn it on for an hour every two week for hair washing. Daily showering works well with cold water for me. Dishwashing goes either with the pot for tea water or with a pot on my oven that will be heated with wood.

For me this is not so tragic because I had an aunt who lived her whole live without a bathroom and very simple washing situations and I learned that one can live without "luxury" - as it now seems to be with having hot water all time..
 
Stockholm Gas

So, yesterday we got a notification about price increases on Stockholms city gas and fees, from 1 Jan 2023. They are not that bad: in total it will go up from 32 to 45€ per month. Apparently 80% of Stockholms gas comes from Biomass. Where the rest comes from, I do not know. Perhaps Norway ?

I should add that we have no gas counters. You can use much gas as you need for cooking (which also works well for when the apartment is cold-ish, you can just turn the gas stove on for a while - it helps quickly i have noticed ;-))

Electricity in Stockholm with everything included and taxes in total, equals to around 40 cents per kilowatt hour, which is a lot for anyone who lives in houses and villas getting absurdly high bills. Even worse it is in the south. When i think of our pensioners - it breaks my heart. How does a lonely person get through that ?! I simply don’t know…

In South Sweden 1 kWh costs 55-66 cents which is extremely expensive. In Northern Sweden 1 kWh costs around 5 cents in total.

Strange: The electricity connections between North and South Sweden are worse (a lot fewer) than between South Sweden and Europe.

Food prices: have increased a lot more lately from already traditionally high levels for decades here in Sweden. But now it becomes increasingly noticeable. At times on certain products even ridiculously high .

A kilo butter approaches now 14-15 € / 150 SEK. Milk and milk products also got a lot more expensive; some products have have gone up 50%. Even wheat has gotten a lot more expensive too (which wasn’t affected back in march 2022 during the first wave of large price hikes)

Milk producing farms: How many commercial farmers with milk cows do we have left in Sweden ? Uhm… 2400 i believe ? (i have to check the statistics i saved on my home computer). They are around 55% fewer compared to year 2010…
 
Correction
Swedish Commerical Farmers with Milk Cows in Sweden

Regarding the amount commercial farmers with milk cows here in Sweden - i found the notice with the correct numbers - and i was a bit off in my earlier entry when I wrote 2400. They are 2955 (in year 2021). But one thing is obvious no matter: Companies with milk cows get fewer and fewer.

Speaking of cows; I went grocery last morning, noticing that the latest price on cheese in Sweden, was a whopping 200 SEK / 19 € per kilo. It used to be around 120-135 SEK / 11-13 € a kilo. (Albeit extra price on cheese still exists, so one get's away... with not as furious prices)

Number of holdings with dairy cows in Sweden
Fakta. Antal företag med mjölkkor i Sverige

2010: 5 619
2011: 5 260
2012: 4 968
2013: 4 669
2014: 4 394
2015: 4 169
2016: 3 872
2017: 3 614
2018: 3 477
2019: 3 253
2020: 3 087

2021: 2 955

Source: the Swedish Board of Agriculture's statistical database
Källa: Jordbruksverkets statistikdatabas
 
Now masses of people in London!!!!

Protesters rally in London demanding action on energy prices and cost of living crisis​

Live stream:

Added:
Another live stream on YT if someone doesn´t have VK

Also, Hundreds gather in Glasgow to protest against cost of living crisis

 
How many will follow?, I do not want to wonder. 😐

One of Northern Europe’s largest vegetable brands HAK to shut down entire production for six weeks
Dutch vegetable and pulses company HAK is set to temporarily halt its production for six weeks from January due to energy costs, the company said on October 3.

“With current energy prices, it is not feasible to continue production in winter,” the company said.

“It’s not just the high price, but also the uncertainty,” said managing director Timo Hoogeboom.

“Today it is two euros for a cubic metre of gas, it has also been three euros at times. What it will be in January or February we don’t know. So to be on the safe side, we will stay closed then.

According to Hoogeboom, HAK products will be on the shelves though as the company will plan the break when the harvest season is already over.

“Products like pulses are more flexible to plan,” HAK said.

Due to the energy crisis, HAK, who takes vegetables from the fields during the harvest season and then preserves them in glass jars to preserve them, said the heating required for the process consumes a lot of energy.

They also said that the glass jars the company uses are more expensive due to the increased cost of energy.

Hoogeboom also said that he expects its prices to continue to rise.

“Our applesauce has already become about 20 cents more expensive. If energy prices stay this high, you have to think that products across the board will become 30 per cent more expensive.”

For a 1.80 euro jar of applesauce, it will then soon become about 2.20-2.30 euros, Hoogeboom said.

If it is no longer possible to pass on higher energy prices to consumers, the availability of products may eventually also be compromised
, he said.
He added: “If companies have to sell below cost for months on end, things will go wrong.”

For HAK, he does not expect empty shelves for the time being, as reported by nos.nl.

“But for the chain, I don’t rule it out, especially in January, February and March.” A temporary energy cap for companies could help, the HAK director added.
 
Hefty sum...

State aid: Commission approves €450 million German measure to replace electricity generation amid Russian natural gas shortages​

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a temporary German measure to enable five lignite-fired power plants to be on stand-by and ready to be activated to the extent needed in the event of natural gas shortages. The measure will compensate the operators of the power plants for the costs of getting the plants ready to operate if needed. The measure, under which aid may be provided until 31 March 2024 at the latest, will contribute to safeguarding natural gas availability amidst Russian natural gas shortages in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “This temporary measure will enable Germany to mitigate the economic impact of Putin's war against Ukraine, as it will contribute to replacing gas in the event of shortage, thereby enhancing our preparedness for the next winter.”

The German measure
Germany notified the Commission its plan to adopt a measure, with an estimated budget of €450 million, to establish a temporary lignite supply reserve, consisting of five lignite-fired power plants that are currently deactivated, and compensate the plant operators for the costs incurred in ensuring the plants are operational and ready to return to the market in case of need. The operators will not receive compensation for the time they are operating the plants, as at that moment they will be participating in the market and will be earning revenues. The aim of the measure is to save natural gas by providing the German and, more generally, the European electricity system with additional generation capacity in the short-term in order to replace electricity generation from Russian natural gas.
Under the measure, the five power plants will be transferred into a temporary lignite supply reserve for the period between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2024. Germany will also compensate the two affected operators, Lausitz Energie Kraftwerke AG and RWE AG, for the necessary costs incurred to ensure the plants are operational and ready to return to the market.
In case of risk of natural gas shortage, the five plants in the reserve would be called and could enter the electricity market for a certain period of time, where they would participate like any other electricity generator. The permission to operate in the market would be given initially for a limited period, at maximum until June 2023, but could be prolonged by the German authorities until end March 2024, in case of need. For the proven necessary reactivation and standby of these plants, the plant operators would be compensated, which would however be set off against the profits made on the market for the time they would operate.

The Commission's assessment
The Commission assessed the measure under EU State aid rules, in particular Article 107(3)(b) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which allows Member States to grant aid to specific companies or sectors to remedy a serious disturbance in a Member State's economy. The Commission found that:
  • The aid has a limited impact on competition and trade within the EU. In particular, it is appropriate and necessary to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State (i.e. risk of gas shortage) by enhancing preparedness for next winter.
  • The measure is proportionate as it will only cover those costs that are necessary to enable the plants to operate until the end of March 2024 if needed. Moreover, necessary safeguards limiting the aid to the minimum necessary will be in place, including a settlement mechanism to ensure that the costs actually incurred by the operators are offset against the profits that they had made when operating the plants. Therefore, any potential overcompensation of the beneficiaries is excluded.
  • The aid is limited in time as it will only apply until 31 March 2024 at the latest.
On this basis, the Commission approved the German measure under EU State aid rules.

Background
EU State aid rules allow Member States to grant aid to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State.
On 20 July 2022 the Commission issued its Communication "Save gas for a safe winter", which highlights the need to take action now to save natural gas as it can reduce both the risk and the costs for Europe in case of further or full disruption of natural gas supply, strengthening European energy resilience. In the Communication, the Commission stressed that: “All efforts across Member States, in power generation, industries and households, should first focus on substitution possibilities that would enable to shift away from the use of natural gas, while always bearing in mind the trade-offs such choices may imply, as for instance, when (re-)introducing for example coal into the mix, even on a temporary basis. The priority is to switch fuels towards clean energy sources, wherever technically feasible, in a timely and cost-effective manner. […] Natural gas substitution possibilities towards more carbon-intensive sources such as diesel or coal, will need to be temporarily deployed as well, with the necessary environmental safeguard clauses, where no other cleaner solutions are possible. To this end, time-limited fuel switching possibilities can be supported at the EU and Member State levels.”
The five lignite-fired power plants that will be transferred into the temporary lignite supply reserve are currently deactivated, in line with the Commission decision of 27 May 2016. Three of such lignite-fired power plants were closed in 2018 and the other two in 2019. They will be only called upon in extreme emergency situations, i.e. after all market-based, emergency and other reserve measures have been applied. These five plants will be permanently decommissioned at the end of the temporary lignite supply reserve (end March 2024).
The non-confidential version of the decision will be made available under the case number SA.103662 in the State aid register on the Commission's competition website once any confidentiality issues have been resolved. New publications of State aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the Competition Weekly e-News.
 
I guess it's time to rediscover low tech solutions in all areas.

When I heard about that insane proposal it seems there was more going on than meets the eye with these coming electrical shutdowns.
Add to that Macron recently stated that he would push the current influx of migrants to the countryside. 🤔

Winter is coming.

Meanwhile (as noted above), the Dutch population braces for the coming winter. What could go wrong?



Sadly Karen is pro-Ukraine as the current Russian referendum prepares for the coming global crisis.


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It is as if the entire population of Mexico were left without electricity.


Bangladesh faces power blackout after national grid fails​


About 140 million people in Bangladesh are without power after a grid failure caused widespread blackouts, the government’s utility company said.

The grid failed at 2pm (08:00 GMT) and, apart from parts of Bangladesh’s northwest, “the rest of the country is without power”, Power Development Board spokesman Shamim Ahsan said on Tuesday.

Officials of the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board said power transmission failed somewhere in the eastern part of the country.

All power plants tripped and electricity was cut in the capital Dhaka and other big cities, said Hasan.

Engineers were trying to determine where and why the glitches happened and it could take hours to restore the system, he said.

Bangladesh’s recent impressive economic growth has been threatened by power shortages since the government suspended operations of all diesel-run power plants to reduce the cost of imports as prices have soared.

 
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