It’s the usual scenario every time I walk into a conference hall, middle-aged men in identical suits who are, erm, follicly challenged. That hasn’t changed much since I started writing about the energy industry four years ago. Yes, I still get the ‘who is she and why is she here?’ looks, when I’m one of […]

Spain is known for its delicious food, warm weather, nice beaches and chilled out environment which attracts people from all over the world. But it’s also known for its high rate of unemployment – the reason why I am part of the Energy Live News reporting team in the UK. And of course the corruption […]

A lone rattlesnake shakes its tail. The tumbleweed blows. Frightened shopkeepers huddle behind closed shutters. At the saloon bar, push doors swing open: the energy brokers are in town. For years it’s been a wild, Wild West out in the energy market when it comes to brokers and TPIs – that’s third party intermediaries, don’t […]

Scrapping is such a strong, manly word – it’s a doing man’s word, a militaristically orderly word. So no wonder it rolled off David Cameron’s tongue so smoothly on Monday morning, as he refreshed his campaign to ditch cumbersome red tape. The environmental rule book, he declared, will be slimmed down by some 80,000 pages […]

They operate out of sight, out of mind. They don’t contact us, we don’t contact them. We don’t know who they are, or what they do – that is, until fair weather turns foul. Who are these shadowy mystery men and women? The power network firms of course! Affectionately known as the DNOs – distribution […]

Decorous as ever, David Cameron’s been at it this week, waving his Y-fronts in the general direction of big wads of shale gas cash. Oh, how things change in a few brief months. Last summer at the height of the Balcombe village tea party, our esteemed Prime Minister wouldn’t have been seen dead near a […]

For members of the British public, an instruction to cut back on cups of tea is like being told not to breathe. Having a cuppa is what we do first thing in the morning, as soon as we get to work, for a mid-morning break, a lunch-time slurp, an afternoon slump fixer and, finally, an […]

I’ve always been known for being a tad over ambitious by friends, family, university tutors – the latter were admirably tolerant of my musical about robots. (It’ll be on the West End one day, mark my words…) But a pledge to visit as many power stations as I could in 2013 was possibly my most […]

Everyone likes a good hobby. Including those who you might expect to have little free time – even politicians! Speaker John Bercow favours a game of tennis, Treasury man Danny Alexander enjoys fishing and “sports of all kinds” while Tory MP Bernard Jenkins is apparently a nudist. As for Ed Balls – if you didn’t […]

The post-party conference season’s Annual Karaoke Showdown is in full swing: competition is hotting up. Ed Balls has already done a hip-swinging Elvis rendition of “A little less conversation” and he’s promised to wheel out Greased Lightning so he can bring out his signature hand move from the Commons. Theresa May raised a few eyebrows […]