Extracting the urine

I was glad to hear on this mornings news that there was likely to be a fairly long term enquiry into the performance of the energy market and the behaviour of the 'big six'; I was less enamoured to hear on the radio news this afternoon that yet again, the boss of Centrica is inferring that such an enquiry would lead to the 'lights going out' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26734203

Who is he trying to kid? It is not in Centrica's interest to have the 'lights go out' - at any time. If consumers are not being supplied with energy, they are not going to be paying for it, so Centrica's revenue would suffer most of all. Indeed, if supplies are going to be that erratic, people won't be long in moving to some sort of alternatives where they can (solar chargers etc?) - this would dent Centrica's revenues on a more permanent basis.

These people must think we are all stupid!

 

I also think they have cried wolf one time too many with their threats of blackouts; their inference is that companies will be reluctant to invest in infrastructure if the profit margins are under threat - forgive me, but should maintenance and upgrade of the infrastructure not be a continual core cost? Some might argue that they have done well from the infrastructure that they were 'gifted' at the time of privatisation, and that they should have been thinking about ongoing network development a lot earlier than now?