Energy sector's China syndrome

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/18/energy-sector-china-syndrome

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You quote a leader from the GMB (Nuclear expert raises fears over Chinese role in atomic plants, 18 October) as suggesting it is almost Orwellian to allow Chinese investment into our highly sensitive energy infrastructure, given that China has been linked to corporate hacking. The point is that the British government is guilty of Orwellian doublespeak. On one hand, we're told the Chinese are a threat to British interests with their industrial-scale hacking, yet George Osborne claims that paving the way for the Chinese to play a dominant role in the UK nuclear industry is a triumph for his diplomacy.

The fact is that, post-privatisation, the energy sector was starved of investment for years. Our infrastructure is creaking and the government has to go cap-in-hand to the Chinese begging for money. Far from being a triumph of Osborne's diplomatic skills, British weakness has been laid bare. We are now utterly dependent on foreign state-owned companies to keep the lights on. Chinese companies already own large chunks of our gas, electricity and water infrastructure. The government's disastrous energy policy means it had an almost nonexistent negotiating hand in China. The GMB is pragmatic and recognises that the investment is desperately needed. But we see no sign of Osborne securing any guaranteed benefits for UK manufacturing. Meanwhile, the Chinese manufacturing supply chain and nuclear industries will benefit from having a controlling interest in the UK nuclear industry. Gary Smith National secretary, GMB commercial services section

• The UK chancellor has just signed up to a deal where EDF and the Chinese get £14bn just for the construction of Hinkley C. The UK government has also promised profits to the French and Chinese with a guaranteed price which is twice the existing cost, beginning in 2025 for 35 more years, after which they walk away from the UK with their profits and leave all the waste behind for thousands of years. By 2025, electricity costs in the UK will already be lower than today's costs, as wind, wave, solar and tidal power become established and their initial development costs recovered (see Germany's success).

For nuclear, the taxpayers will also pay for the waste and decommissioning – £100bn and counting just for legacy waste. Taxpayers will also pay all nuclear insurance costs, from construction to onsite spent fuel storage, for thousands of years. It's not rocket science; it's not even secondary school maths. We're being conned by false threats of the lights going out and outright lies that nuclear is carbon free. And let's not even start on the health costs – yet another example of international government cover ups which make Nineteen Eighty-Four read like a fairy tale. Jo Brown Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset

• The Royal Academy of Engineering study, GB Electricity Capacity Margin, highlights the need to act now to avoid energy shortfalls. This report looks at a worst-case scenario where everything that could go wrong does go wrong all at the same time. The report highlights the need to facilitate a rapid move to deployment of new large-scale electricity generation to avoid supply shortfalls over the next 10 years, and also to enable the transition to a low-carbon energy system.

Capacity is tightening and there is a need to progress market reform to the point where capacity gets built. However, the consequences of unfortunate combinations of events (such as cold winter combined with plant failures beyond normal levels) would not be national blackouts. There are tools already in place to manage such situations, including voltage reductions, commercial contracts for short-term reductions of demand by industry, and in extremis, controlled and localised power cuts for short periods.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology has long argued for a balanced energy portfolio including nuclear and has drawn attention to the risks of uncertainty created by the lack of long-term strategic planning which is causing potential generators to hold off investing in new plant until the position on government support is clearer. Dr Simon Harrison Institution of Engineering and Technology

• Osborne says that using Chinese money to build a new nuclear power station will free up money for us to build more hospitals and schools. Does that infer that China is giving us the money? Brian Moss Tamworth, Staffordshire

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