Brexit

[Sloop John B]

Feck! Have we any idea how this affects NI ?

On another note does anyone know if all EU online purchases are covered by a 30 return period?
That may be the way for me to home trial D&D 8c.

.sjb

I thought you were buying the Sonus Fabers instead? :)

I’ve learned the hard way that one needs to trial speakers in my room. I’m certainly very open to trying the Sonus Faber if possible.

I’ve a thread running on the Naim forum asking what speakers are being used with NAP 300s so that I can try some of what are available - hopefully as the other SF would say - on the island of Ireland, rather than just ROI.

.sjb

[Diapason]

Have some balls, man! I bought them sight unseen from Italy without even knowing anyone who'd ever heard them!

😉😂

[Ivor]

Have some balls, man! I bought them sight unseen from Italy without even knowing anyone who'd ever heard them!

😉😂

My hero.

[Ciaran]

Have some balls, man! I bought them sight unseen from Italy without even knowing anyone who'd ever heard them!

😉😂

My hero.

I'll second that!

[james]

https://www.thejournal.ie/dpd-uk-bre ... Jan2021/

"DPD 'pauses' parcel deliveries from UK to Ireland while Stena Line cancels multiple ferries amid Brexit fallout"

[Fran]

Yeah, sort of looks like things are falling apart alright - DPD said 20% of their parcels had to be returned to the sender for proper customs info. I suspect lots and lots of companies maybe don't have the info or training at hand to set this up and will have to learn the hard way.

[Adrian]

Brexit has only started. It’s in its infancy at the moment.

Big power games (political, international arm wrestling type) will continue for many more years between U.K. and E.U.

Recently I read a article stating it’s no coincidence that in five years time the fish quota will be up for renegotiation. But so also will be energy flows between U.K. and EU. Electrical power interconnectors.

If in 2026 the U.K. power grid is in deficit wrt generation capacity then this can be used as leverage when it comes to discussing fish quotas among other things.

The U.K. has wisely implemented a strategy for diversification of supply for natural gas. LNG import terminals, North Sea supply, North Sea storage, and gas interconnectors to Norway & Belgium.

Ireland on the other hand could not be considered as such.

There are three Natural Gas pipelines into Ireland. Widely referred to as independent. Yet they all originate from the one compressor station, Moffat in Scotland.

So despite the spin of independent gas supply lines we begin to understand that the pipelines are not so independent.

If the compressors in this station were to suffer a trip, Ireland would have about 4 hours before descending into darkness.

It would be a total blackout of the entire country. No mobile phones, no functioning hospitals or public services.

Yes it may be possible to black start the country using Corrib gas supply, but this is declining every month, expected to be almost completely exhausted by 2030.

Powering the grid from renewables alone would not be possible, as the grid is designed for synchronous generation and not asynchronous. It is currently being modified to accept 75% asynchronous share but not 100%.

In short if Moffat went down there would be large rolling blackouts nationwide.

The inconvenience to the public / industry & damage to Ireland’s credibility as a good place to invest for foreign companies would be large.

IMO Ireland requires to understand the concept of energy security / diversification of energy supply. Unfortunately there seems to be very little understanding of these concepts. There seems to be less will to do something about it either.

Having the inconvenience of parcel delays / extra paperwork / extra costs is a right pain. But it’s small beans in comparison the the leverage the U.K. / Scots have over Ireland.

IMO the Govt & all future Irish politicians would want to think twice or three times before they mouth off about the U.K. or attempt to strong arm the U.K. in any future international agreements.

Brexit is a process which is going to last generations, the ramifications of which we are only starting to comprehend.

[Naimaste]

Presto music https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/a ... y-1st-2021
Presto music has this explanation on their website detailing how they expect the management ( and costs) of purchases to the EU will operate.

@Adrian
Thats a scary scenario you have outlined. We seem to have forgotten energy independence, I remember it was brought to our attention in the late 70's oil crisis. After those events we created a national oil storage buffer capability as I remember it. Now we may be getting ourselves back into trouble again

[Adrian]

@ Naimaste,

The country is governed by donkeys & spin merchants. They can’t even sort out a health system which has been struggling for decades.

There’s been report after report written up highlighting the fact that Moffat is a point of vulnerability.

Jack s*** has been done about it for yonks.

WRT the strategic reserve of oil, yeah they built Whiddy Island, but only some of Ireland’s oil is stored there. The oil reserves are stored in different terminals around Europe. Geographic diversity. Ireland’s oil (strategic reserve) would have to be shipped in from other terminals.

But having oil is one thing. You have to burn the fuel oil in a power station to make electricty. There’s very few fuel oil burning power stations left, Poolbeg’s gone, I think Great Island is gone and not sure about Tarbert.

Anyway they are all too small / too old to provide enough power.

I believe there is a requirement for the more modern power stations to have duel fuel capability, burn gas or diesel oil, but fuel oil is not the same as diesel oil.

But I doubt if there’s enough diesel oil in the country to keep a modern power station going for long. For a modern 435 MW CCGT on diesel oil you’d be looking at 70-75m3 per hour.

A road tanker carries about 40 cubes, so you’d want two road tankers per hour to stay online at full capacity.

Multiply that across several stations, throw in travelling times, tanker filling times and any traffic snarl ups and it starts to get complicated very quickly.

It just annoys me at how vulnerable Ireland’s power situation actually is, yet there’s no shortage of politicians mouthing off on Twitter or boasting to foreign ambassadors at how many levers they can employ against the Brits.

Stones & glasshouses et cetra.

[Cyndale]

@ Naimaste,

The country is governed by donkeys & spin merchants. They can’t even sort out a health system which has been struggling for decades.

There’s been report after report written up highlighting the fact that Moffat is a point of vulnerability.

Jack s*** has been done about it for yonks.

WRT the strategic reserve of oil, yeah they built Whiddy Island, but only some of Ireland’s oil is stored there. The oil reserves are stored in different terminals around Europe. Geographic diversity. Ireland’s oil (strategic reserve) would have to be shipped in from other terminals.

But having oil is one thing. You have to burn the fuel oil in a power station to make electricty. There’s very few fuel oil burning power stations left, Poolbeg’s gone, I think Great Island is gone and not sure about Tarbert.

Anyway they are all too small / too old to provide enough power.

I believe there is a requirement for the more modern power stations to have duel fuel capability, burn gas or diesel oil, but fuel oil is not the same as diesel oil.

But I doubt if there’s enough diesel oil in the country to keep a modern power station going for long. For a modern 435 MW CCGT on diesel oil you’d be looking at 70-75m3 per hour.

A road tanker carries about 40 cubes, so you’d want two road tankers per hour to stay online at full capacity.

Multiply that across several stations, throw in travelling times, tanker filling times and any traffic snarl ups and it starts to get complicated very quickly.

It just annoys me at how vulnerable Ireland’s power situation actually is, yet there’s no shortage of politicians mouthing off on Twitter or boasting to foreign ambassadors at how many levers they can employ against the Brits.

Stones & glasshouses et cetra.

So, you are saying I won't be able to listen to my hi-fi in a couple of years!