One year on from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the world is still reeling from its impact in the form of an energy crisis. One of the toughest winters in the UK meant that many households were forced to choose between eating and heating.
Against this backdrop, iGlobal caught up with the Founder and Director of AKAP Energy, Anish Kapadia, to dig deeper into the energy crisis and how we can all make the optimum use of energy and also save on the soaring bills.
Born and brought up in Manchester, Kapadia's parents migrated from Mumbai in India. The British Indian professional moved to London for work and has been involved in the field of financial analysis and advice on the energy sector for around 20 years and regularly features in leading media outlets such as Bloomberg, CNBC and the ‘Financial Times’.
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As a well-known and respected analyst by senior management at the leading integrated oil companies, he has conducted in-depth research on key companies, regions, National Oil companies (NOCs), LNG (liquified natural gas) and exploration.
"This current energy crisis is a result of a few different things that are going on. The main issue has been the war in Ukraine, which has increased gas and electricity prices worldwide, including in the UK. On top of that, you have the world coming out of Covid. So the demand for gas and electricity has increased," explains Kapadia.
The UK government has taken a few measures, like capping the gas bill till April 2023, but it's still scary to look at the year ahead and the following winter.
"As it stands now, the price cap may go away, but the other thing to bear in mind is that the wholesale price of gas and electricity, which the producers were selling for, has decreased sharply over the last few months. This is because we've experienced a rather mild winter this year. The temperatures were a lot warmer than expected through December and early January, meaning demand has been lower over that," Kapadia notes.
"Also, with the higher wholesale prices of gas and electricity in the last six months of last year, industrial demands have declined. So the situation has improved. Now storage of gas primarily increased over the last few months, which means we should be more comfortable over the summer and be in a better position going into next winter," he adds.
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Dismissing a popular viewpoint that this energy crisis is artificial and the energy companies are to be blamed, Kapadia emphasised that there should not be any blame attached to the energy companies. He insists that government policies around the globe are to be condemned for moving away from producing traditional fuels for the past five years or so without ensuring a sufficient supply of alternative renewable energy.
"You can't have everything. There has to be a trade-off between having energy security, ensuring energy supply and cheap electricity. The governments haven't managed this well over the last decade and going forward, I don't think they're managing it well at all. So you're going to have higher than normal prices, and you're going to have spikes in prices because of the government's failings in their energy policy," he said.
However, at the moment, controlling everyday household appliances and using them smartly seems more feasible than worrying over government policies.
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And on that note, Kapadia offered some valuable insights:
The starting point is probably turning your thermostat down to as low as you feel comfortable, 18 degrees being the recommended level during winter.
It's better to keep your thermostat at a constant level during the day, because once you drop it down and then you need to warm it back up, you're using extra fuel to get back to the temperature you need.
While sleeping, you can use electric blankets that are a lot more energy efficient than heating the whole room.
You don't need incredibly boiling water. You can lower the boiler temperature down to 50 to 55 degrees.
Of all the appliances we use in our house, the number one culprit is your tumble dryer. Try substituting it with air drying on a cloth hanger.
A microwave is a much more energy-efficient way of cooking than using the oven. Or use an air fryer as a healthier and cost-saving alternative to standard gas or electric oven.
Boiling an electric kettle uses a lot of electricity, so only boil the amount of water that you need.
Ensure you fully load your dishwasher before putting it on, rather than running on half loads.
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*Info: AKAP Energy
