The government is proposing a 3 year trial in which UK time will be advanced by 1 hour to match CET. It is hoped that this would aid the tourist industry, and it is easy to imagine how this could benefit many British businesses too. I wonder however, what the National Grid would say?

The UK National Grid has multiple High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnects with neighbouring countries, including France and Holland, and is planning another to Norway. They assist in maintaining security of supply by providing route diversity, and allowing international transfer and trading of surplus supply. But advancing UK time to CET will hamper the UK’s ability to trade energy with other countries.

At the moment, UK electricity demands don’t align with those in France. Simply put, we sell to them as they all arrive home from work, and buy from them when we all arrive home. We can only do this because our clocks differ by an hour. If all UK and French clocks are synchronised, then our peaks and troughs of demand will also be synchronised. What will we do with surplus demand when there is no-one to sell it to? And who will have surplus supply when we need to buy it?

So alignment of supply and demand reduce international energy trading opportunities and devalue interconnects. OK, so security of supply is very important, but will we really need three interconnects with Europe, two of which come ashore in Kent?

I’d vote for leaving UK time alone. What’s a single hour to a tourist? They will, after all, get it back when they return home.