National Grid Share Discussion Threads

[tonio] 06/1/2014 16:22

I guess its North american snow thats pushing the share price down, maybe it's stuck against that triangle.

[yf23_1] 01/1/2014 12:49

Could be on breakout from triangle downtrendline.

[zeppo] 01/1/2014 12:06

Will the income diminish?

If not, it is a hold for its yield, n'est pas?

z

[megordon] 31/12/2013 09:16

Tipped as a good stock to sell for 2014, can't find the link again at the moment but sure someone will have it.
Time to grab the profits I reckon.

[gbb483] 28/12/2013 15:51

Given the slim volumes and the 'pros' being on holiday, of course there will be erratic movements. Live with it.

[mazarin] 27/12/2013 21:50

In my view some rather erratic mov't on the 'sp' today, having made steady progress until 1400 (US opened) then suddenly dropped rapidly, but in final minutes struggled to make modest recovery, though not entirely recovering ground to close up 3p to (£7.90).

[spacecake] 27/12/2013 08:41

rech,

Have some previous experience of living with centralized heating station back in the 1980's it went something like this.

1960's council builds thousands of flats in two large estates with two large central heating stations. The heating stations were fired on oil as gas was expensive at the time. 1970's - 1980's Reliability problems were so bad (no heating in the depth of winter) that the local women and children occupied the council offices for a week. The deal agreed with the council was the demolish the heating station and fit individual gas boilers to all the flats, the running cost were so high tenants moved out, other would not move in... result ... demolition.

The other large estate ran on central oil boiler... oil too expensive .. high unemployment in the 1980's led to refusal to pay heating element of the rent, evictions, voids, etc.

The whole thing was badly conceived, badly specified, badly operated.

[darias] 23/12/2013 13:14

rech

It has been tried.

I go to many high density estates with communal heating and the tenants have the heating going full blast. In Sweden and Scandinavian countries where they have colder winters they need the heating operating at full blast even during the day when the property is empty but do we need the heating on a day like today when the outside temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit in London.

If the occupier pays for the heating then they put on jumpers before turning on the heating.

What would be better is if we fixed our cold damp 19th century housing or better still demolished and rebuilt.

[2hoggy] 23/12/2013 09:56

comman sense goes out the window when you become a politician.

[rech] 23/12/2013 09:44

tonio,

HS2 and Trident come first because we're a world power, and have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, innit?

A property developer was showing his new build flats to me. I enquired about heating - electric storage. No central heating? I received a blank response. Visit Sweden, or Czech Republic, where entire villages have a single central heating source. The radiators war up in September and are turned off in May. If you're too warm, then just turn off individual radiators. That's innovation, but why not in UK?

Vote for me, and I'll pass a law forbidding government from runnng a deficit. On pain of life incarceration in the Tower.

[tonio] 20/12/2013 13:03

Yes why we don't have such systems I don't know. Maybe we aren't quite the advanced country we think or maybe it's just that coal was so cheap we thought we needn't bother. I really have no idea. In Switzerland even nuclear power stations have combined heat and power (CHP), but I've not heard any mention of it for our ridiculously expensive nuclear power station order. It's just life in the UK I guess. We're great at innovation but sadly incredibly slow and short-termist when it comes to decisions at national level. Even then we go for seemingly useless show ornaments like windmills, HS2 and replacing Trident - surely we'd be better spending this sort of cash on CHP infrastructure, a national water grid, ... There are so many basic things things we need, it's a little sad to see what the national priorities appear to be.

[bigbertie] 20/12/2013 09:49

Why is Helsinki so cheap for electricity? Is it hydro or something?
edit - or perhaps they all have wood-burners and burn pine trees?

[septimus quaid] 20/12/2013 02:29

A fair and informative article which gives the lie to much of the disproportionate bleating about UK energy costs.

...but why is it tucked away in an obscure part of the BBC's website and not reported on their main news outlet?


ANS, it does not suit the BBC's pro-Labour, anti-Conservative bias.

[m100] 19/12/2013 23:17

@Septimus Quaid
"I saw some information the other day that showed UK household energy costs were a lower % of household income than either France or Germany.
No way is the left-wing BBC propaganda machine going to make a big deal out of that little snippet of information."

Maybe not as a % of income but this is a recent comparison of gas and electricity prices across the EU on the BBC website



The source of the info used in the BBC article

www.vaasaett.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/HEPI-CEE-article.pdf



www.fuelpoverty.eu

[deanforester] 19/12/2013 18:00

Even if undersea gasification is successful, the product will need treatment before it can be used in lieu of natural gas. You have to inject oxygen and steam to maintain the reaction, which should produce a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Very useful as a starting point for synthesis of hydrocarbons, but the Calorific value is about 1/3rd that of natural gas as it is. That part of the process is well known, as in the Fischer Tropsch process used by Sasol.

Back in the 1950s, the NCB ran experiments at Newman Spinney on underground gasification, using air and steam. It worked, but the CV of the gas was about 15% of that of towns gas, or 8% of that of natural gas. It needed help to burn. Don't hold your hopes too high for Algy Cluff's ideas.

[septimus quaid] 19/12/2013 16:53

I saw some information the other day that showed UK household energy costs were a lower % of household income than either France or Germany.

No way is the left-wing BBC propaganda machine going to make a big deal out of that little snippet of information.

[tonio] 19/12/2013 10:19

Well,here's a couple of general points - there was an article on the BBC website 'Energy bills: Who pays the most in Europe?' on Dec 10th that showed prices in the UK were relatively very low. That seems to have had very little discussion at all. Of course most of our present electricity is from coal,gas and nuclear.
There was also the prospect of undersea coal gasification raised by Algy Cluff - surely as good an option for the UK as fracking - and seemingly a better option than nuclear given the cost of providing it, not to mention wind and solar.
As to NG share price behaviour, we see today so very clearly that share prices (and much else) in the UK are heavily influenced by whatever is happening in the US (what's new?). Whether long term a share is a growth share, an income share, both or neither is about as predictable as climate change. Although whatever electricity sources we end up with NG will have to connect it up - so that's good.

[newbank] 15/12/2013 12:25

EssentialInvestor,

Does anyone discuss the share price on this thread?, or does this tedious discussion
just grind on, which is of no interest to 99.99% of investors.

M100 and Pierre are ex-CEGB (by the sounds of it) and like all professionals they are passionate about their subject area. However, though I sympathise with your thirst for share price data, to say that what they discuss is of no interest is a bit silly as most investors want to know about the business they invest in (the discussion they were having relates to the Energy policy which will eventually effect revenue and SP)and the changing prospects for the future.

Currently, media hype and the Government trying to appease Voters (don't forget its only 17 Months to the next election) the coalition are already breaking rank with what policy they wish to persue. Labour is promising this and that and whilst the cold weather continues energy bills is news that fill up the BBC propaganda slots, sell papers and give politicians a way of buying votes. How the 'Energy Policy' as a whole changes in the future will determine how successful Companies like NG will be.

City wide boys want quick gains so with that remit I cannot see the share price rising much above £8 / share until next May (final results), when I expect a final div announcement, paid in Aug, in the region of 28p / share, should start to raise the share price

Long term; with the revenue and subsequent profit being closely correlated to Connection charges and asset base and with the £25 Billion build programme over the next five years, should see a regulated asset base value in the region of £45billion and with approx 3.5billion shares in circ should see a gradual rise in the share price to £12 - £13 / share by 2020, excluding inflation but accounting for depreciation of current assets, ie, IMHO a conservative value. NG is an income investment rather than a fast gamble.

[mazarin] 12/12/2013 20:55

May be more a case of 'Playing the fiddle while Rome burns' perhaps?