Book reviews

terns with large power stations con- nected, even though many now doubt whether the large economies of scale from such power systems are realiz- able in practice.

By the end of Chapter 3, two-thirds of the text has been covered. Into the remaining one-third Collier compress- es most of the 'project cycle': project identification, preparation, justifica- tion, construction, operation and ex- post evaluation plus a view of the Bank's role. The students of power system planning and implementation are not ca t e red for adequa te ly . However, in Chapter 5 the section on the role of the World Bank is very much worth reading, especially for

anyone new to that institution, for there are very many false beliefs in existence about the Bank and its role. The huge foreign exchange require- ments for investment and fuel for the electric power sector in most develop- ing countries is underlined, although Collier is somewhat unconvincing as to why such vast amounts of money should be spent, vis-d-vis the amounts spent in other sectors.

In the section at the end of Chapter 5, 'The Bank's objectives: a brief digression', Collier leaves the reader to think about some fundamental questions which the Bank has no doubt been considering for some length of time: for example, 'how

much should the Bank's objectives differ from borrower's objectives?'. 'Is Bank "leverage" to achieve institution building allowable?'. 'How much say should the Bank have in the setting of electricity prices (always a social "hot potato")? ' . The fact that such ques- tions can still surface after over 30 years of World Bank lending for elec- tric power is a measure of both the complexity of the power sector and the success of very extensive lending programmes in the sector to date.

7-. W. Berrie Energy Consultant

UK electricity industry ENERGY POLICY- BRITAIN'S ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY

by Martin Ince

Junction Books, London, 1983, £12.50 hardback, £5.95 paperback

Martin Ince's Energy Policy- Britain's Electricity Industry is a splendid book, carefully researched in the detailed influences affecting energy decisions and the direction the energy industries have been following up to now. Apar t from the possibility of strong disagree- ment on one fundamental, it could be said that this book answers a long-felt need for both an in-depth examination of the pressures and vacua that cur- rently exist and an informed, justifi- able indication of the future direction of energy policy. It is a critique which sticks to facts and makes a case for change without rhetoric, exaggeration or polemic.

Unfortunately, even if one accepts all that this brightly and interestingly presented text offers, one must still agree that the book's sub-title correct- ly expresses either the situation as it is or should be. It is an indisputable fact that the UK electricity industry, even before the advent of the Electricity Council, has dominated UK energy policy. While doubting the wisdom of this, Martin Ince accepts both historic- al fact and continuing influence to

some indefinite end, refusing to fore- cast the nature of the change he suggests is inevitable.

While correctly identifying and ana- lysing the energy demand picture, and introducing perhaps the most illumi- nating - and alarming - parallel yet, the author points to a most significant factor influencing energy strategy, although he does not differentiate between strategy and policy. The pa- rallel example he uses equates the whole of British Gas's output with the waste of heat from power generation, but he still rates electricity as the more important factor of energy policy.

Had Martin Ince not been denied the opportunity to evaluate combined heat and power from experience, he would have seen very clearly that this colossal waste of heat is the key to new energy thinking, planning and overall energy strategy. His otherwise accu- rate evaluation of CHP would not be so hesitant and unconvinced. He seems to have done the right thinking, but remains awed by the scale of the problem - he cannot quite accept that solo generation is at the outset a mistaken perpetuation of a production error - one of engineering economics entirely determined by an originally insatiable demand, only recently re- duced to realistic proportions, for electricity at any price.

The lack of CHP in the UK virtually eliminates the possibility of useful

comparisons. To understand both the deliberate obstruction CHP has en- countered, and its potential, it is essential to have seen heat distribution as a public service in towns and cities where it has become a major and indispensable feature of the commun- ity. CHP in West Germany, Scandina- via and right across the USSR and its COMECON satellites, is serving tens of millions of satisfied customers. It is also gaining ground in the Netherlands and against organized obstruction in Belgium, Italy and France, where the astonishingly extensive Paris steam heating system never gets mentioned.

Had the author of this book had the opportunity to study the politics of all international energy strategies with the unbiased and excellent penetra- t ion he shows here, and had he been able to make the essential compari- sons that are obvious when examined on this scale, his final question would have been phrased very differently. At this point of Energy Policy - Britain's Electricity Industry he would have dropped the subtitle. He says

The nuclear industry's confidence that ideas like CHP belong in the technical and economic wasteland seems dubiously founded at best, as the confidence of proponents of other technologies grow in parallel with the quality of the case they make. The cost of finding out who is right by a side-by-side trial of new generating and heat-providing technology would be tiny and if the success of the same tech- nologies overseas is any guide the benefits for British equipment manufacturers, work forces and energy consumers - in other words, everybody - would be gigantic.

480 ENERGY POLICY December 1984

Now, this is said in discussion of the point made by Sir Walter Marshall in his 1979 report on CHP - the feasibil- ity of one or more Heat Boards. With just a little more input from the international scene (it must not be forgotten that energy technology is ubiquitous) taking the step which puts heat into the picture, to think in terms of energy is a very small remove indeed.

Heat and power

Energy is both heat and power; elec- tricity is the smaller component and must remain so - fixed in its place by the laws of physics. The third and last step is to plan all energy strategy not with electricity as the primary consid- eration, but only as the by-product of the long-proven practice of public utility heat service distribution. It is not for nothing that these units now flourish, expanding as Local Energy Authorities, to become entirely re-

sponsible for all services - gas, water, street-lighting, district heating, tele- phones and electricity, and often all other municipal engineering services i n c l u d i n g sewage and r u b b i s h collection/incineration.

That Martin Ince should have mis- sed - or avoided - this basic point does not entirely spoil his book, odd though that may seem. The probing and questioning done here is long over- due, and the process must not stop.

A conclusion Mr Ince's book points to is that no single energy industry should dominate the scene. There is no longer any need for an Electricity Council, as he hints; what he has not quite got around to is suggesting that an Energy Council should take its place. And that, although another story, fits the same words and music.

Norman Jenkins International Energy Strategy Whitehill, Ewshot, Surrey, UK

Oil data handbook OIL ECONOMISTS HANDBOOK 1984

by Gilbert Jenkins

Applied Science Publishers, London and New York, 282 pp, 1984

This is an interesting and unusual book, the title of which is a bit of a misnomer. It is made up of two sections: first, a collection of strange and useful statistics, and second, a dictionary of terms - followed by an

eight page chronology of events be- tween 1919 and 1983.

The author, Gilbert Jenkins, has used, in a disaggregated fashion, the historical data in the annual BP Statis- tical Review of Worm Energy. The data are thus quite reliable. For this reviewer - who for years searched for some of the tables Jenkins supplies - this book is a real treat. It provides many interesting historical data - and also many that you will never need. I wonder how many people really want to know the price of naphtha in

Book reviews~Publications received

November 1976 in Rotterdam! Or what the gas oil demand in Finland was in the second quarter of 1968! That the book is called an oil econom- ist's handbook is also a little baffling. There is no oil economics in the book. Perhaps, the author felt that oil eco- nomists spend their lives running re- gressions and, therefore, would enjoy themselves playing with the monthly prices and quarterly consumption data provided.

The second section - a dictionary of terms is adequate, though much is missing, particularly in reference to the oil companies. This section is presumably being updated and im- proved every year.

As a handbook, I would still prefer the more standard industry texts, such as BP's Our Industry Petroleum, or Shell's The Petroleum Handbook. These will tell you a lot more about the industry, whether you are a tech- nical or non-technical person and whether you are new or old to the business. If you have a thirst for strange but interesting data, you will need Jenkins' book. For myself, if I had not received a free copy for review, I would have invested in buying such a book. I am not sure, however, if I would want to buy a new copy every year. For future years, the author might wish to think about reducing some of the old data and adding some useful petroleum econo- mic terms and concepts to the book. This should improve its value to the readers significantly.

Fereidun Fesharaki and Sharon L. Hoffman

East-West Center, Honolulu

Publications received Acid Deposition Causes and Effects: A State Assessment Model edited by Alex E.S. Green and Wayne H. Smith (Govern- ment Institutes, Inc, 966 Hungerford Drive, No 24 RockviUe, MD 20850, USA, 1983, 316 pp, $38.00, $41.00 surface mail)

Advances in Energy Systems and Technolo- gy edited by Peter Auer and David Doug- las (Academic Press, Orlando, FL 32887, 1983, 213 pp, $49.00)

Advances in Petroleum Geochemistry Vol 1 edited by Jim Brooks and Dietrich Welte

(Academic Press Inc, Orlando, FL 32887, 1984, 355 pp, £35.10, $49.50) Contains extended reviews by experts on recent advances in petroleum geochemis- try.

An Atlas of Renewable Energy Sources in the United Kingdom and North America by Julian Mustoe (Wiley, Chichester, UK, 1984, 202 pp, £37.00) Analyses the size and geographical dis- tribution of the eight principal renewable energy resources of North America and the UK.

Biogas Plants in Europe: A Practical Hand- book edited by M. Demuynck, E.J. Nyns and W. Palz, Solar Energy R and D in the European Community, Series E, Volume 6 (Reidel, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 1984, 339 pp, Dr 130.00) This book is conceived to give guidance on the state-of-the-art and possible future developments relating to biogas plants.

Cambridge Energy Research Group Work in Progress, April 1984 by Richard Eden and other members of the Cambridge Energy Research Group (Cambridge Ener- gy Research Group, Department of Phy- sics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 1984, 31 pp)

ENERGY POLICY December 1984 481