Green, ethical, energy issues in the news
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HiWith Smart meters etc you can probably dump excess leccy generation into people's hot water tanks like we do with the iBoost. And even into electric car batteries / other distributed battery storage.....
Take care not to join the smart-meter evangelism movement which seems to be popping up on social media all over the place at the moment, much of which seems to toe a party line so closely that you'd think that the sources were being employed (?) ...
Smart-meters aren't really all that smart, they're simply dumb meters with additional registers & logs which have the added ability to communicate, both with a local meshed IOT and more widely (effectively via built in mobile network comms) with a central data centre (if you have decent data network coverage!). Internal communications can be on a push or pull basis, but don't expect much push technology to be available as it's far more likely that you'll need an additional home automation or EMS (Energy Management System), which don't come for 'free' and are certainly not currently anywhere near cheap, which would simply poll the meter, retrieve data & make all of the 'smart' decisions ... the meter simply sits there and allows the industry to apply and meter various forms of punitive charges when they decide that punitive charges are necessary ....
HTH
Z"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit. " ...... Aristotle
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Hi
Take care not to join the smart-meter evangelism movement which seems to be popping up on social media all over the place at the moment, much of which seems to toe a party line so closely that you'd think that the sources were being employed (?) ...
Smart-meters aren't really all that smart, they're simply dumb meters with additional registers & logs which have the added ability to communicate, both with a local meshed IOT and more widely (effectively via built in mobile network comms) with a central data centre (if you have decent data network coverage!). Internal communications can be on a push or pull basis, but don't expect much push technology to be available as it's far more likely that you'll need an additional home automation or EMS (Energy Management System), which don't come for 'free' and are certainly not currently anywhere near cheap, which would simply poll the meter, retrieve data & make all of the 'smart' decisions ... the meter simply sits there and allows the industry to apply and meter various forms of punitive charges when they decide that punitive charges are necessary ....
HTH
Z
Once you apply punitive charging regimes people pretty quickly find ways of changing behavior.....I think....0 -
HiOnce you apply punitive charging regimes people pretty quickly find ways of changing behavior.....
Yes, but simply consider that the anticipated behaviour change in question will impact directly on the overnight demand trough which is currently deep enough to require that the carrot of E7 cheap rate electricity needs to be used in order to attract enough custom to just about 'break even' on direct costs overnight. This provides a substantial amount of the heating provision for low to medium rise dwellings in high density population areas ... so, in a case where daily demand is effectively smoothed through a combination of behavioural changes and the anticipated growth of overnight EV charging - what exactly happens to the requirement or justification of cheaper overnight tariffs where necessary ? ...
... Canny lot these smart-meter 'salesmen' - only tell you what they want you to think ...
... <reaches for 'tin hat' and stealthily skulks back into faraday cage ... 
>
HTH
Z"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit. " ...... Aristotle0 -
The only really 'smart' thing that smart meters can do is to switch individual houses off remotely.Hi
Take care not to join the smart-meter evangelism movement which seems to be popping up on social media all over the place at the moment, much of which seems to toe a party line so closely that you'd think that the sources were being employed (?)
Absolutely everything else they do can easily be replicated with some form of Energy monitor (I would say Wattson but that option seems to have vanished).
Hands up who would welcome having their supply interrupted ! (hasn't it gone quiet ) NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq50 -
Hi
Yes, but simply consider that the anticipated behaviour change in question will impact directly on the overnight demand trough which is currently deep enough to require that the carrot of E7 cheap rate electricity needs to be used in order to attract enough custom to just about 'break even' on direct costs overnight. This provides a substantial amount of the heating provision for low to medium rise dwellings in high density population areas ... so, in a case where daily demand is effectively smoothed through a combination of behavioural changes and the anticipated growth of overnight EV charging - what exactly happens to the requirement or justification of cheaper overnight tariffs where necessary ? ...
... Canny lot these smart-meter 'salesmen' - only tell you what they want you to think ... ... <reaches for 'tin hat' and stealthily skulks back into faraday cage ... >
HTH
Z
I wonder what the demise of coal and possibly ultimately nuclear will do to E7? Neither but especially nuclear cannot easily be 'dialled back' to match lower overnight demand, hence E7.
Given that it looks doubtful that even one new nuclear power station (Hinkley Point) will be built, it seems unlikely they will all be replaced. Natural gas generation does not have the same difficulty following demand and of course there is never an excess of solar in the small hours Solar install June 2022, Bath
4.8 kW array, Growatt SPH5000 inverter, 2x Growatt ML33RTA batteries.
SSW roof. ~22° pitch, BISF house. 12 x 400W Hyundai panels0 -
I wonder what the demise of coal and possibly ultimately nuclear will do to E7? Neither but especially nuclear cannot easily be 'dialled back' to match lower overnight demand, hence E7.
It might still work with wind, as that generates more in the winter months and at night. It is weaker in the summer, and of course PV won't generate at night, but presumably E7 demand is lower then too.
There's lots of talk in various discussions about just how good and cheap the next reactors will be, ones that may soon get licences for the UK. But the talk comes from the usual pro-nukers, and their numbers are often 'interesting'.
Particularly interesting when you see how fast off-shore wind is now moving. One person posts almost every day on the Guardian how off-shore wind costs 75% more than Hinkley. He compares 2012 contracts of £140 v's £92.
But new contracts today (allowing for the inflationary uplift in Hinkley) are £120 v's £99.
Further uplifting Hinkley to 2020 and comparing to the recent Dutch off-shore contract, gives us €73 v's €128, and the fun reversal stat that Hinkley costs 75% more.
I think I recall Z saying sometime back that the dithering between RE and nuclear is leading to little of both. I think this will continue and E7 will struggle when the current nuclear fleet are shutdown.
Mart.Mart. Cardiff. 5.58 kWp PV systems (3.58 ESE & 2.0 WNW)
For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.0 -
The UN are not exactly impressed by recent UK environment policies:-
UN criticises UK and Germany for betraying Paris climate dealMary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN special envoy on climate change and El Niño, said she had to speak out after Germany promised compensation for coal power and the UK provided tax breaks for oil and gas.
Governments in Paris last year not only pledged to phase out fossil fuels in the longterm but to make flows of finance consistent with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“They’ve [the British government] introduced new tax breaks for oil and gas in 2015 that will cost the UK taxpayer billions between 2015 and 2020, and at the same time they’ve cut support for renewables and for energy efficiency,” she told the Guardian.
“It’s regrettable. That’s not in the spirit [of Paris]. In many ways, the UK was a real leader [on climate change] and hopefully the UK will become again a real leader. But it’s not at the moment.”
The criticism comes as Theresa May’s government has come under fire at home and abroad for its leadership on climate change after it abolished the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Senior figures such as the outgoing UN climate change chief have urged the UK not to abandon its climate commitments as it leaves the EU. “Let us remember that the Brexit vote was not about climate change,” said Christiana Figueres.
Mart.Mart. Cardiff. 5.58 kWp PV systems (3.58 ESE & 2.0 WNW)
For general PV advice please see the PV FAQ thread on the Green & Ethical Board.0 -
Hands up who would welcome having their supply interrupted ! (hasn't it gone quiet )
Exactly, how much more will you pay to be on a tariff that doesn't include rolling power cuts....
(Then again if it did cost several hundred more per annum for surety of supply then that would give a big boost to battery storage. The market can solve theses things very efficiently if it is allowed to - problem is the solutions may well not be very 'fair')....I think....0 -
Nobody knows. But you can be pretty sure that you'd get a better deal by signing up to a new tariff that takes that into account than you would by fitting a 'smart' meter now and hoping that such a deal would apply to you too.Exactly, how much more will you pay to be on a tariff that doesn't include rolling power cuts)....
As you say, if there was an attractive tariff that included remote disconnections then the savings might pay for battery installation.(Then again if it did cost several hundred more per annum for surety of supply then that would give a big boost to battery storage. The market can solve theses things very efficiently if it is allowed to - problem is the solutions may well not be very 'fair')....NE Derbyshire.4kWp S Facing 17.5deg slope (dormer roof).24kWh of Pylontech batteries with Lux controller BEV : Hyundai Ioniq50 -
HiExactly, how much more will you pay to be on a tariff that doesn't include rolling power cuts....
... It's called a market economy ... if demand is starting to outstrip supply, the price goes up which in turn stimulates investment decisions in order to gain access to the available demand-led turnover/margins ... market stabilised, status-quo re-established, competition returns ....
The issue over the past few decades is that the government have been 'fiddling' with the market by dangling various & vast incentives in front of multinational energy companies (nuclear, wind, CCS etc) which have resulted in the investment decision making process moving towards 'milking-the-system' for as much funding as is possible rather than on rational business grounds .... in the meantime average cold spell (ACS) peak demand seems to be continuing to fall by around 750MW per year, whilst total installed capacity is growing by around 1500MW per year ... ( https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2015/07/electricitysecurityofsupplyreport_final_0.pdf )
HTH
Z"We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit. " ...... Aristotle0
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