Energy news in general

michaels

markin said:

And i thought heat pump water tanks were the next big thing.

Britons could soon save £150/YEAR on their energy bills - by using computer servers to heat their water       

Told me that they were only doing within 50 miles of Guildford.

molerat

I hope all you EV drivers are enjoying your dirty electricity

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/emergency-coal-plants-come-online-161245794.html

michaels

£2000 per mwh and yet no savings session - what are they supposed to be for??

rjmachin

molerat said:

I hope all you EV drivers are enjoying your dirty electricity

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/emergency-coal-plants-come-online-161245794.html

I charge my EV during my cheaper off peak rate with Octopus, so the peak between 6:30-7:00pm tonight (https://www.electricinsights.co.uk/#/dashboard?start=2023-03-07&&_k=19pif3) would not have been when I charge my EV.   (though I do not need to charge tonight either)

Today has also been a really good day in the midlands for my solar panels.  They generated 17.6kWh today, my battery still has 20% charge now and so apart from a few momentary peaks, have had no / very little grid usage today.

Scot_39

And just to add the icing to the cake the whole problem with renewables - today we get the inevitable - back to relying on coal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64879044

Just as the Germans - reopening ? c9GW of coal plants - c2GW worth / 5 plants burning lignite (so called brown or dirty coal) - to replace gas - having accelerated nuclear shutdowns - we cannot break away from fossil fuels on the naive path of the last 20-30 years.

UK energy security planning a joke - has been for decades - no new nuclear for nearly 30 years = ever more fossil fuels now.

The 2GW peak from coal - less than lost from the 2 nuclear shutdowns in last 12-18m - so many were let go in last decade + - without plans to replace them - plants that often should have been ordered 15-25+ years ago.

https://grid.iamkate.com/

See how low wind got by c9pm - 1.4 GW - or about 5% of installed capacity - and as dark - solar = 0.

Starting to give up the ghost - just as the evening peak started - c430pm.

The result - the wholesale price spiked to £1950/MWh - thats £1.95/kWh - at 6:30sh.

Before France's interconnect flow reversed - so happy to use their nuclear - but failing to build any of our own in past decades.

So much renewables capacity without seriously long term storage - might really help the environment on the good days - it certainly doesn't eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels on it's bad.

murphyslaw2020

MattMattMattUK said:

Mstty said:

BBC News - Energy firms expect bill help to continue in April

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64830701

Another awful financial decision from the Conservatives, I am shocked...

There are some people in desperate need and cannot manage the energy price rises. 

I wouldn’t say it’s an awful financial decision.

MattMattMattUK

murphyslaw2020 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Mstty said:

BBC News - Energy firms expect bill help to continue in April

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64830701

Another awful financial decision from the Conservatives, I am shocked...

There are some people in desperate need and cannot manage the energy price rises. 

Allowing the EPG to rise would not have actually made a huge amount of difference due to seasonal reductions in energy usage. On top of that blanket subsidy is the lease effective way to help those in genuine need.

murphyslaw2020 said: 

I wouldn’t say it’s an awful financial decision.

Spending £2.6 billion on increasing subsidy across the board. Low income households are already being given an additional £900 over the next year (costing £7.2 billion) on top of a 10.1% rise in benefits.

Scot_39

michaels said:

£2000 per mwh and yet no savings session - what are they supposed to be for??

Right now NG are paying undisclosed sums for the operators of coal to keep their plants available. It's not free.

Suspect they have to use them now and again to justify it - and if that means no savings sessions.

It's a completely silly system - when Ofgem and so therefore many suppliers have been refusing to support tariffs like E10 - that inherently encourage usage shift out of even the day time peaks at evening meal times - to mid afternoon or mid evening etc.

But without the £3/kWh bribe.

doodling

Hi,

Scot_39 said:

michaels said:

£2000 per mwh and yet no savings session - what are they supposed to be for??

Right now NG are paying undisclosed sums for the operators of coal to keep their plants available. It's not free.

Suspect they have to use them now and again to justify it - and if that means no savings sessions.

I suspect that the real reasons are that:
a) The shortfall was identified too late to notify use of the demand flexibility service (DFS) (the industry name for "saving sessions") and
b) the DFS wouldn't have delivered anywhere near enough of a reduction to deal with the shortfall faced (it currently seems to deliver around 200MW at best).

National grid were at one point looking at a shortfall of 980MW together with uncertainty over whether they could rely on interconnectors to France due to the strikes going on there.  I suspect that a shortage in France would probably also lead to a reduction  in availability of power from other European countries due to them providing support to France also.

Warming ~1500MW of coal (well, anything would do but coal was all that was left) was a proportional response.  In the end only 400MW was required.

It is also very unclear whether having gone to the cost of warming coal plants it is sensible to use the DFS - I suspect overall it is probably cheaper to use the warmed plants rather than pay people not to use electricity.

Finally, whilst it probably wasn't a factor in NG ESO's decision, asking people not to use electricity on one of the coldest nights of the year might lead to a degree of political feedback (cue stories about poor people freezing to death to save money).

It's a completely silly system - when Ofgem and so therefore many suppliers have been refusing to support tariffs like E10 - that inherently encourage usage shift out of even the day time peaks at evening meal times - to mid afternoon or mid evening etc.

I agree that more structured time of use tariffs are the answer rather than an ad-hoc arrangement like the DFS.  A fixed time of use tariff is a lot more likely to result in the behavioural changes that the government seems to want.

markin

E10 is just too long and inflexible, I think eventually it will be tou 30min 24/7 then with the car, heatpumps ect deciding when to run