Energy news in general

The_Green_Hornet · 9 February at 12:37PM

‘A mess’: energy suppliers face scramble to install smart meters in UK homes

The government is facing criticism over the rollout of the scheme, as spiralling costs and faulty meters slow progress

A small device in every home was supposed to be the key to solving Britain’s energy headaches: encouraging consumers not to waste power, preventing shockingly high bills and making the system greener. Instead, smart meters have become an emblem for the energy industry’s poor reputation as the costs of rolling them out approaches £20bn and the government project lags years behind its original schedule.

Consumers who have the devices still face surprise bills, too, as some faulty meters go into “dumb” mode, where they stop automatically sending regular meter readings to energy suppliers, leaving households to send readings.

‘A mess’: energy suppliers face scramble to install smart meters in UK homes | Utilities | The Guardian

QrizB · 9 February at 1:13PM

From that article:

“Honestly, it has been a mess from the beginning,” an executive at one major energy supplier says. “So many of the problems that we have encountered were predictable and preventable. But we were told to keep pushing ahead towards these deadlines.”

And:

One of the key complaints made against the government’s plans was the decision to hand responsibility for the rollout to energy suppliers. In other countries, installing smart meters has been a task carried out by the network operators which run local power grids. But in the UK, suppliers lobbied to convince their customers to opt-in to a smart meter installation, in the belief that this might lock in customer loyalty.

“Can you imagine how much money has been spent in this country trying to ‘sell’ smart meters to households, while other countries have treated it like a necessary infrastructure upgrade?” one source said.

None of this should come as a surprise to forum regulars; respected voices like @Dolor (now sadly absent) were banging this drum for years.

molerat · 9 February at 1:33PM

The American military have a word for it, not allowed on the forum though.

The whole programme has been poorly specified, poorly planned and poorly implemented.

TroubledTarts · 9 February at 2:27PM

Completely agree mandatory roll out, no ifs or buts your choice is a smart meter or no energy.

debitcardmayhem · 9 February at 2:36PM

Yet they still push out these mindless adverts with “Einstein” and Angela Rippon which no doubt end up in our service charges 😡

QrizB · 9 February at 3:24PM

In other news, the Baltic states cut their connection to the Russian electricity grid this morning and are now part of the Western European grid.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/baltic-states-switch-to-european-power-grid-ending-russia-ties/ar-AA1yGNeG

There's some video from a transmission station on social media but I haven't yet found a web-linkable version I can share.

If you don't mind watching on BlueSky, you'll find it here:
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3lhq7323s6s22

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head · 10 February at 4:38PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyplj7dkw2o

Subsidies halved for controversial Drax power station

The new agreement also states that 100% of the wood pellets Drax burns must be "sustainably sourced" and that "material sourced from primary and old growth forests" will not be able to receive support payments.

TroubledTarts · 10 February at 4:58PM

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyplj7dkw2o

Subsidies halved for controversial Drax power station

The new agreement also states that 100% of the wood pellets Drax burns must be "sustainably sourced" and that "material sourced from primary and old growth forests" will not be able to receive support payments.

Cheeky drax and on top of this as well