Energy news in general

pochase

Cornwall-Insights have increased their forecast for October yesterday

QrizB

I happened to look at the 3-month chart of July gas futures at The ICE and thought it was worth sharing:

Gas closed on the 1st of June at 153p/therm, roughly 5.2p per kWh wholesale (equivalent to about 7.7p retail). However anyone who bought gas in early March for July delivery would have paid 2x to 3x that much.

Let's hope that few energy supply companies had to buy at that price.

spot1034

Interesting to look at the electricity mix yesterday where the wind was so light that less than one quarter of a GW was being generated (with gas taking up the slack). OK, so demand happened to be low yesterday, but even if the number of wind turbines was quadrupled there would still be days when they only contribute a GW or so. I know the green lobby will say that battery storage is the answer, but how much of this would be needed if such conditions persisted for several days? And remember that when the wind started to pick up again, this storage would have to be topped up, presumably diverting power from being used to satisfy immediate demand.

[Deleted User]

Ultrasonic said:

[Deleted User] said:

Ultrasonic said:

markin said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

markin said:

Blackout fears over Russia standoff: Six million homes 'could face power rationing' under Government's 'reasonable worst case' scenario - as ministers scramble to keep old coal plants open 

A worst case scenario is just that a worst case scenario yet the media will push it as being the most likely scenario just to scare the uninformed.

Would have been far less likely if we had paid to keep more coal mothballed rather than blown up, one of the 3 plants was due to be closed in September, hopefully they haven't got a head start on dismantling it.

I would rather see electricity use rationed than coal mines or coal power stations reopened.

Were you around during the 3-day week in the 70s? I recall that it wasn’t a lot of fun. It was done on a regional basis and some weeks I ended up - like many - working three days in the cold followed by a cold weekend at home. Power outages tend to be linked to very cold weather.

I was born in the late 70's, so if I was 'around' at the right time I certainly don't remember it!

What I referred to above was rationing not cutting off power. I'll freely admit I'm not sure if there is a good way of doing this though. One major complicating factor being those who use electricity for heating vs those that don't. Without this a tiered electricity pricing model would be one way to do it.

It takes relatively little power to literally keep the lights on, but there is a huge amount of more discretionary electricity use that could be reduced, and other use that could potentially be distributed to other times of day to help manage load if required.

Rationing in the way that you suggest is possible for those of us with smart meters. All that suppliers need to do is to offer cheaper than standard tariffs that have a maximum power limit (kW) at certain high-demand periods in the day. This is already the norm in many countries and it isn’t, as some suggest, the random disconnection by suppliers of individual homes from the Grid. Remote disconnection is only used if consumers exceed the agreed/contracted kW limit AND they do not respond to messages on the IHD etc to reduce their instant power demand. Personally, I have no problem with this: ‘carrot and stick’ is a clever use of smart meter technology to reduce demand when supply is limited. 

The above is a bit like the Californian model of paying EV owners not to charge their cars are certain times of the day. Those consumers who want energy at all times of the day, and in any amount, pay more than those consumers who are prepared to be more flexible.

CRISPIANNE3

QrizB said:

I happened to look at the 3-month chart of July gas futures at The ICE and thought it was worth sharing:

Gas closed on the 1st of June at 153p/therm, roughly 5.2p per kWh wholesale (equivalent to about 7.7p retail). However anyone who bought gas in early March for July delivery would have paid 2x to 3x that much.

Let's hope that few energy supply companies had to buy at that price.

I decided to fix with EDF for a 2 year deal a few days ago with an exit fee of £100.   The rate is 11.192 per kw and sc 27.7 per day.  Not sure now if this was such a wise deal.

Ultrasonic

[Deleted User] said:

Ultrasonic said:

[Deleted User] said:

Ultrasonic said:

markin said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

markin said:

Blackout fears over Russia standoff: Six million homes 'could face power rationing' under Government's 'reasonable worst case' scenario - as ministers scramble to keep old coal plants open 

A worst case scenario is just that a worst case scenario yet the media will push it as being the most likely scenario just to scare the uninformed.

Would have been far less likely if we had paid to keep more coal mothballed rather than blown up, one of the 3 plants was due to be closed in September, hopefully they haven't got a head start on dismantling it.

I would rather see electricity use rationed than coal mines or coal power stations reopened.

Were you around during the 3-day week in the 70s? I recall that it wasn’t a lot of fun. It was done on a regional basis and some weeks I ended up - like many - working three days in the cold followed by a cold weekend at home. Power outages tend to be linked to very cold weather.

I was born in the late 70's, so if I was 'around' at the right time I certainly don't remember it!

What I referred to above was rationing not cutting off power. I'll freely admit I'm not sure if there is a good way of doing this though. One major complicating factor being those who use electricity for heating vs those that don't. Without this a tiered electricity pricing model would be one way to do it.

It takes relatively little power to literally keep the lights on, but there is a huge amount of more discretionary electricity use that could be reduced, and other use that could potentially be distributed to other times of day to help manage load if required.

Rationing in the way that you suggest is possible for those of us with smart meters. All that suppliers need to do is to offer cheaper than standard tariffs that have a maximum power limit (kW) at certain high-demand periods in the day. This is already the norm in many countries and it isn’t, as some suggest, the random disconnection by suppliers of individual homes from the Grid. Remote disconnection is only used if consumers exceed the agreed/contracted kW limit AND they do not respond to messages on the IHD etc to reduce their instant power demand. Personally, I have no problem with this: ‘carrot and stick’ is a clever use of smart meter technology to reduce demand when supply is limited. 

The above is a bit like the Californian model of paying EV owners not to charge their cars are certain times of the day. Those consumers who want energy at all times of the day, and in any amount, pay more than those consumers who are prepared to be more flexible.

All of this sounds sensible to me. Whether via price or even just information/engagement, getting consumers involved in actively managing usage rather than trying to plan for a worst-case of everyone just using energy as they have historically is surely the smart plan. 

QrizB

CRISPIANNE3 said:

I decided to fix with EDF for a 2 year deal a few days ago with an exit fee of £100.   The rate is 11.192 per kw and sc 27.7 per day.  Not sure now if this was such a wise deal.

@CRISPIANNE3 his isn't really the right thread for this, but could you have moved your gas to join your electricity with BG? BG's fixes have been a bit cheaper than EDF's, and some of them have appeared on the MSE "deals to consider" list.

markin

If the are Blackouts we won't be down at the pub!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10903661/Devastated-landlady-forced-close-village-pub-energy-bills-DOUBLE-112-000-year.html

molerat

Centrica accuse 2 large rivals, understood to be Ovo and Octopus, of trying to block ring fencing of customer deposits proposals.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/british-gas-owner-says-rivals-161049686.html

wakeupalarm

molerat said:

Centrica accuse 2 large rivals, understood to be Ovo and Octopus, of trying to block ring fencing of customer deposits proposals.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/british-gas-owner-says-rivals-161049686.html

I've just put in a request to withdraw my credit balance from one of those companies.
I'm not risking losing the payments I've already made.