Octopus Power-Ups, Free Electricity in East England

Mstty

I think the issue with mini nuclear reactors isn't the fact they work and are safe but having multiple 100's of new nuclear sites to protect is the costly element. Bigger nuclear sites per kWh produced could cost less in security. It may not be as cost efficient as people think.

Chrysalis

Dolor said:

The problem with renewables is that there needs to be significant over capacity if we are to get anywhere near 100% green energy as a given. The cost of renewables is increasing and we see more companies are pulling out of the UK. We also have a grid that is massively in need of a Victorian type rebuild. To complicate things further, MPs in fear of their seats are suggesting that we should put more of the grid into the sea or underground at somewhere between 4 and 10 times the cost of overland pylons.  The Government is also dithering when it comes to mini nuclear power stations - forgetting the fact that mariners in their 000s safely navigate the seas working above a nuclear reactor. I went to sea on a nuclear attack submarine in 1983!

It is also worth a mention that as a Country we are broke with an aging population (sorry), and a decreasing and unproductive workforce. 

This is why storage is important, when its windy over night, fill the storage which gets used on evenings when its not windy.

I think we always need to have a base line of reliable steady nuclear power as well, as far as I am concerned its clean and safe.

powerful_Rogue

Just had an email, first power up is between 2pm-4pm tomorrow.

born_again

Qyburn said:

Is there any chance we'll see the end of having to pay wind farms to shut down? Lots of new big schemes are at the planning stages, will their contracts include that benefit?

Should make it part of the agreement that they have to carry battery back up to store at least a days worth of produced energy, would solve the issue. Make the companies that are reaping the rewards, pay for ensuring that any power created is not wasted.

CSI_Yorkshire

born_again said:

Qyburn said:

Is there any chance we'll see the end of having to pay wind farms to shut down? Lots of new big schemes are at the planning stages, will their contracts include that benefit?

Should make it part of the agreement that they have to carry battery back up to store at least a days worth of produced energy, would solve the issue. Make the companies that are reaping the rewards, pay for ensuring that any power created is not wasted.

And you would be happy for them charging more for the generated electricity to cover the extra cost of building the batteries?

powerful_Rogue

Nice 3 hour session tonight and tomorrow night between 5pm-8pm. Currently drawing 12kWh.

peterveni

Anyway of charging storage heaters during free electric sessions in the afternoon as their supply is only live between midnight and 7.00am each day?

QrizB

peterveni said:

Anyway of charging storage heaters during free electric sessions in the afternoon as their supply is only live between midnight and 7.00am each day?

Not without getting rather creative with your electrical wiring. Which I would recommend against - if you knew how to do it safely, you wouldn't be asking here!

Scot_39

peterveni said:

Anyway of charging storage heaters during free electric sessions in the afternoon as their supply is only live between midnight and 7.00am each day?

Short answer - No

Longer Answer - depends on the heater and wider set-up.

If their single wired to off peak rate meter restricted feeds only - meter ALCS - which is what that sounds like - No.

Some have their old single wired NSH wired to peak with own timers (on device or external) set to match rates - but thats likely to need a skilled qualified electrician and hardware on older models to achieve - dwarfing the savings - unless really regular.

(Some here have iirc done so for tariffs like Agile in past using smart switching - and a user on another forum has had his restricted set live 24/7 by Octopus and uses device timers to match now Cosy off peak rather than his old e7 meter switched off peak)

Even on the latest high end style heaters - dual wired and so using off peak for main charge - cannot think of an obvious way of syncing say an Elnur style balance element top up to match a 2-4pm window - without manually switching on / off. And similarly on Quantums - you might be able to use boost output for a couple of hours - but thats only c1.1kW not c3.4 kW on the 150s - and again it's a manual intervention AFAIK from skimming the manuals.