Smart Meters and Tariffs

[downquark1]

It's not that complicated. The government has been paying windfarms to shut down at high times to not overload the grid.

If you have cheaper electricity people will use more electricity. If you tell me I have super cheap electricity, I will go out and buy an electric car thus I use more electricity.

More electricity used in the local area means less needs to be transported down to the south.

It is unfortunately for the south to have high prices but the government will save money not paying the windfarms to shut down.

Industry moves to Scotland and then they get cocky again and start an independence vote.

Originally Posted by downquark1

It's not that complicated.

Its not that simple either.

Originally Posted by downquark1

The government has been paying windfarms to shut down at high times to not overload the grid.

Correct.

Originally Posted by downquark1

If you have cheaper electricity people will use more electricity. If you tell me I have super cheap electricity, I will go out and buy an electric car thus I use more electricity.

As a novelty, yes people try hard to use more, but that soon wears off.
Of course, using twice as much at half the price saves you nothing at all.

Where does it promise "super cheap" ? It "may" be cheaper, some of the time.
Just remember wind power is intermittant, and solar doesnt work at all when its dark.

For example, on Apr 16 wind generation was almost 18GW
Two days later the wind died, and it barely made 2GW, on Apr 8 it dropped below 1GW.

Everyone will be buying electric cars eventually, whatever the electricity price is, enjoy "Net-Zero".

Originally Posted by downquark1

More electricity used in the local area means less needs to be transported down to the south.

Transport is a two way thing.
When the wind isnt blowing, you need electricty from somewhere else.

Originally Posted by downquark1

.. the government will save money not paying the windfarms to shut down.

Probably the real reason they like the idea.
They dont care about the price we pay, only that they stop paying.

While Scotland is often quoted, Wind Farms are all over the UK.
Atm, Scotland has about 3 times the wind generation capacity of England.
England of course has far more Solar generation, and is increasing its Wind generation.
Scotland on the otherhand is unlikely to ever have much Solar generation.

[downquark1]

Yes of course that is the real reason. They've created this stupid green energy regime, everyone has expensive electric bills and they aren't even using the energy properly making their stupidity obvious.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by downquark1

Yes of course that is the real reason. They've created this stupid green energy regime, everyone has expensive electric bills and they aren't even using the energy properly making their stupidity obvious.

It's the increase in the cost of gas post the invasion of Ukraine that has driven up bills.

[downquark1]

Our use of gas is inversely proportional to the amount of green energy we can leverage. There are days we can turn the gas off.

---------- Post added at 09:01 ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 ----------

If we still had coal we could turn the gas off

If we had more nuclear, we could turn the gas off

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

It's the increase in the cost of gas post the invasion of Ukraine that has driven up bills.

It’s a strategic decision in the late 1980s to make us reliant on gas for electricity generation that’s driven up bills.

We led the world in nuclear power but by the beginning of the 1990s we were allowing crusties, fruit loops and other assorted eco-loons to set the terms of the debate and make it impossible to plan to build new power stations.

We knew gas was a fossil fuel in the 1980s. We knew it was a finite resource. As a transitory measure to get us off coal, which is also a finite fossil fuel but also incredibly dirty, gas was fine. But as a substitute for clean nuclear energy at which we were a world leader, it was a poor choice.

In order to get back on track we have been forced to pay top dollar to the French state generator, EDF, France not having made the same stupid decisions we did and now being a world leader in nuclear energy. And meanwhile, we have continued to dither over the one area of nuclear tech we do still lead - small reactors, which are installed in every RN submarine, and which can be scaled to provide a large number of small nuclear power stations that can be built quickly and cheaply, certainly in comparison to the behemoth being constructed at Hinckley Point at a cost of £47 billion (and still not ready after 8 years … it probably won’t contribute to the Grid for another 5).

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

It's the increase in the cost of gas post the invasion of Ukraine that has driven up bills.

Strange, though, that in June 2022 my gas rates were

Unit rate 3.182p per kWh
Standing charge 13.17p per day

And this month, they were

Unit Rate 5.37p/kWh
Standing Charge 28.26p/day

Whilst the wholesale price was/is



https://www.cliffordtalbot.co.uk/energy-prices/

All the sunshine contributing to a cheap 8am - 4pm tomorrow.
Some negative prices for 4.5 hours as of 10:30am - a pity we'll not doing Sunday dinner this week, we would have been paid to cook it.

First time this has happened to me on the Intelligent Go tariff. The email goes on to explain they will manage it as an account credit in the next 2 weeks. Presumably they have a trigger level for overnight electricity usage on Tuesday night that cancels the rebate.

I charged the car up from 52% to 80% last night even though I wasn’t expecting to need it today, so it’s mildly annoying they didn’t give any more notice than this. Even so, I’ve set the car to take a charge up to 100% tonight. Offspring is on study leave now so I’m not even doing the school run. A full charge will probably last me until the end of next week.

[SnoopZ]

The Octoprice site still hasn't been updated for Tracker tariffs, not that I need it anymore with being on a Fixed but my muscle memory automatically makes me click on the speed dial daily.

I would have only saved 35 pence staying on the December 2024 Tracker compared to Fixed rate V4 for Electricity, not sure why I didn't stay on the Gas Tracker though as it should easily be cheaper, maybe it was FOMO as the fixed was a limited edition and I was rushing to see if I could signup.

Octoprice hasnt been updated for ages, and sometimes crashes on me as well, I stopped bothering with.

[downquark1]

https://youtu.be/nKJLVaJa9Ko

Edit: Hyperlink removed.
If you're posting links then give some details as to what it is.

[nashville]

Is it worth getting a smart meter

Originally Posted by nashville

Is it worth getting a smart meter

In the end, you wont have a choice.
Its generally worth it if you pick the right tariffs for it.

[nashville]

Originally Posted by Paul

In the end, you wont have a choice.
Its generally worth it if you pick the right tariffs for it.

I was reading about the number of meters that stop working after awhile and some do not work with gas meters, it is so confusing