Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

[PlacidCasual]

50p/kwh = £500/Mwh!
somehow i highly doubt so?

The cost of failure is very expensive in the renewables heavy market. If your gas fired power station wasn't due to run but get's BOA'd on (dispatched at short notice) you have a degtree of risk on the start. In addition the forward market closes 90 minutes before present so you can't change you contracted position. So if for any reason you trip off you are exposed to the instantaeous balancing market price. This BM price has been going up for years because there is less dispatchable reliable generation and when you are scraping the barrel for the last available generator they astart charging a higher price. One out of simple supply and demand but also a risk factor. Say your cost of generation is £100/MWh for a short up and down run to cover a peak but the next cheapest generator is £200/MWh you know that during that start if you are late or trip (most likely to happen on a start) you are then exposed to that higher price so you factor in a risk premium and so does everyone else. When wind drops and we start getting to the last 10% of reliable gas geenration those balancing market cost ramp up. £500/MWh has been common for short periods over the last few years. But don't worry not dispatchable intermittent wind and solar are ace and are going to make electricity so cheap it won't be worth metering and they will heal every ill in the World including industrialisation, yeah you won't be living an economy with any of that crap soon.

 

[Gammawolf]

to be clear chemistry is not my strength but given energy can't be created or destroyed and if the electricity is generated from solar surely all that is happening is the heat is being emitted from a different place, ie from the motor of an electric car rather than the roof of my house (having solar panels have been shown to cool down the inside of a house )

I can tell Usually people would label those activities under Physics

 

[tamzzy]

if you were unhappy about that you will be even more angry now at -£27 a MWh

Thankfully I pay 6.7p/kWh. But still...

 

[tamzzy]

to be clear chemistry is not my strength

I can tell Usually people would label those activities under Physics

 

[tamzzy]

Snip

Presumably though, these are for the small % fractions that are spikes/unforcasted demands and hence don't account for the majority of the energy use though...which then still stands...why are we paying marginal cost for the whole production?

 

[Simon]

to be clear chemistry is not my strength but given energy can't be created or destroyed and if the electricity is generated from solar surely all that is happening is the heat is being emitted from a different place, ie from the motor of an electric car rather than the roof of my house (having solar panels have been shown to cool down the inside of a house )

Heat doesn’t power the wheels

Solar is photo electric too. You aren’t charging batteries via heat going down the cables

 

[SDK^]

The UK Energy price is currently - £102MWh ! (negative cost)
Octopus giving customers 1 hour free electricity today and 2 hours tomorrow

​

Thank you renewable's !

 

[PlacidCasual]

Presumably though, these are for the small % fractions that are spikes/unforcasted demands and hence don't account for the majority of the energy use though...which then still stands...why are we paying marginal cost for the whole production?

Because lucrative contracts for difference and a priviledged position in the NESO was a requirement for Renewables Compnaies to invest. All parties, virtually all politicians in the last 25 years have supported this Charlie Foxtrot any suggestion that it may not be best solution was the political equivalent of renaming yourself Adolf by deed poll.

The super ace mega cheap renewables are apparently demanding a contract for difference of above £100/MWh at the next auction which is probably more than the current seasonally adjusted cost of gas generation including the additional carbon tax and green policies.

 

[bigmike20vt]

Heat doesn’t power the wheels

Solar is photo electric too. You aren’t charging batteries via heat going down the cables

but doesn't all energy ultimately end up as heat energy?

besides surely other forms of generation are less efficient and end up with MORE heat being generated. I am just not seeing how renewable energy creates more local heat waste than burning stuff.
.but it's moot anyway. global warming isn't because of heat in that sense.

 

[bigmike20vt]

I can tell Usually people would label those activities under Physics

well am even crapper at that than I am chemistry.

 

[Hagar]

to be clear chemistry is not my strength but given energy can't be created or destroyed and if the electricity is generated from solar surely all that is happening is the heat is being emitted from a different place, ie from the motor of an electric car rather than the roof of my house (having solar panels have been shown to cool down the inside of a house )

I was thinking more the method of production rather than the end use. However if you run your 5090 on solar production the heat produced by your computer is very much the same as for any other method.

 

[andy_mk3]

Great day tomorrow on Agile. Will be making the best of that.

 

[jpaul]

It's still not the heat from the from the ev motor , or the 5090 that is causing global warming - the renewables are avoiding the green house gases that cause that

Even with 10p/unit permanently in Norway (how much cheaper are the public chargers too) their government is making up for that in ev/car ownership with other taxes - the pound of flesh;
but a relatively cheaper unit cost in that 5-7pm slot at a useful time of the day (no battery investment required)- would mean you could nonchalantly cook what you want
none of this air-fryer nonsense wack the oven on & get set bake (if you had had home economics lessons)

I'm not going to re-organise tomorrow/7th to eat dinner at lunch time , I have other things I want to do during daylight hours

 

[Simon]

Don’t use Norway as an example. It’s oil funded

If only you had an EV you could charge it cheap and eat when u want and not spend £100 on a air frier to save 5p on your dinner

 

[Hagar]

Don’t use Norway as an example. It’s oil funded

If only you had an EV you could charge it cheap and eat when u want and not spend £100 on a air frier to save 5p on your dinner

Quite. The average meal costing 30 to 50p to cook in an oven is not a major factor in my kitchen. I don't have an air fryer, I stopped at microwave and slow cooker.

 

[jaybee]

I've been in debt to Octopus for about 1.5 years and they for some reason did nothing about it. At the worst point it was about £1300 debt. This was just due to me not paying enough and their systems not recalculating, as well as a switch to smart meters where there was some delay in billing me.
Anyway, I manually changed my DD to £350 a month :O
Finally I've now caught back up to zero ahead of winter.
I've just emailed them asking to be put on the variable direct debit payment where it just pays the whole bill off each month regardless of what the amount is as I cba faffing with them keeping my money in credit. The app would not let me reduce the £350 down at all.

 

[Gredawarha]

I've been in debt to Octopus for about 1.5 years and they for some reason did nothing about it. At the worst point it was about £1300 debt. This was just due to me not paying enough and their systems not recalculating, as well as a switch to smart meters where there was some delay in billing me.
Anyway, I manually changed my DD to £350 a month :O
Finally I've now caught back up to zero ahead of winter.
I've just emailed them asking to be put on the variable direct debit payment where it just pays the whole bill off each month regardless of what the amount is as I cba faffing with them keeping my money in credit. The app would not let me reduce the £350 down at all.

Try emailing them and explain what happened and how you want to run the account moving forward. In my experience they are very accommodating.

I had a similar experience with Avro energy, yes it was partly my fault for not keeping an eye on the account but they also state in their terms & conditions that they will adjust payment if the DD is not keeping up with usage. Long story short I ran up a debt with them and which was resolved by overpaying but then I was in credit to them and they went backrupt and it took me 6 months to get my money back. I have explained this to Octopus my current energy supplier and this is the reason I typically pay a DD of £100 pm and then I put another £100 into my savings account pot for energy. Every month I then clear the Octopus account balance so that it remains at £0. Using the £100 DD and then manually paying the outstanding from my energy pot. In the summer months I am only dipping into the pot for a small amount, say £30. But then in the winter I will need to draw more from the pot. The benefit is I am in control, there is no debit on the Octopus account nor any credit, the "credit" is my money in my savings account accruing interest.

Every now and then I get an automated email from Octopus saying they are going to increase my DD to ensure I don't run up a debit but I just reply to the existing email thread in which I explained my reasons why and they manually adjust the DD back to £100 and I continue as is. Octopus are happy and I am happy.

I have also recently changed my tariff as we got an EV earlier in the year and I also had to call Octopus out to install smart meters to get the benefit of the smart EV tariff. On both occasions they were helpful and did everything I wanted in a polite and efficient manner, I am very happy with the service.

Hope this helps.

 

[bigmike20vt]

Quite. The average meal costing 30 to 50p to cook in an oven is not a major factor in my kitchen. I don't have an air fryer, I stopped at microwave and slow cooker.

everything else aside....... I cant recommend an air fryer highly enough if you are only cooking for 2 or 3 people. The energy saving is the icing on the cake, but they cook faster, heat up really quickly and crisp up your chips and what not using the tiniest amount of spray oil.

 

[Bumhug]

I've been in debt to Octopus for about 1.5 years and they for some reason did nothing about it. At the worst point it was about £1300 debt. This was just due to me not paying enough and their systems not recalculating, as well as a switch to smart meters where there was some delay in billing me.

They underestimated how much I would be using when I joined them and managed to get to £1000 in debt, I hadn't really paid any attention to it but decided to up my payment, the app decided £267.34 would be a good amount so I made the change. 3 days later got an email saying they were upping my payments as I was in debt to them, they decided I should be paying £267.35 instead. Next month will be in credit so guessing its going to be a struggle to get the payment back down again then

 

[bigmike20vt]

I've been in debt to Octopus for about 1.5 years and they for some reason did nothing about it. At the worst point it was about £1300 debt. This was just due to me not paying enough and their systems not recalculating, as well as a switch to smart meters where there was some delay in billing me.
Anyway, I manually changed my DD to £350 a month :O
Finally I've now caught back up to zero ahead of winter.
I've just emailed them asking to be put on the variable direct debit payment where it just pays the whole bill off each month regardless of what the amount is as I cba faffing with them keeping my money in credit. The app would not let me reduce the £350 down at all.

Dont worry, i am offsetting most of that... at its worst i was over £950 in credit, am slowly whittling it down now - i should probably request a refund but instead just massively cut my direct debit. i shall be about evens in 2-3 years!. I dont know what the lowest the app would let me go down to. i was at £100, went down to £70, then £50 and now reduced to £30
There was one company - i cant remember which - that paid customers i think it was 5% interest on their credit. i would love it if octopus did that!,