That's like saying everyone who doesn't already have a smart meter is clueless regarding the amount of leccy they use and have way off the mark estimated bills coming out their ears. But that's part of the smart meter marketing and hype.
I have a standard meter and I know exactly what I use every month and I also don't leave things on wasting leccy.
Not sure this is responding to me or not?
I didn’t say because don’t have a clue about how much energy they use. I said because use an obscene amount of energy at peak times ‘just because’, it’s just habit and that’s that. Even if they are aware it increases the flat rate price for everyone, there is literally no incentive for them to stop because everyone else is subsidising it.
I think it’s fair to say though that most people don’t have a clue how much energy actually costs to produce during those peaks and what impacts it has on the wider generation, grid and CO2 output.
I used to think so
But hourly energy price is driven by european market. So if electricity is expensive in France, we get hit with higher prices. No matter how many washing mashines you set on timer for your neighbours to enjoy in the night.
The spot price may well be influenced by a wider market but energy providers buy their energy up to 2 years advance, time of use pricing shouldn’t change that. Peek time electricity is the most expensive and dirtiest electric we produce.
...investing in energy storage solutions that help deal with peaks.
We need energy storage one way or another, wind and solar demand it. But no, lets blame the consumers and shift the cost of load management to them.
Peek shaving is an order of magnitude more efficient and cheaper. It just requires behaviour change and you could actually save money at the same time.
Solar actually makes the peek worse as it reduces grid demand during the day which is good. But as soon as the sun goes down in the evening you have a massive spike in demand and you need to spin up even power stations to soak that up. If you want a solar and storage system just for your house, that will be £8-10k, then multiply by 26 million.
It all sounds easy writing it out on a forum, actually doing it and paying for it is much harder and most people can’t afford the upfront cost.
I see Norway are also introducing a surcharge based on your peek demand on top of how much you consume. The bigger the peek, the more you pay.
Not arguing against saving electricity or spreading use to to off-peak hour. I do it anyway, even when paying flat rate.
But don't sell it as something good for consumer.
You are very much in the minority then and not representative at all of the general population.
