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Electricity Shake-Up Could Save Consumers 'Up to £40bn'

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 25 2017, @12:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the short-circuit dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Consumers in the UK could save billions of pounds thanks to major changes in the way electricity is made, used and stored, the government has said.

New rules will make it easier for people to generate their own power with solar panels, store it in batteries and sell it to the National Grid.

If they work, consumers will save £17bn to £40bn by 2050, according to the government and energy regulator Ofgem.

The rules are due to come into effect over the next year.

They will reduce costs for someone who allows their washing machine to be turned on by the internet to maximise use of cheap solar power on a sunny afternoon.

And they will even support people who agree to have their freezers switched off for a few minutes to smooth demand at peak times.

They'll also benefit a business that allows its air-conditioning to be turned down briefly to help balance a spell of peak energy demand on the National Grid.

Among the first to gain from the rule changes will be people with solar panels and battery storage. At the moment they are charged tariffs when they import electricity into their home or export it back to the grid.

It can't be a move welcomed by utilities.

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  • (Score: 1, Disagree) by Tara Li on Tuesday July 25 2017, @02:23PM (2 children)

    by Tara Li (6248) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @02:23PM (#544170)

    Such as the poster above complaining they can't connect to the grid because they don't waste enough.

    They should never have *started* allowing net metering. You want PV on your roof - you buy the battery capacity to store the excess, or dump it - you don't get to use the Grid as your free battery system.

    The grid has enough problems maintaining itself in the face of ordinary usage. Coping with sudden surges and drops as a cloud crosses a neighborhood is just more than is reasonable to expect from them.

    Does The UK Really Experience Massive Power Surges When Soap Operas Finish From People Making Tea? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dUTezwZYZ0 [youtube.com] (turns out, yes.)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:25PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:25PM (#544353)

    Having a connection to the grid with zero net usage is not free [emss1.org]:

    Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Rate Schedule D
    serves domestic customers in houses, townhouses and
    condominiums, and in apartments and rental units.
    ...
    Every SCE Rate Schedule D customer pays one or more
    of the following CPUC-approved charges:
    ...
    •Transmission Charges
    — These recover SCE’s costs for transporting electricity over long distances, such as from generating stations to substations in your neighborhood.
    •Distribution Charges
    — These recover SCE’s costs for transporting electricity from your neighborhood substation to your home
    •Nuclear Decommissioning Charges
    — These are state-mandated charges that serve to recover SCE’s costs for dismantling its nuclear power plants after they are retired from operation.
    •Public Purpose Program Charges
    — These recover SCE’s costs for administering state-mandated programs such as the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) discount and energy efficiency programs.
    •Trust Transfer Amount
    — This recovers the state-mandated rate reduction bonds issued during the energy crisis. These bonds financed a rate reduction for residential and small business customers during the energy crisis.
    •Other Charges
    — These include the CPUC reimbursement fee, city taxes, state taxes, and affiliated billing charges.
    •Basic Charges
    — These recover a portion of costs for
    services such as meter reading and customer billing.

    P.S. when commenting on someone else's comment, it's best to reply to that comment, instead of replying to the article.

    • (Score: 1) by Tara Li on Thursday July 27 2017, @02:21PM

      by Tara Li (6248) on Thursday July 27 2017, @02:21PM (#545179)

      Even with no *net* draw/excess to the grid, they're still using the grid. If you want to do home scale PV, do *NOT* connect to the grid at all.