Energy Matters Global and Domestic

[Homer]

Insane! Wouldn't it make more sense to generate the electricity in N.America, and cable it to UK/Europe?
Shipping costs by cable are pretty low, predictable and non-polluting, once the cable etc has been laid.

You have to consider the energy loss in the cable. You would basically be heating the bottom of the ocean and not getting much out the other end. And since heating the ocean is what we were trying to avoid.....

In fact transporting electricity by any means is quite wasteful. The worst method is pumping it into batteries, e.g. for electric cars.

[Homer]

I'd guess that the advantage for the suppliers is that they don't have the cost of on the road meter readers but even they resisted because they had to carry the cost of installation up front.

What meter readers? I've not had mine read for about ten years, they just take my own estimated reading each time. Getting a smart meter because I'm sick of doing their job for them.

[white exec]

Smart meters go further than just the facility to be remotely read. Other remote actions possible are
- tariff changing (eg cheap/peak contracted hours)
- monitoring of energy usage by time
- monitoring of type of power usage (eg high power factor)
- setting of a limit to the maximum power that can be pulled
- selective disconnection, including in regional/national emergencies or power shortages, non-payment (within the law)
- remote detection of meter and line faults, and mapping of local power outages.

On power transmission losses, yes there is energy loss, but this can be minimised by cabling at very high voltages. As far back as the 1970s, the USSR was operating parts of its national grid at 1000kV in order to reduce the losses (heating effect) of higher currents at lower voltages.

Nikolai Tesla had an idea or two about global energy transmission - wirelessly.

I wonder what percentage of the energy content of that American wood is lost by shipping - on the US side, at sea, and by the time it arrives at the furnace? And how would that compare to EHV cabling losses, let alone the environmental damage due to shipping?

[bobins]

Smart meters also have the added benefit (?) of getting the general public used to remote monitoring and charging. Domestic energy use is but one form of remote monitoring where the customer can see 'cause and effect' i.e. you carry out a task - it costs you money. It's a distinct possibility that governments will move towards a 'pay per mile' form of private vehicle use, so a general public that has already - to a greater extent - accepted the concept of remote monitoring and charging would be useful.

[GiveMeABreak]

Never will have one as long as there is a choice in the matter.

Many horror stories of over-billing - one chap was charged £9,600 for a day's electricity due to a faulty smart meter.

First generation SMETS1 aren't compatible with SMETS2, so they won't work when you switch supplier and go 'dumb', so about 4 million are likely to have to be removed already! And don't forget we are all paying for these through our bills. This cracking system was of course championed by Mr Miliband.

The other thing is that LED lights and dimmers as examples can 'change the shape' of the current and cause incorrect usage stats.

We already have LED bulbs in just about all of our main light and table lamps and I really do not see the benefit of having these. I'm quite content to send my reading via my phone app each month thank you, but already have estimated our monthly usage manually from historic records and we are always spot on, so don't need one of these Carlos Fandango devices to start submitting estimated readings because it's technology isn't smart enough and increasing my bills thank you very much.

Don't get me going on all the other unnecessary data they collect unless you opt out - another reason we will not be getting one of these anytime soon. That plus no 3g or 2g phone signal here is another good reason to reject these.

[white exec]

A whole lot of misunderstandings there, Marc. Not sure where to start!

[NewcastleFalcon]

While your pondering Chris have a look at this HQ in Bilbao. There's nothing more Scottish than our energy providers Scottish Power......er no wholly owned subsidiary of Iberdrola!


Torre Iberdrola 1 - Bilbao, Spain (2)
AGC Glass Europe [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

REgards Neil

[GiveMeABreak]

A whole lot of misunderstandings there, Marc. Not sure where to start!

It's the way I feel about them, and my own research and general feedback from those that have had them. I now actively choose energy suppliers who do not require one of these and will continue to do so for as long as I have a choice. We don't have natural gas here anyway, so it's all electricity and oil heating so we have minimised our consumption as much as possible (or what we are comfortable with), so these things can't do anything else for me that I'm really interested in.

Like anything though, it's important to still have a choice for as long as possible.

[Gibbo2286]

Iberdrola though Neil is not 'wholly owned' by anyone it is an international business owned by multiple shareholders and investment funds, it's big, very big.

https://www.iberdrola.com/about-us

[Gibbo2286]

A whole lot of misunderstandings there, Marc. Not sure where to start!

I suppose you could start with this from Marc's post:
Many horror stories of over-billing - one chap was charged £9,600 for a day's electricity due to a faulty smart meter.

Is that something new since smart meters? I recall similar stories from way back in my childhood and youth where meter readers had misread or mis-transcribed the readings.

Also who ever had the old meters checked for accuracy, the old meters at my place were installed when the house was built in 1971 (My friends has been in since 1921) and as far as I know had never been checked, who knows how much they'd overcharged/undercharged for the supply, maybe not the immediately noticeable nine grand in a day but could be a steady bleed of a few pounds a month that goes unnoticed and is uncheckable.

[GiveMeABreak]

I think they have to come out and check the meters periodically anyway - although I have to say since we have been switching we have never had anyone out in 6 yearsto do this, so I can't say for sure. We did have a bloke turn up from Swalec to check the meter, but I told him we're not with Swalec and he said yes we were according to his records and that this was a meter check. I assured him we were not and to check his records again - and then he realised there was a muddle up on the meter numbers (why am I not surprised). So he apologised and legged it. Never seen anyone else to check the meter to date though, so I'm wondering whose responsibility it is for checking the calibration - perhaps it's all gone to pot now the energy market has opened up with all these new suppliers.

We've recently left 2 new suppliers - Iresa who went under, then the ombudsman agreed an interim arrangement with Octupus, who we left as they were far too expensive, so went to Outfox The Market, until they pi**ed off all their customers by suddenly doubling their customer's direct debits for the winter, regardless of actual consumption!

So thousands took to complaining and venting their anger on Trustpilot and they have now issued a grovelling apology as customers left in their thousands in protest. I bet the bright spark who dreamt that one up is now at the Job Centre.

So we are now on a fixed 2 year tariff with no increases - with Green Energy network - one recommended by that Moneysupermarket site (other sites are available ) which we found after doing the latest comparison site searches. Just as well too, as all the energy wholesale prices have just soared again.

[Deanxm]

Something must be done but in a lot of cases it seems to be doing something to be seen to be doing something, rather than tackling the fundamental problems.

The trouble is, if you were to do a root cause analysis, then the fundamental problem boils down to : too many people consuming too much. And that's - for all intents and purposes - currently an insolvable problem. Every 'solution' is nothing but smoke and mirrors / kicking the can down the road.

This is my take on the whole thing exactly, so far as i am concerned if we are positive that the current small shift in the climate, which so far has not lived up to the predictions initially made, is actually solely or largely due to human emissions, then we need to drastically limit energy consumption and possibly limit population. This is a rather extreme solution, granted, but if the threat is as real as we are told then there is no choice.

Sometimes i wonder if the average person stops to think about the number of lives that have been saved by industrialisation and the plentiful supply of cheap energy that fossil fuels have provided us and what the world would look like without these developments, granted, this is no excuse not to move forward if it is required, but I can't help feeling that sometimes problems seem to be created or inflated to allow some members of society to beat their chests and save the day.

Cheap energy is the foundation that our society is built on and so far as I can see, we have no replacement that is as cost-effective, energy dense, safe or as flexible as fossil fuels.

D

[bobins]

The elephant in the room is that all this 'greeness' is merely prolonging the inhabitation of this utterly insignificant little blue-green planet* by a few hundred / thousand years - a mere 'blink' in its existence Here's an existential question for a wet Sunday afternoon - would The Universe miss The Earth if all its inhabitants died ?

*- ...whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea (HHGTTG)

[myglaren]

Wasn't aware that Scottish Power was part-owned by the Spanish but doesn't entirely surprise me.
I have been with them for years and despite negative reports fave nothing to complain about other that the difficulty of logging in to their website to submit meter readings (once a month - when I remember)

I did have a communication from them not long ago that said they were using 100% renewable generating sources. I may be somewhat sceptical on that one though.

One dissenting opinion that I for the most part fall in with.

[GiveMeABreak]

I couldn't agree more Steve! The hidden agenda - leading to variable charging at different times of the day - so like he says who the hell needs cheap power at 3:00am in the morning when most of us are asleep and then double rates during normal use! An utter con.