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Paid not to consume electricity...

AJJewsbury

Looks like the scheme is going forward 

Has anyone heard yet the details of how it will work? ... as (even with a smart meter) they can't measure what you don't use so presumably will try to compare with some kind of "normal" - any idea what that "normal" is likely to be? An average across all customers - or what you actually used the same day the previous week or something like?  I'm just wondering if it might allow the unscrupulous to inflate their usage at certain times to claim the extra money at others...

       - Andy.

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  • I am very doubtful about the merits of this scheme. IN PREVIOUS winters there have been doubts as to the sufficiency of UK generating plant to meet the evening peak demand. In such circumstances, shifting demand away from the peak hours could be very valuable indeed.

    However the PRESENT concern is a likely shortage of natural gas with which to fuel gas burning power stations. If demand is shifted from the peak hours to the off peak hours, then natural gas is still the marginal fuel used to meet this demand. 

    If say 1 GW of demand is shifted from the peak hours into the off peak, then gas is still burnt to meet that increased off peak demand. Generating a GWH of electricity in the off peak will consume almost as much gas as would be used to generate the same electricity during the peak.  There WILL BE A SLIGHT SAVING since that plant used in the off peak will be more modern and more efficient than the low "merit order" plant used in the peak hours. Also a slight reduction in transmission and distribution copper losses as these vary approximately as the square of the load.  Seems a marginal gain though.

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  • I am very doubtful about the merits of this scheme. IN PREVIOUS winters there have been doubts as to the sufficiency of UK generating plant to meet the evening peak demand. In such circumstances, shifting demand away from the peak hours could be very valuable indeed.

    However the PRESENT concern is a likely shortage of natural gas with which to fuel gas burning power stations. If demand is shifted from the peak hours to the off peak hours, then natural gas is still the marginal fuel used to meet this demand. 

    If say 1 GW of demand is shifted from the peak hours into the off peak, then gas is still burnt to meet that increased off peak demand. Generating a GWH of electricity in the off peak will consume almost as much gas as would be used to generate the same electricity during the peak.  There WILL BE A SLIGHT SAVING since that plant used in the off peak will be more modern and more efficient than the low "merit order" plant used in the peak hours. Also a slight reduction in transmission and distribution copper losses as these vary approximately as the square of the load.  Seems a marginal gain though.

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