Energy costs. Oh dear.......

[Tedx]

A few points:

1. If you are considering a heat pump you need a proper heat loss survey of your house to accurately determine the size needed. You can have a go at this yourself with the heatpunk tool: https://heatpunk.co.uk/home. In this you can adjust radiator sizes/types and flow temperature to see what difference it makes. But you probably should get one done by an expert.

2. On most heat pumps you can adjust the flow temperature - the higher the temperature the lower the efficiency (COP). Some heat pumps can operate at the flow temperature of a gas boiler, but with low COP. So there is a trade-off between spending money to increase radiator size and improve insulation versus heat pump efficiency (and hence electricity usage). The optimum will depend on your particular property and what exists in it at the start.

3. I have had a heat pump quote for a 3 bed bungalow from Octopus, including hot water tank and some new radiators of £6230, net of the £7500 grant available in England.

Home energy Scotland produced a comprehensive report detailing most (if not all) of what you say. The conclusions were pretty similar to that of the Scottish Power surveyor.

My house is a 3 bed semi detatched. I would be £3149 after the grant....but as I said before, if I factor in having to replace the aging storage heaters with modern ones and replacing the immersion HW tank anyway....I'm actually £470 up.......

[Tedx]

Ofgem said energy prices have fallen to the lowest level since Russia's invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022. It said this "caused a further spike in an already turbulent wholesale energy market, driving up costs for suppliers and ultimately customers".

Eh?

Ok, I'm on my first coffee of the day, so not fully awake....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68353627

[UncleEbenezer]

Ofgem said energy prices have fallen to the lowest level since Russia's invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022. It said this "caused a further spike in an already turbulent wholesale energy market, driving up costs for suppliers and ultimately customers".

Eh?

Ok, I'm on my first coffee of the day, so not fully awake....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68353627

Private Eye has noticed another upward pressure on prices. The rents taken by the Crown Estate on offshore wind farms are soaring!

[servodude]

Ofgem said energy prices have fallen to the lowest level since Russia's invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022. It said this "caused a further spike in an already turbulent wholesale energy market, driving up costs for suppliers and ultimately customers".

Eh?

Ok, I'm on my first coffee of the day, so not fully awake....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68353627

Private Eye has noticed another upward pressure on prices. The rents taken by the Crown Estate on offshore wind farms are soaring!

Know your place prole!?

[bruncher]

Ofgem said energy prices have fallen to the lowest level since Russia's invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022. It said this "caused a further spike in an already turbulent wholesale energy market, driving up costs for suppliers and ultimately customers".

Eh?

Ok, I'm on my first coffee of the day, so not fully awake....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68353627

Private Eye has noticed another upward pressure on prices. The rents taken by the Crown Estate on offshore wind farms are soaring!

If the Labour Party is looking for quick win policies, then deprive the Crown of this cash. Legislate to appropriate the sea on behalf of the Nation.

Meanwhile - Octopus is offering me free electricity on some days if I opt in to 'Octoplus' Rewards.

Free electricity when the grid is greenest

Get paid to use less energy when the grid is dirtiest in Saving Sessions

Has anyone opted in to this? The rewards are not enticing e.g. free drink at Gregg's

[Niksen]

Meanwhile - Octopus is offering me free electricity on some days if I opt in to 'Octoplus' Rewards.

Free electricity when the grid is greenest

Get paid to use less energy when the grid is dirtiest in Saving Sessions

Has anyone opted in to this? The rewards are not enticing e.g. free drink at Gregg's

Yes, I do.

I take advantage of the free electricity when there is a surplus of renewables. You get a notification the day before when it will be and for how long and have to opt in to get it. The free period can be any time during the following day (never overnight so far) and usually for a couple of hours, but it has been shorter and it has been longer. For example it was free yesterday from 9.30am to 12.30pm. You are charged as normal for the use during the free period and then you get a credit back on your bill a few weeks later.

However as I have an EV and use their Intelligent tariff then it doesn’t save that much as I can usually persuade them to supply me with electricity at 7.5p per kWh at most times of the day by just plugging the car in to charge.

The savings sessions I have used less because generally I am not using much electricity at the times they occur anyway, so trying to reduce further would be difficult and I am not sitting in the dark to save 50p.

Then for gas I am using their Tracker tariff which has been sitting at 1/2 to 2/3 the standard cost for the last year or so.

As for the Greggs offer, I do wonder if the deal was done as a joke because the Octopus CEO is called Greg.

[scrumpyjack]

Private Eye has noticed another upward pressure on prices. The rents taken by the Crown Estate on offshore wind farms are soaring!

Know your place prole!?

The Crown Estate is in effect owned by the State. It's net profit goes to the state and about 12% of that is then used to pay the grants to the monarchy.
So the wind farm revenue is already going into government coffers.

[bruncher]

Meanwhile - Octopus is offering me free electricity on some days if I opt in to 'Octoplus' Rewards.

Free electricity when the grid is greenest

Get paid to use less energy when the grid is dirtiest in Saving Sessions

Has anyone opted in to this? The rewards are not enticing e.g. free drink at Gregg's

Yes, I do.

I take advantage of the free electricity when there is a surplus of renewables. You get a notification the day before when it will be and for how long and have to opt in to get it. The free period can be any time during the following day (never overnight so far) and usually for a couple of hours, but it has been shorter and it has been longer. For example it was free yesterday from 9.30am to 12.30pm. You are charged as normal for the use during the free period and then you get a credit back on your bill a few weeks later.

However as I have an EV and use their Intelligent tariff then it doesn’t save that much as I can usually persuade them to supply me with electricity at 7.5p per kWh at most times of the day by just plugging the car in to charge.

The savings sessions I have used less because generally I am not using much electricity at the times they occur anyway, so trying to reduce further would be difficult and I am not sitting in the dark to save 50p.

Then for gas I am using their Tracker tariff which has been sitting at 1/2 to 2/3 the standard cost for the last year or so.

As for the Greggs offer, I do wonder if the deal was done as a joke because the Octopus CEO is called Greg.

Gas Tracker Tariff sounds good. But I can't find it on the Octopus 'dashboard'. Maybe I'm not eligible as our gas smart meter's smart features don't work.

[Niksen]

Gas Tracker Tariff sounds good. But I can't find it on the Octopus 'dashboard'. Maybe I'm not eligible as our gas smart meter's smart features don't work.

https://octopus.energy/smart/tracker/

The prices change every day based on the wholesale market price and there is a cap to how high they can rise (100p for electricity and 30p for gas) so there is a risk to the user.

You can see the historic prices here, just change which region you are in -

https://mysmartenergy.uk/Tracker/Eastern-England

[Tedx]

Some interesting thoughts on SMR's here

https://youtu.be/Zr1ecjYFYTo?si=Ak6fYmtK2EET8ekT

In particular the issues at NuScale and Rolls Royce.

His conclusion is that 'The only available, affordable and rapidly scaleable technologies that we have at our fingertips right now are wind, solar and battery storage technology, backed up heroically by things like hydropower, geothermal and high voltage interconnectors which are real, really work, are cheap and safe and well understood and we dont need to fret about whether or not SMR's will work in a safe way at an affordable price because by the time the developers of the technology get any of their rather prodigal metaphorical ducks into anything that resembles a row, the world will have moved on...... and we just won't need them

[BullDog]

Some interesting thoughts on SMR's here

https://youtu.be/Zr1ecjYFYTo?si=Ak6fYmtK2EET8ekT

In particular the issues at NuScale and Rolls Royce.

His conclusion is that 'The only available, affordable and rapidly scaleable technologies that we have at our fingertips right now are wind, solar and battery storage technology, backed up heroically by things like hydropower, geothermal and high voltage interconnectors which are real, really work, are cheap and safe and well understood and we dont need to fret about whether or not SMR's will work in a safe way at an affordable price because by the time the developers of the technology get any of their rather prodigal metaphorical ducks into anything that resembles a row, the world will have moved on...... and we just won't need them

SMRs. Not in my lifetime. I believe. Pipe dream, supposed reduced costs are not real. All the regulatory burdens, all the safety systems, all the decommissioning problems, all the security costs, and so on irrespective of generation capacity. But just for a 10th of the generation capacity? There's very good reasons why nuclear power stations got so large.

[UncleEbenezer]

SMRs. Not in my lifetime. I believe.

Ten years time.
Maybe.

[Tedx]

The goal is to have 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 plus 30GW of onshore wind and 40GW of by 2030.

As the 'Just have a think' guy said, will we actually need SMRs?

[scotview]

The goal is to have 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 plus 30GW of onshore wind and 40GW of by 2030.

As the 'Just have a think' guy said, will we actually need SMRs?

Probably not, but we will need 90 GW of standby gas fired generation, which will more than likely need to go online in some of the most demanding winter days/nights to fill gap when the renewables nameplate rating cannot be met.

[BullDog]

SMRs. Not in my lifetime. I believe.

Ten years time.
Maybe.

We shall see. I can't see it happening myself.

[daveh]

The goal is to have 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 plus 30GW of onshore wind and 40GW of by 2030.

As the 'Just have a think' guy said, will we actually need SMRs?

Probably not, but we will need 90 GW of standby gas fired generation, which will more than likely need to go online in some of the most demanding winter days/nights to fill gap when the renewables nameplate rating cannot be met.

Why?

We will need enough back up capacity (of which ever form) to cover the required maximum demand not the name plate capacity of wind generation. We have 26GW of combined cycle power plants at the moment, plus increasing amounts of battery backup and hydro in its various forms, interconnectors to the rest of the world etc etc. Plus in exceptional circumstances heavy industrial users can be paid to stop/reduce using power to keep the grid functioning.

[Tedx]

Yes, interconnectors. There's been several new interconnectors opened in the last 5 years, including to Denmark and Norway (loadsa lovely hydro there). There's even one planned from the UK to Morocco

https://xlinks.co/morocco-uk-power-project/

All far simpler and easier to deploy than nukes (small, modular or otherwise).

[funduffer]

The goal is to have 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 plus 30GW of onshore wind and 40GW of by 2030.

As the 'Just have a think' guy said, will we actually need SMRs?

We may need a few.

A certain amount of Nuclear baseload would provide resilience and energy security to the grid. This could come from batteries, pumped hydro, interconnectors or nuclear. With very large amounts of wind and solar it may not be much but probably best to have some nuclear as an insurance.

It is a cost question whether these are 3GW behemoths like Sizewell, or smaller 0.5GW SMR's like Rolls-Royce's:

https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/why-rolls-royce-smr

It all comes down to whether you believe the lower costs of SMR's or not.

FD

[Tedx]

The goal is to have 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 plus 30GW of onshore wind and 40GW of by 2030.

As the 'Just have a think' guy said, will we actually need SMRs?

We may need a few.

A certain amount of Nuclear baseload would provide resilience and energy security to the grid. This could come from batteries, pumped hydro, interconnectors or nuclear. With very large amounts of wind and solar it may not be much but probably best to have some nuclear as an insurance.

It is a cost question whether these are 3GW behemoths like Sizewell, or smaller 0.5GW SMR's like Rolls-Royce's:

https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/why-rolls-royce-smr

It all comes down to whether you believe the lower costs of SMR's or not.

FD

Well it's costs and whether they can be built and deployed as easily and as quickly as NuScale / Rolls Royce says they can be.

[BullDog]

The goal is to have 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 plus 30GW of onshore wind and 40GW of by 2030.

As the 'Just have a think' guy said, will we actually need SMRs?

We may need a few.

A certain amount of Nuclear baseload would provide resilience and energy security to the grid. This could come from batteries, pumped hydro, interconnectors or nuclear. With very large amounts of wind and solar it may not be much but probably best to have some nuclear as an insurance.

It is a cost question whether these are 3GW behemoths like Sizewell, or smaller 0.5GW SMR's like Rolls-Royce's:

https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/why-rolls-royce-smr

It all comes down to whether you believe the lower costs of SMR's or not.

FD

I do not. There is not a linear or simple relationship between cost of a nuclear power plant and it's generating capacity. And that's no different to virtually every other type of process or energy facility. In particular, nuclear facilities bear overheads that are considerable virtually independent of size.

One example, there's little difference to the control, safeguarding and protection systems on a ~1.5gw steam turbine generator (as Hinckley C) compared to ~0.5gw steam turbine generator (as SMR proposal). And that's the conventional, non nuclear side of the facility. Cost savings? Virtually nil.