By Paul Homewood

You were warned!!

.

Millions of households with smart meters face paying more for their electricity at the busiest times of day under regulator plans.

Ofgem is consulting on introducing a “dynamic” energy price cap to meet the demand of net zero, despite repeated assurances from the Government that smart meter technology would not result in more expensive energy bills for consumers.

The energy watchdog said it would look to “encourage consumer flexibility” by basing the energy price cap around the wholesale costs of electricity throughout the day.

The plans include allowing suppliers to charge more for electricity when the grid is at its busiest, as Britons move away from conventional gas boilers and adopt electric-powered heat pumps and electric vehicles.

Proposals would scrap the energy price cap – currently £1,690 a year – and effectively switch the entire country to a 1970s-style “time-of-use” tariff that charges different prices throughout the day.

This would either be introduced in weekly “time bands” that are divided into more expensive peak and cheaper off-peak periods, or linked directly to half-hourly wholesale market prices.

Ofgem admitted the latter proposal would risk “exposing customers to wholesale price variability” and that “many consumers may struggle to engage with constantly evolving pricing”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/bills/energy/energy-customers-smart-meters-face-pay-more-busy-times/

The Energy Price Cap should never have been introduced. But now energy users with a smart meter may be faced with a fait accompli, finding it difficult to find any supplier prepared to offer a fixed price.

And one thing is absolutely certain – consumers will not be better off under any new system.

And as may experts are pointing out, many people need access to electricity all day. It is all very well for a household which is empty during the day, but what will happen to old people or mums with kids who need to heat their homes all day.

Indeed how many of these groups will even have access to the information needed to optimise pricing?

Worse still, this is not only about Time of Day pricing – wholesale prices can often peak at much higher levels for days on end when wind power is low in winter. There will be no escape from this peak pricing at times like this – everybody will end up paying.

If the government is intent on bringing in this policy, it must legislate for an opt out for anybody who wants to remain with a fixed price, and that should be set at an affordable level.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/i8vFZmc

March 25, 2024 at 03:39PM

By Paul Homewood

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/23/china-solar-panels-europe-net-zero-energy/

The naive journalist makes several references to the “massive” amounts of solar capacity on offer, for instance:

The clueless reporter evidently does not understand the difference between CAPACITY and GENERATION.

You simply cannot compare solar power, typically producing at about 10 to 15%, with nuclear, which runs at close to 100%

Worse still, that 10% is not available all year round. During December last year, it averaged only 297 MW, which is just 2% of capacity:

https://www.solar.sheffield.ac.uk/pvlive/#

In summer months, solar power can peak at ten times as much, which will clearly destabilise the grid, if capacity is increased as much as the government wants.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/6JFcaC7

March 25, 2024 at 03:39PM

By Paul Homewood

An excellent analysis by Chris Morrison of the latest GWPF paper by Ralph Alexander:

Rising media star ‘Jim’ Dale (real name Noel Roger Dale) from British Weather Services (limited company dissolved) with a 40-year old proficiency certificate in thermometer reading from the Royal Navy can be relied upon to turn almost every bad weather event into the harbinger of complete climate collapse. Whatever the data thrown at him disproving his barking claims, ‘Jim’ carries on regardless. It is a comic tour de force, not to be missed. Unfortunately this ‘Daleification’ of climate change is common throughout mainstream media. A recent extreme weather report written by the physicist Dr. Ralph B. Alexander notes that much of the fault for the erroneous perception that such events are becoming worse can be attributed to the mainstream media, “eager to promote the latest climate scare”. He argues that the failure by climate reporters to put today’s extremes in a true historical perspective “is contributing to the belief that weather extremes are on the rise when they are not”.

Read the full story here.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/DuSQpmR

March 25, 2024 at 03:39PM

By Paul Homewood

Europe’s ambitious plans to expand green energy generation with “Made in EU” solar panels face a distinctly cloudy future as the continent faces a massive glut of the devices.

Millions of solar panels are piling up in warehouses across the Continent because of a manufacturing battle in China, where cut-throat competition has driven the world’s biggest panel-makers to expand production far faster than they can be installed.

The supply glut has caused solar panel prices to halve. This sounds like great news for the EU, which recently pledged to triple its solar power capacity to 672 gigawatts by 2030. That’s roughly equivalent to 200 large nuclear power stations.

In reality, though, it has caused a crisis. Under the EU’s “Green Deal Industrial Plan”, 40pc of the panels to be spread across European fields and roofs were meant to be made by European manufacturers.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/23/china-solar-panels-europe-net-zero-energy/

It’s all very well benefitting from Chinese subsidies now, but what will happen when the panels need replacing in ten years time, and there is a shortage of manufacturing capacity?

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/8SNqRJX

March 25, 2024 at 03:39PM