CrisPDuk

It had to happen one day

Pity was on a day that the wife wasn't around to see it

Personally I think nuclear is the way forward, Japan was a freak accident, plus the chances of anywhere in Europe (especially Germany ) ever being hit by a quake of anywhere near that magnitude are somewhere between exceedingly slim and non-existent.

bigsinky

are the government not cutting the tarrifs on solar power as well?

David Lock

Go around any town mid-evening and the place will be flooded with light that just isn't needed. Multi-storey buildings with lights left on - probably so Mrs Mop is due in or the MD is "working" late with Sharon from the typing pool

So if anyone is serious about slashing power use bring in a law to stop this laziness and/or put in meters that have a sliding tariff that punishes energy wastage.

Oh and stop getting all melodramatic about a few windows rattling when using shale resources.

dl

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

IMO its the energy companies responsible for this. I've recently been made responsible for handling our commercial gas and eleccy contracts. And my god what an antiquated load of saleman b*ll **** it all is.

Nothing like consumer energy. Where most compaines say upfront what they charge, and basically what they advertise is what you get. For commercial customers they NEVER publicise their current rates, instead insisting they quote you based on your 'projected requirements'.

Basically we arrange in adavnce what we have to pay then for the next year (or two or three years) under contract. They put stupid standing charges in that have no relation to the actual supply of which vary wildly between supplier, or even the same supplier from one year to the next.

NOBODY gives their tarrif upfront (like consumers have). They rip you off on roll-over renewals. They CONSTANTLY ploy sales patter saying that rates are going up (but never quantify how much that is above typical inflation). And what they claim is the best rate isn't, wasting hours playing phone tennis between supplier and broker bartering between them all with each counter offer.


In the end I KNOW iI'm going to pay Ł2800 of gas and Ł1500 of eleccy next year...regardless. If I use less they'll stick me on a higher tarrif, if I use more they put me on a lower tarrif.

So either way it costs us the same because as a customer they wast Łxxxx amount off us....and fiddle the rates to get that figure based on a our usage history. If we suddenly decide to switch our gas space heater to waste oil or simply switch it off and freeze.....mark my words, the next years the contract renewal rates would triple!

So the blunt point is in contrast to a domestic consumer, this gives us zero incentive for us to try and save energy. Hence why you have offices with all the lights on....its doens't cost them any extra....if they switched them off theyd have to pay more per unit of electricity, come contract renewal time, or they'd have the standing charge ramped up for no reason. There are also some contracts that have penalties for not meeting minimum usage criteria too! So if I use 4000Kw/h instead of the projected 44,000Kw/h, they'll hammer me for it.

Leslie

He always says it as he sees it, sometimes he is wrong but he is always worth listening to and in this case I agree wholeheartedly with him. It is costing us all a hell of a lot of cash purely to make us look greener for the government's sake on the world stage but it is a inneffective way as he says.

Les

CrisPDuk

@ Ali

Our works manager is responsible for negotiating our contracts, he hates energy company reps with a passion

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

He has my sympathy

Suresh

Wind energy is currently delivering 410MW to the UK grid, which is just 7% of installed capaciy! Expect solar is performing equally badly with mist. Quite frankly that sort of performance is the wrong side of ****ing useless during a cold snap!

boomer

Aye, wind is currently providing around only ONE PERCENT of our UK energy needs!!!

The green, hippy tree-hugging soap dodgers need to get a grip on reality!

See NETA for the latest figures.

mb

p.s. Funny how nobody can provide real-time data on how much energy the MASSIVELY subsidised Solar PV panels provide

speedking

Isn't solar panel output impossible to measure becasuse in the first instance they reduce the demand (to zero?) of the property where they're installed, then any surplus is fed back, which is always going to be a tiny proportion of what they generate.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

He comes out with some crackers, he was far too kind about Stoke though.

"It was going fine until Prince Philip wandered up to Joan Walley, a very sincere leftish feminist MP."

As Prince Philip approached Joan, pictured, he asked her where she represented – and when she told him Stoke-on-Trent, the Prince replied: "Ghastly place, isn't it?"

Suresh

Wind update: 160MW being produced right now which is TWO PERCENT of theoretical wind generation capacity. Oh dear.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

There is probably more to this than what meets the eye...

These wind turbines are privately owned, yes? So the companies that own them 'sell' what electric they can deliver.

But...what if the prices they are selling that energy are too high? A energy supplier won't buy it. and instead they buy it where it is cheapest, which at a wild guess is probably coal derived electricty (I wonder if thats imported coal or UK mined? ). So long as the copmpany meets it minimum renewable obligation quota, it doesn't need it.

So if suppliers aren't buying energy from the wind energy generators, then there is no need for them to be switched on.

It also shows up how much of a scam these 'green energy' tarrifs are; In the sale blurb you pay a bit extra to allow an energy company to buy electric from renewable sources or the support of building renewable infrastructure. Well, lts proven to be aload of profiteering marketing b**locks. The companies that own/lease, supply and install the generators are foriengn ventures making use of subsidies. The companies that supply electrcity to consumers just sell on their obligation to supply x% of 'green' electric to some other company which can whenever they fall below their quota. So just aim to only deliver only the minimum required amount of required renewable energy. So in the end those consumers on a 'green energy' tarrif never really got any energy from green sources, becuase their supplier negated their need to generate it by buying someone else's surplus quota! What a farce! This is why they use the ultra-vaigue term of 'carbon offset' and 'green energy'.

What should be happening is these generators should be running at full power whenever they can. But the market doesn't allow it, as the generator's owners are charging far too much for the power they generate.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

I think windfarms are a great idea.........


....someone has to supply the marine transmissions for the windfarm boats that have to go and fix them!