OT electric suppliers/generators

Taking any area it will have a mix of suppliers. Now, how do the generators know how much electricity the suppliers customers use? I assume it must be a blanket charge, in which case surely suppliers whose customers have high usage will benefit over those with low usage customers. Or am I missing something?

Reply to
Broadback
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Yep, You are missing the point that every supply has a clever gadget called a "Meter"

Reply to
R

Broadback said the following on 21/06/2007 13:12:

Not quite sure what you're getting at, but there is less regional connection between generators and suppliers than you might think.

The national grid connects all the power stations, and places contracts with electricity generation companies (i.e. the companies that run the power stations) for supplies. Demand varies considerably according to the time of day, time of year and whether there is anything interesting on the telly.

Electricity generators which can utilise more than one fuel type are fairly abstract fuel traders. That is to say that they will buy and sell current contracts and futures in oil, gas, coal and electricity as they see fit to maximise their profitability. Were it a truly free market, the generating station would shut down rather than make a loss (i.e. they would not willingly sell electricity for a lower price than the current oil/coal/gas price) but they're not allowed to do that.

All suppliers buy from the national grid and sell to whomever they can, irrespective of the physical location of the buyer, the seller and the power station supplying the load.

Reply to
Rumble

Just one little thing - the usage is pretty much irrelevant, as the local REC will receive a cut of the cost per unit depending on the profile class associated to the MPAN number of any customer who uses a different supplier.

Reply to
Colin Wilson

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Reply to
Andy Burns

In message , Rumble writes

Not quite right - that used to be the case a few years ago but now all National Grid do is transmit the power and balance the system, contracts for supply are bilateral between the generators and suppliers with National Grid charging the suppliers for use of system (known as TNUOS - Transmission Network Use of System). National Grid enter into contracts to balance the system so the power flowing into the system matches the power leaving the system by either having generators deload to increase output. For example, grid might want to decrease the power flowing into the grid to balance supply and demand by 10 MW and a generator who has contracted with a supplier to supply 100 MW at £40/MWh may offer to National Grid to reduce output at £50/MWh, National Grid accept the offer and the generator only supplies 90 MW but gets paid by National Grid for the missing 10 MW and makes a profit on the deal.

This website gives a realtime indication of the balancing market activity;

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can see from the graphs what has been generated and what National Grid think the demand if likely to be going forward.

Andy

Reply to
Andrew Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair said the following on 22/06/2007 21:20:

Andy, My bad. Thanks for the correction and clarification.

Reply to
Rumble

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