Is this medium-term thinking by Nicola Shaw realistic? I don't see it myself. Might smooth out a few peaks and troughs through the day, but isn't going to compensate for several days of no wind in mid-January.
You're baying at the moon. It's far more efficient to dupe the consumer into buying into demand side management than it is to build more capacity.
By "efficient" I mean "makes more money for snouts in troughs".
Thanks to our poorly -if at all - educated masses, few people - and certainly no-one you'd listen to - realise that control of access to energy is ultimately control of *everything*.
With a bit of luck, artificial energy rationing will hasten some really nasty pandemic, and wipe out 50% of the population. And given the way things are going, I'm not really fussed which half I end up in.
Given how long it's taken them to not get very far into a smart meter roll-out, I'd say the chickens will be home to roost sooner than they can tackle another "smart" project.
Get those coal-fired stations ready to start burning again once the LCPD no longer applies ...
There's a certain delicious irony that - like water meters - their own greed has f***ed them up the arse.
If they had bit the bullet, and just rolled out smart meters at their own expense, we'd be at 90% by now.
The problem is they could never sell that to their shareholders.
The whole thing is actually a testament to how the word "investment" is a dirty word in UK business practices. Well, investing ones own money that is. we are very good at investing other peoples money.
Smart meters won't help at all, we need smart electricity consuming devices. That's what the new director has been talking about.
We are all doomed I tell you. I do hope they have not demolished all those coal stations, they might need them. Brian
But they won't be coming any time soon, and they won't stop the national battery going flat after a day or two of no wind in winter.
Then what? Woollies, candles and a three-day week again, and no investment into any UK industry because the electricity is so unreliable?
There's very little of my load that I'd want time-shifted to reduce peaks ...
washer/dryer could usually delay start for a few hours, but wouldn't want it to decide to stop once a load was underway, and would want a button to say "start now regardless"
fridge/freezer could cope with intermittent power, provided it was allowed a reasonable duty cycle.
Beyond that, all other devices I want to be on, or able to be on 24x7; anything less would be the grid telling me I can't eat, work or relax when I want to.
Not really. These days "investment", especially when used in the media, is a synonym for "spend".
And I would not want a dryer to run when I'm not there (they seem to keep catching fire according to the papers and the Fire Brigade advice is never run a tumble dryer unattended). So bit of a non starter.
And they use sod all power anyway.
Unless someone has electric heating, which is probably already storage based, they are on a hiding to nothing with this daft idea.
Investment in people = Buying votes.
Certain makes/models maybe, I've gone 30+ years without any hint of a problem.
I suspect mine accounts for between 1/4 and 1/3 of my energy
or an electric car
And they already have load shedding agreements in place with big industrial users, so may not be much extra they can do in that direction.
+1
Absolutely, I wasn't saying that 'smart devices' are a possible solution to the current problem. I was just pointing out that smart meters aren't a solution to the problem at all and that the new minister seemed to be talking about 'smart devices'.
I was involved in building microprocessor controlled load shedding systems back in the 1970s, it was called 'maximum demand control' back then. We sold systems to lots of big electricity consumers such as Pilkingtons glass, British Rail (electric arc furnaces) and lots of others.
It wasn't quite 'real time' as the electricity bills were based on the maximum demand in any one half-hour period. I.e. big industrial consumers were charged for the units they consumed and an amount which depended on the largest number of kwh used in any one of the half hour periods (over a month, I *think*, it was a long time ago). If our system predicted a large consumption in the current half-hour period it would do a bit of load-shedding (e.g. turn off a few coils in the Pilkington annealing ovens).
I'll run a good brand of washer or dishwasher unattended, but it stands to reason that a machine that blows lint and dust over a heating device (dry dust near the end of the cycle) is the one that's a significant risk, compared to the other two.
Really? I must put a power meter on mine, but right now most of my electricity goes on heating and hot water, so everything else tends to zero.
There is that... But that would be "new load" not a rearrangement of existing load.
Aye - and that is a good idea. Lots of power shed in one go, with a financial benefit to the customer.
I really don't believe that titting about with households is going to make a blind bit of difference.
I was just thinking - you don't need a very smart device to shed load anyway. Just one that looks for the frequency going below a certain limit. Only problem is how to give the customer a financial incentive to use a load of these (if in the form of 13A plug adaptors).
What device is that? Mine blows cold air over a heating coil, and the dust comes out the exhaust end...
The consumer will be handed a financial penalty for not using them. Just build a few nukes and give us all the power we need when we need it
- and its carbon free.
Mine's a condenser type so I assume the air is recirculated - a guess mind...
There are filters, but they aren't perfect.
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