Electricity price going negative tonight....

[tomw00]

Electricity prices are negative tonight. Good time to charge the car to the max.
As luck would have it I just did 160 miles so the battery is only 3rd full

Sponsored

 

[dewber]

Wow - where do you live? Is this a common occurrence?

 

[gdavison]

I'd imagine it is a UK New Years Eve Phenomena .. These are wholesale rates (rates energy companies buy at) .. there are a few UK tariffs that allow users to "gamble" on using these hourly rates and historically they could save, however with rates these days being high pretty much all the time any one playing wholesale rates will be paying a lot..

I imagine this -ve price is the generating companies have planned to spin everything up for New Years eve (probably including a few old power stations that they generally dont use - maybe even the coal fired ones they are in process of decomissioning) and will have to keep generating until we all get too drunk / partied out and just turn off and go to bed on masse but they cant spin down the generation that quick (takes a few hours to turn off a power station) so need to dump it between 3am and 7 am

 

[tomw00]

Wow - where do you live? Is this a common occurrence?

In the UK.


It is caused by there being plenty of wind. It generally happens because there is ramp up time to get gas turbines on supply ready for the start of the day. It is better for them to sell a small amount of electricity at a loss overnight ready for selling a lot at a profit.

It can also happen on windy and sunny days. I think it must happen 10-20 times year or so.

You can see the UK's production mix here https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ Currently only 25% of electricity is coming from burning fossil fuels.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

I think the only way to win long term with the agile rate is to either not use electricity from 5-7pm or have a system like a Tesla powerwall where you can use stored electricity during the peak rates. Happy charging overnight though!

 

[tomw00]

I think the only way to win long term with the agile rate is to either not use electricity from 5-7pm or have a system like a Tesla powerwall where you can use stored electricity during the peak rates. Happy charging overnight though!

Exactly - we have underfloor heating which can switched off for a good few hours before we notice it. I have the controller pause the heating between expensive hours without any perceptible change in temp

 

[gdavison]

Been doing the maths on home battery storage over the last few days mainly as we come off a fixed tariff (of 14.7p per kWhr) in Nov 2022 and due to lots of big old Oak trees around the house no one will install Solar for us, it is still starting to look like financially beneficial to put a battery system in just to use the cheaper overnight rate

 

[tomw00]

Been doing the maths on home battery storage over the last few days mainly as we come off a fixed tariff (of 14.7p per kWhr) in Nov 2022 and due to lots of big old Oak trees around the house no one will install Solar for us, it is still starting to look like financially beneficial to put a battery system in just to use the cheaper overnight rate

yes me too - I have an order in for a system based on BYD batteries and Victron controllers/inverters.

I have also got permission from my DNO to bust through the export limit so am uprating my PV array to 10kW.

If you can't put your own panels up it is worth checking out https://rippleenergy.com/
You basically buy a share in a wind turbine and then receive it's output for free for its lifetime ( ~25 years ). You still to pay transmission fees but this will a *lot* cheaper than anything EDF/Scottish Power etc can supply.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Interesting that it's going to be the warmest New Year in history for the UK.
Our minimum temp tonight (Cheshire) is 13c. 15c tomorrow.
That's Just balmy / barmy!

Been to the pub and sat in the beer garden this evening. ?

Has also been the dullest December in 65 years or something though.

 

[gdavison]

Wow - where do you live? Is this a common occurrence?

Fascinating read here on -ve pricing

Sponsored