Why we need "Net zero"

[Beelbeebub]

12 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

You could add minor events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sent gas prices through the roof. Building big nuclear generator, which the tax payer seems to be paying for and also adding to electric bills

That's the point. The high price of electricity is being blamed, by some, on the increace in renewables capacity simply because renewables capacity is now higher than it was and prices are now higher than they were. 

 

 

[Beelbeebub]

6 minutes ago, ProDave said:

NO.

 

It's the fact that the ridiculous energy market we are stuck with, prices ALL electricity at the cost of the most expensive which is gas.  So even though from that graph gas provides less than 40% of our energy all of it is priced as if it were all from gas.

 

We need a radical change to the energy market to stop this nonsense.  Otherwise the promise of "electricity will only get cheaper with more renewables" will only happen when renewables reaches 100% and the last gas power station closes down.

 

We are being conned / ripped off and most people are too blinkered to even notice this.

My point. 

 

At least with renewables we have the option of an alternative pricing structure to pass the benefit of the lower cost on to consumers (whether we do that is in thr lap of politicians and their lobbyists.... so I'm not holding my breath) 

 

But the point is that without renewables we will have no choice at all. 

 

Which makes the lobbyists job easier - so they put theor effort into slowing renewables. 

 

Far easier to prevent renewables from being built than to argue why a politician shouldn't take advantage of the cheaper power. 

[SteamyTea]

36 minutes ago, Beelbeebub said:

Is the increacing share of renewables to blame for the Uk's high electricity prices

 

37 minutes ago, Beelbeebub said:

Or is it that electricity prices track gas prices and gas has become more expensive

Correlation is not causation.

Electricity prices are set by the highest priced, deliverable, energy, that is part of the half hour auctions.  This is called the marginal price (I know you know all this).

The high price is caused by this marginal pricing system.

It would be much better if, for any given half hour period, that the mean auction price, based of weighted averages, was paid.  That would get rid of those ridiculous price spikes, and reduce the potential losses at the lower end, I think.  May try and model it later.

[Beelbeebub]

55 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

 

Correlation is not causation.

Electricity prices are set by the highest priced, deliverable, energy, that is part of the half hour auctions.  This is called the marginal price (I know you know all this).

The high price is caused by this marginal pricing system.

It would be much better if, for any given half hour period, that the mean auction price, based of weighted averages, was paid.  That would get rid of those ridiculous price spikes, and reduce the potential losses at the lower end, I think.  May try and model it later.

Yes, thr marginal pricing system is the reason our electricity prices track gas. 

 

The fact this is true means that the accusation that higher electricity prices we pay now are due to higher renwable capacity cannot be correct.