Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Renewable Reality

In the same way, the belief that generation from domestic use does in fact reach the grid just because alot of the paperwork that has to be filled in to fit it seems a little naive to me when we know that the authors of the paperwork are the same people who sold us the illusory incentive in the first place.

Also I wonder if the paperwork is the same in France as here in UK?


Sorry but unless I have missed something - grid is the term for the DNO cabling coming into your property to the meter. The whole point of export generation is that it lessens the burden on the grid supply - whether that be domestic/commercial or Solar farm.
The authors of the paperwork are the ENA - Energy Networks Association - The big six electricity suppliers (BG/Npower etc) are only selling the end product - they do not transport the product to consumers - that is carried out by National Grid/District Network Operators (DNO) such as UKPN - Western Power etc.
They (National Grid/DNO's) have nothing to gain from any financial incentives, in fact its a burden on the network as generation is only during daylight hours...

Paperwork in France is as expected - 3 copies of everything on paper and wait a year if your lucky...and they are soooo behind the times regarding the technology involved in Solar PV..but as I install only in the UK its not a hardship.

Agree that the way they represent Solar farms is misleading - a Solar farm is a power station - it feeds the grid which then feeds anything connected to the grid. I have never understood why they make this comparison to number of households - its probably an easy marketing tool for the average person to be able to grasp. And all households are connected to the same grid as everyone else in the country is connected to.
They broadcast the same type of message for any electricity generation - Wind, Hydro and even nuclear because its what people can relate to.

It's not an illusion. There are around 500,000 11KV -> 240V substations in the UK, and around 50 million domestic meters, so an average of 100 homes per substation. Excess solar generation from one home can be used by any or all of the homes downstream of the substation, thus reducing the draw across the substation transformers and consequently the total load on the grid.

It's a few years out of date now, and doesn't specifically address issues of micro solar generation, but this free book is a really good run-down on how the industry, especially the wholesale market, works.

https://www.cgi.com/uk/en-gb/gb-electricity-for-dummies

So nice to be above average. :happy3 so who on here only consumes 3700kWh per year (remembering that is the “average”)

Yes, but just repeating the premise isn't evidence supporting the conclusion. And a book that doesn't address the issue in question?

I'm open minded about the idea, so I'm looking for evidence.
Nick

Hmm...3700 kWh per year? Really?

We used 9076 kWh in 2021.... that excludes the 3500 kWh we generated....so almost 13,000 kWh... What average household uses the quantity the Government use in their example?
We presently pay Octopus 28.46p/kWh plus 43.12p/day.

Just so you don't think I'm just trying to drive you insane Tim
I do understand how the theory works, the invertor matches the incoming supply, ups the voltage a bit which in theory feeds in to the total coming down the line and so the main source reduces it's flow automatically. I get the idea. The point my contact makes ( and I'm beginning to wish I hadn't asked him...) is that the quantities in domestic units are so tiny that the effort leaches it all off in heat.

Anyway, any input appreciated, I'd love to know the reality here.

Nick

Some very knowledgeable people on this forum. One thing I can’t understand is that the press are saying that the gas produced by fracking will not cause a drop in gas price as it will just be sold at the going rate. But we need more wind farms to reduce our electricity price. Surely the electricity produced will just be sold on the open market at the going rate.

Exactly which is fixed based upon gas generation.

Exactly. Sounds like we are being mislead. A bit like the doomsayers claiming coal is non-viable due to CO2 (now an obsolete notion given carbon capture schemes are viable / in production, albeit at a cost).