Has plug and play solar now been passed, I see adverts?

[flameport]

can't see anything stopping the use of an EV charging socket.

There isn't.

The important difference is that EV charging plugs/sockets do not have any exposed pins on either half, and they are only energised when the plug/socket has been locked into the other half,
Unless someone has tampered with it, they can't be unplugged when energised, and even if the lock had been defeated, the pilot pins will be disconnected before the power pins, which would cause the supply to be cut off immediately.

 

[ericmark]

Oh dear, just watched this

not sure if I agree with it all, but I have said how I charge my batteries with off-peak, so I can export during the day can't help with the situation, so how long before tariffs change.

 

[martygturner]

Ai generated vids that just ignore the real world are just click bait... grid load is measured by frequency of electricity which national grid aim to keep within 1% of 50Hz. Its that mointering of frequency that tells the grid what is producing power... so the first claim is panttrurnings, the grid does monitor the solar input and account for it by two means, predictive and reactive, predictive is just weather mointoring and reactive is a decision tree.. at its base is turning down the turbines, you don't need to shut down a nuclear power station to limit its output, just dump the excess heat from the steam generators to the cooling towers, same for gas. Up the tree is pumped and stored energey, then export to Europe via the connectors, then there are the load managers - cheap lecky to promote consumption and off peak windows. see https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/live for how the grid knows and manages ouput v demand. But solar and wind output is known, so his whole speal is just BS. What did he think there was some giant meter somewhere ??

Other obvious lies - Pricing - electricity would never be 1/3rd of what it is today- he forgot that other countries with low tariff rates are state run not for profits eg France and Norway, even then the lowest who sale rate is 50% cheaper... why because they invested in nuclear years ago when we dashed for gas...its not renewable s that are costing us more its the stupid ten minute into the future thinking of successive uk goverments... take our gas plants they could still be viable ecept the LNG storage at a piffing cost of 2 billion was never built due to the fact of russia our best friend shoving out cheap gas...

He also missed the huge plus of solar... it makes electricity when we need it - during the day.

 

[ericmark]

I have only controlled a small power station, four x 250 kW RR eagle powered generators, and the main problem was one generator failing, and the other two not taking the load while I put on the spare.

Worked on larger power stations 2 x 750 MW and 4 x 650 MW, and it did surprise me how long it took for them to get to full power, looking at 24 hours or more, mainly to allow for expansion and contraction of turbine blades etc. Think it took 36 hours to turn off.

But in the main we are not moving for zero to maximum, but just varying the output, and seem to remember Sizewell had around 100 MW of diesel generator output, mainly to keep pumps running with a grid failure, but unless one had worked there, unlikely one would know they even had diesel generators.

However, under around 25 kW likely the DNO has little or no control over solar output, so what they can control, likely has a larger min/max output to before solar.

I look at the grid and note how high the voltage is, don't think I have ever seen it at 230 volts. And I see more and more solar arrays being fitted, and think how many more can the system take?

But the main point, has to be for how long will I get paid a reasonable amount for export, when I first got export payment it was 15p/kWh, now dropped to 12p/kWh but import costs have risen 31.94p dropped to 29.702p for a month, then up again to 32.277p. The off-peak also 8.5p to 6.5p to 8.625p why they dropped it for one month I do not know.

But the 12p/kWh has not returned to 15p/kWh, I still get more for export to what I pay for import, (at off-peak rate) so I can simply charge the battery fully overnight.

But as the off-peak and export get closer, the major problem is the heat pump, the EV can be linked to DNO to control when charged, the storage radiator is designed to store energy so moving the time a bit no problem, solar, battery, and EV can integrate, and not exporting solar is not really such a big issue. But, in the winter of discontent I realised how fast my home cooled down, with the large house I have now, OK over night with heating set 5°C lower, it rarely cools enough to fire the central heating, i.e. the house looses less than 5°C in 7 hours, but my smaller house all those years ago, looking at a 10°C drop in 4 hours, it was freezing by time the electric returned and the gas central heating fired up again.

So I look back to what it was like with a labour government, and think oh know, don't want that again.

 

[martygturner]

Again you are focusing on what you get... not what we get ie. slightly cheaper but stable prices from solar and wind. Factoring in a return from grid export always seemed a white elephant, sure some people do well but at the expense of who else ? Have a look at the spot market, average is 10p yet you get paid 12p...and a few days its 0. The price of electricity reflects all those bad policies, mostly conservative ones, which you are benefiting from at the expense of your neighbours. How would you feel if your rate of export was fixed to the daily spot price ? Why am I paying you 2 p extra ?

As for the winter of discontent we have none of the conditions, it was after all a pay dispute when labour tried to control wage growth directly which is now done by interest rates. We do not have a huge war debt , we have modernised most if not all of our industries, improved productivity - why do you think a 36 hour week is norm these days, we have established a credit culture, absent in the 70's to absorb shocks, what you had in your pocket was it, except for budget accounts, mine allowed me to spend 1.5 times what I put in per month but had a maximum of £400. Cash was king, 50% of the UK had a post office savings book at that was it, you had to be nominated for a bank account. We have stabilised wealth retention - ie that house you live in. We do not have a sterling crisis, why becuase thats what soverigen debt is and the stock market services, it provides long term borrowing rather than short term IMF loans and the list goes on..

Are you thinking of the energy crisis of 1973 and 1979 ? In which case again whilst prices will rise the availability of oil is at an all time high, the west gets most of its oil not from the middle east, then we got over 80% of our energy from the middle east today we get 20%. Alaska, Russian, Mexican and central american oil did'nt exist in volume, we had not developed our own oil fields and consumption was high as we had not built efficient cars- my rover did 16mpg at best, 3 times a week to be filled up.

 

[ericmark]

I will agree something is not right with electric tariffs. We pay a standing charge to cover the infer structure we are told, if that's the case, then it should not change tariff to tariff, but it does.

And I look at the tariffs for storage heaters which in the main are used by people with low income, and EVs which are in the main used by people with money. And the difference does not make sense.

But this has been going on for a long time. The early days of solar they were paying silly amounts for export, often not even metered.

Clearly multi-governments have used electric prices to get what they want. But this plug and play solar is for a change aimed at the poor, those who can't buy their own homes. OK not all tenants are poor, but it seems maybe they have not really thought it through?