What If Our Energy Meters Ran Backwards and We Got PAID For The Energy We Create?

[@ereselectrical9397]

You hit the nail on the head with your very last comment. 🙌🏻

[@LysanderLH]

Answer: it would be legislated against to retain the reliance on oil and gas due to a corrupt governmental system.

[@alanhat5252]

The question in the title? We've had feed-in tariffs for decades!

[@LysanderLH]

@ do you go to work in the office of a corporation where you had to buy and pay to have installed your own furniture, desktop pc, etc? You still get paid for the work you produce and it will take 20-25 years to break even on your initial expenses and if anything goes wrong, it’s down to you to fix it and you wont be paid until it’s fixed…. see my point?

[@lharris828]

It's a pity that Octopus treats its customers indifferently when it comes to failed smart meters. Ours broke weeks back but they will not respond to requests for help. 😢

[@smartmart1958]

Octopus are rated as probably the best energy provider for customer service. You have possibly been unlucky, but it also says how bad the rest are.

[@lharris828]

Finally I got a response! Appointment made for this week. BTW, the engineer who visited last week said he couldn't deal with smart meters..... 🤔

[@alanhat5252]

​@@smartmart1958no it's a repeated story across the country, Octopus are not brilliant at customer care 😢

[@mattwarner8273]

Australia has net metering for years. Only issue now is we only get a small amount for Feed in Tarrif. We do have the ability to be a power generator and access wholesale rates through Amber electric. So people use their batteries to dump into grid when you can get dollars a kWh.

[@danythrinbell1596]

6 cents a kilowatt ? ha ha ha ha , smart guy

[@alanhat5252]

UK has had feed-in tariffs for decades too but the government we've just managed to kick out after 14 years were desperately trying to hide it.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

Millions of empty rooftops. All grid connected. The grid makes dirt cheap electricity expensive electricity. More grid electricity then more grid capacity is needed. The grid is a massive $TRILLIONS infrastructure. 14decades to build. More grid is a fantastically expensive fantasy. The existing grid can shuffle electricity to an area of empty batteries. Maximise grid currents 247 with batteries handling local peak demands. EV battery are oversized for normal 23hrs daily parking and busting to be used to maximise their value to the owners. Billion dollar new nuclear that takes many decades to pay off, is more expensive than EV battery or future battery technologies. EV battery is free storage today. 😮😊😊

[@pinkelephants1421]

I get really frustrated that nobody is looking at creating solar streets as a matter of preference/priority to building massive grid scale solar farms. This ISN'T to say I'm against rurally located grid scale solar in the least; it has its place. It's just that we should be making the most of our preexisting built infrastructure - rooftops [domestic, commercial, industrial], outdoor storage, outdoor carparking, outdoor EV charging stations - first, before trotting off to commune with the moo cows. Quite rightly, everyone complains about the lack of grid connections, the wait times to build & connect, yet rooftops in particular (already) have a grid connection. Additionally, those major renewables projects require an enormous amount of raw materials that have to be dug out of the ground, transported, refined, manufactured, transported again to site for installation as transmission lines, transformers, poles etc & the accompanying emissions & unavoidable energy losses due to resistance down those wires. If you can generate electricity at or near the point of consumption, much of that goes away, including, the emissions from sourcing everything that goes into grid upgrades/expansion. Now, I'm NOT saying the solar streets approach would be easy, far from it. But I do think with an imaginative enticement to property owners, properly backed by central government, it could be done. Realistically, it would involve a painfully slow start, but word of mouth is a powerful advertising medium, thus I feel it could eventually turn into a juggernaut, expanding renewables at pace that would far outstrip this silly obsession with nuclear power & hydrogen, & would also hasten the V2G of EV's reducing the need for massive grid scale storage via more distributed storage & perhaps make energy grids less vulnerable to bad actors by decentalising our energy systems. My household is an Octopus Energy customer; we think they're great!

[@roi354]

Every new domestic and commercial building that is built should be forced to include solar panels on as much available roof surface as possible. Making the legislation around the world to force builders to do it is the long task. Carrying out the work will not add much to the overall time or cost of projects. Once the legislation is written for each market, the amount of panel producers will increase to cope with demand, driving down the cost of the parts.

[@pinkelephants1421]

@roi354 Couldn't agree more strongly with your comments. Absolute madness that politicians remain so gutless in implementing such policies in the obvious face of climate change in favour of the various lobby groups.

[@roi354]

@@pinkelephants1421 I don't see what they have to lose? If the might of the construction industry apposes it, offer them a tax break!

[@pinkelephants1421]

@roi354 Bugger tax breaks, they earn enough as it is. As for what they have to lose - election campaign contributions.....

[@roi354]

@@pinkelephants1421 You're absolutely right of course, but that's the sort of thing it'll take to get them on board. A government can't just impose legislation on big business and expect them to abide by it without dangling a decently sized carrot. This is primarily what Labour have failed to understand right now and is why they're considered to be socialists by those who get the basic concept of politics.

[@arnoldreiter435]

they touched on an issue.....the money is there but no place to invest it....nor really true. investors want big ticket investments and big ticket returns. decentralizing does not appeal to this mindset so we try to invent big investment opportunity's when there are many many small scale ways to improve the renewable energy market. local community's should start to find ways to be part of the energy matrix, perhaps something like a farmers market but with energy.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

Exactly right. Big Nuclear to park big private money. Murdoch Skynews is pushing hard. Bill Gates is pushing hard. Individual EV battery vehicles are parked 23hrs every day and ready for free storage of cheap electricity and to maximise owners return on investment. Tax free savings.

[@alanhat5252]

like Germany?

[@sang3Eta]

This is the reason they removed the old analogue meters and replaced them with digital ones. They didn't want your solar paying the same rate as they charge.

[@JohnnyMotel99]

Really? 5%...just 5% of UK houses have solar panels and you say that smart meters were rolled out for that 5%? Even factoring PV growth over say the next 20 years, I doubt it will get past say 20% coverage. Majority of new builds don't have PV on the roof, the bulders don't want to fit either.

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

@sang3Eta No. It isn't. That is the dumbest thing I have read so far today. Granted it is only 8am, but somebody is going to have to come up with a corker to beat that one.

[@MentalLentil-ev9jr]

I had solar panels installed years ago, the electric company replaced the old analogue meter with a digital meter that wouldn't run backwards, this was not a smart meter (@sang never said smart meter). I have since had - at my request - a smart meter installed.

[@AlexMarsh-v6x]

On a smart tariff with solar and a home battery, I currently import at 7p overnight and export at breakfast/tea time at 15p, which I think disproves your point. Octopus literally pay me over the summer, and I only pay them for electricity half of the year. Smart meters enable these transactions.

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

@@AlexMarsh-v6x I’m on Agile for import which has a variable price for every 30 minute period of a day (hence the name) and Fixed for Export for which I get 15p/kWh. I’ve also been on Flux which was a great tariff but I need a bigger home battery to make the most of the high export payment you get during peak periods.

[@Leopold5100]

excellent

[@kennshearer526]

Love to be able to use the power in my EV to run my house. Sadly it still talk talk talk and no solutions.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

Rooftop PV has solved the electricity transmission problem. EV Battery Vehicles parked 23hrs every day will solve the electricity storage problem. EV Batteries are oversized for 23hrs parking. EV Batteries topped up daily, ezi pezi. Fusion solar energy on rooftop PV has solved the generation problem. 4hrs of oversized rooftop PV can supply 24hrs of below rooftop electricity demand and all imported petroleum demand. And feedin to grid an equal amount of electricity. Buildings and vehicles are the beginning of removing 74% of grid demand and all of petroleum import demand. CO2 reduction on steroids. Nuclear 247 cashflow economics is a disaster with warming latitudes and reducing demand. Grid valued at $TRILLIONS cashflow demand is $110BILLON in Australia. Grid needs to keep customers happy and connected and supply heavy industrial users moving away from fossil fuels.

[@stephenbrickwood1602]

For Australia we are lucky to have Sahara Desert latitudes and sunshine. Let me tell you a little more. Re Australia. And UK when the sunshines. V2G EVs parked 23hrs daily will be important. Rooftop PV and 400kg of recyclable waste after 20years or Nuclear 1tonne of radioactive waste in storage for 100years. Rooftop PV 5cents kWh electricity or Nuclear Grid electricity 50cents kWh and the radioactive waste stored for 100years Nobody does the mathematics. 20million roofs and the millions and millions of customers.

[@themackeler5011]

Been doing that for years on council estates in Great Britain 😅😅😅😅 not new 😅😅😅😅

[@iareid8255]

Simon, you are under a misaprehension that we can do away with fossil fuelled generators and replace them with renewables. The simple fact is that renewable generators are not an equivalent to conventional genertaors and can never replace them. We have been on this renewable pathway for nearly thirty is it years and we have made little progress. They are intermittent which is an unsurmountable problem. and please don't say batteries, that's a nonsense. They also lack some critical technical attributes which are essential for any stable and economic source of generation. Octopus have developed quite rapidly, could all those billions in subsidies for renewables have anything to do with it? And finally, you mentioned cheap, well cheap and renewables are polar opposites. If CO2 were important, nuclear is the only readily available source of reliable and stable power that may be able to eliminate fossil fuel generation, and has a far longer life, requires significantly less materials and land.

[@PedalPowerPanther]

Simon. How can you say batteries are 'nonsense'??? My power wall means that I now pay a £30 a month to Octopus instead of £160+. One 13.5 kWh battery, 15 solar panels, and a heat pump. If every new build had this, along with ground source heating for each new estate built. Every warehouse roof had solar and batteries........

[@andycampbell193]

A lot of opinions but no facts. A quick google search regarding renewable costs, sustainability and LCA will correct you. Primary data not online opinion pieces mind. Changing opinions based on data is a sign of strength. Happy to be proven wrong myself

[@danythrinbell1596]

@@PedalPowerPanther you must be that ditto milionaire in the corner of your street hey ? no ?

[@PedalPowerPanther]

Little progress? We’ve gone from less than 5% renewable generation 25 years ago to over 50%. Most of that on the last 5 years. But yeah, you’re right, let’s not try, let’s not continue, we’re all going to die anyway, so may as well speed it up for our kids/grandkids.

[@PedalPowerPanther]

@@danythrinbell1596no, just the sensible £30k Hgv driver who decided that an upfront cost of under £10k would save me nearly £200 a month. Plus the £150 a month by driving an electric car. You’re right though that over the next few years u WILL be financially much better off. That’s down to intelligence, investment, and giving a sh1t about others that I share the planet with.

[@lenanderson753]

Nothing wrong with coal

[@alanhat5252]

it stinks! Literally, vile smell!

[@bustermaw]

Then why is the world scrabbling to open new nuclear reactors ? Very few people want electric cars and very few have the means to charge one . How are you going to overcome that one ?

[@JohnnyMotel99]

I would like an EV, but the extra cost of the charger is putting me off. I wouldn't buy new car either, s/h EV's are a comparative bargain.

[@Maxillz]

My mum got an electric car for a couple weeks while hers was at the garage, and it was a nightmare to charge, she had to drive around for ages looking for a lamp post with a charging point that wasn't in use or had a petrol car parked in-front of it. It would end up miles away from the house and the charging rate was so slow you'd have to leave it there for like a day. It's just not practical unless you have a driveway, which, especially in cities, a lot of people don't have.

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

@@Maxillz So the problem wasn't charging, it was education. She could have plugged it in while she went shopping as most supermarkets now have chargers. She could have gone somewhere with park and ride and charged as most car parks have chargers. She could have signed up for Octopus Electroverse, got an app on her phone showing hundreds of chargers near to where she lives and used one of those. She could have used ZapMap to find chargers. It isn't as easy if you don't have a driveway, granted, but if you think you are going to be able to treat an EV the same as an ICE car then the problem is with you, not the car.

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

@@JohnnyMotel99 A home charger is a game changer, and I agree with the issue about people not having access to one being an issue (but why does everyone point out that less than half of the houses in the country have this issue? Surely thee fact that more than half could have a charger is a positive?) If you get a home charger, Instead of paying 50p to 90p per kWh, you can charge while you sleep for a few pence per kWh if you go onto a time of use tariff such as the ones Octopus offer, or Octopus Agile which requires a bit more effort but can end up literally paying you to charge your car up when the grid is full of renewables. You could also get a 'granny charger' which while slow will charge your car up. If you are driving less than 20 miles a day this is a perfectly OK solution.

[@randomjasmicisrandom]

@bustermaw Nuclear is rapidly being replaced with renewables due to speed of installation and cost, the most sold car in the world is an EV, sales of EVs are increasing, sales of second hand EVs are increasing, sales of PHEV and HEV cars are replacing Diesel and Petrol only ICE cars (and according to Jim Farley, CEO of Ford are a gateway to full BEV) and in the UK over 60% of houses have a driveway so are perfectly suited for a home charger. There are also over 70k charger points in the UK with ore being installed all the time. What exactly has to be overcome?