Electricity supplier

daheff

Have to ask how energy companies can justify different standing charges ? Surely that should be set by regulator (& for their pocket)??

KCross

daheff wrote: »

Have to ask how energy companies can justify different standing charges ? Surely that should be set by regulator (& for their pocket)??

It’s to obfuscate the real costs to the home owner in the same way that one company can advertise a 33% discount but still be more expensive than a company offering 25% discount.

NIMAN

Just seen an SSE Airtricity advert and they say they are 100% green energy.

Is that actually true? Is it even possible?

graememk

NIMAN wrote: »

Just seen an SSE Airtricity advert and they say they are 100% green energy.

Is that actually true? Is it even possible?

So does a few other companies too

The grid is like a big bucket with holes in it and the power plants + renewable generation keep it at a ideal level,(frequency, voltage)

Customers use the electricity and the electricity companies buy it from the producers, if the company only buys electricity marked as green or renewable they can say that they are 100% renewable

JPA

NIMAN wrote: »

Just seen an SSE Airtricity advert and they say they are 100% green energy.

Is that actually true? Is it even possible?

They have been from the start. The clue is in their name. Energia is now as well and others.

the_amazing_raisin

NIMAN wrote: »

Just seen an SSE Airtricity advert and they say they are 100% green energy.

Is that actually true? Is it even possible?

Sort of... but it doesn't mean your house is getting electricity from renewable sources

The truth is how you pay for electricity is a bit of an abstraction from the true market. In reality the price is constantly fluctuating, so your supplier is basically trying to average out the prices over a year.

As far as I can tell, your supplier buys electricity from a generator at an agreed price, based on what the wholesale rate of electricity is at that time.

Your supplier can choose to only buy power from renewable sources, so they're technically only supplying renewable energy to the grid.

Where it gets tricky is that renewables are typically called non-dispatchable power, which means you can't order them to produce electricity on demand. It's often been the argument against renewables that they produce energy at times when demand is low. This argument is mostly BS, but there's a small grain of truth in it.

Typically peak demand is met by gas power plants, which are very inefficient when used in this manner. Thankfully there's more battery storage coming online.

So basically, even though you might be buying electricity from wind and solar farms, there's no way for your supplier to 'route' that electricity to your house. Once electricity is on the grid, it's all the same, it's largely just meeting electricity demand.

You are however supporting the development of renewable energy by using one of these suppliers, so that's a plus

NIMAN

So bottom line is you're likely NOT to be getting 100% renewable energy despite their marketing spiel?

the_amazing_raisin

NIMAN wrote: »

So bottom line is you're likely NOT to be getting 100% renewable energy despite their marketing spiel?

Bottom line is that electricity is electricity, once it's on the grid it's all the same.

The difference is how your money is being spent, whether it's being paid to a wind farm or to a gas power plant.

So it's not total garbage, you're supporting renewables, even if the electricity to your house isn't coming directly from them

3d4life

Dont overlook https://www.dugganbrothers.ie/project/energy-storage-units-lumcloon-shannonbridge/ . More of less Turlough Hill using batteries

richie123

3d4life wrote: »

Dont overlook https://www.dugganbrothers.ie/project/energy-storage-units-lumcloon-shannonbridge/ . More of less Turlough Hill using batteries

How many millions is that plant in lumcloon costing? Why is another turlough hill type system not employed? It would last 50 60 plus years where as this battery type way of storing power will have 25 year max lifespan.
Can anyone explain please.

the_amazing_raisin

richie123 wrote: »

How many millions is that plant in lumcloon costing? Why is another turlough hill type system not employed? It would last 50 60 plus years where as this battery type way of storing power will have 25 year max lifespan.
Can anyone explain please.

Because with another pumped hydro (which I'm in favour of) you'd flood some chaps field and the public wouldn't stand for that type of thing.

Again, I'm in favour of pumped hydro, I think they should still tunnels vertically through the Wicklow mountains and pump in water from poulaphouca reservoir when there's excess wind or solar power

Batteries are probably better for short term peak power because their response time is very fast. Pumped hydro for long term peak power because it's cheapest

TitianGerm

I'm looking at switching providers now that the ID3 is arriving.

At the moment I'm with Electric Ireland on their Value Reward Tariff. At the moment we average around €150 per bill. We have a digital meter which I think can do two daya nd night rates but I'm not 100% sure.

Our unit rate excluding vat is 16.93c, the standing charge is 53.26 per day and we get 5.5% discount.

Is there a comparison tool that will let me compare my daily rate with a dual rate?

TitianGerm

TitianGerm wrote: »

I'm looking at switching providers now that the ID3 is arriving.

At the moment I'm with Electric Ireland on their Value Reward Tariff. At the moment we average around €150 per bill. We have a digital meter which I think can do two daya nd night rates but I'm not 100% sure.

Our unit rate excluding vat is 16.93c, the standing charge is 53.26 per day and we get 5.5% discount.

Is there a comparison tool that will let me compare my daily rate with a dual rate?

Energia are the cheapest.

Sheep Shagger

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Energia are the cheapest.

Bit of a sweeping statement....

Enter your current supplier/deal and usage at www.bonkers.ie

TitianGerm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Energia are the cheapest.

I've been meaning to switch for years but kept putting it off. May have a proper look later. Do you know what the name of the energia tariff is?

TitianGerm

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Bit of a sweeping statement....

Enter your current supplier/deal and usage at www.bonkers.ie

I had a look but I couldn't see how to compare a daily rate to a day/night rate.

Sheep Shagger

TitianGerm wrote: »

I had a look but I couldn't see how to compare a daily rate to a day/night rate.

You'll need to do two quotes as one tariff probably won't be cheapest for both scenarios.

If looking at night rate consider how much you will be working from home (dearer unit price), for us it wasn't worth switching to a night rate setup.

Moved from an ultra cheap electric ireland plan that is no longer available to Flogas. About €400 (incl €250 cash back) better off for the next year compared to the roll off EI rate).

TitianGerm

TitianGerm wrote: »

I've been meaning to switch for years but kept putting it off. May have a proper look later. Do you know what the name of the energia tariff is?

It's in there if you know where to look but their rates are this, inc VAT

14.22c/kWh Day
6.83c/kWh Night

TitianGerm

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

You'll need to do two quotes as one tariff probably won't be cheapest for both scenarios.

If looking at night rate consider how much you will be working from home (dearer unit price), for us it wasn't worth switching to a night rate setup.

Moved from an ultra cheap electric ireland plan that is no longer available to Flogas. About €400 (incl €250 cash back) better off for the next year compared to the roll off EI rate).

When I looked at Bonkers the energia day rate shown was 1-2c cheaper than our current daily rate. Night rate was 6-7c.

KCross

TitianGerm wrote: »

I'm looking at switching providers now that the ID3 is arriving.

At the moment I'm with Electric Ireland on their Value Reward Tariff. At the moment we average around €150 per bill. We have a digital meter which I think can do two daya nd night rates but I'm not 100% sure.

Our unit rate excluding vat is 16.93c, the standing charge is 53.26 per day and we get 5.5% discount.

Is there a comparison tool that will let me compare my daily rate with a dual rate?

You need to be shooting for 14c/7c inc vat inc discounts for day/night.

TitianGerm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It's in there if you know where to look but their rates are this, inc VAT

14.22c/kWh Day
6.83c/kWh Night

Think that's the one I was looking at earlier. I'm at 16.93 ex vat (15.99 after my 5.5% discount).

KCross

TitianGerm, if you are a rural customer and getting electricity only, the cheapest rates a few weeks ago were here
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=114571896&postcount=145

Most of them have since said they are upping their prices on 1 Nov but I think the list is still the same

bonkers.ie is the way to go to compare. Ideally get your unit rate(inc vat after discount) and your total usage over the last 12 months and plug that into their calculator and it will tell you which one is cheapest for you. They also account for the price rises on 1 Nov.

TitianGerm

KCross wrote: »

TitianGerm, if you are a rural customer and getting electricity only, the cheapest rates a few weeks ago were here
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=114571896&postcount=145

Most of them have since said they are upping their prices on 1 Nov but I think the list is still the same

bonkers.ie is the way to go to compare. Ideally get your unit rate(inc vat after discount) and your total usage over the last 12 months and plug that into their calculator and it will tell you which one is cheapest for you. They also account for the price rises on 1 Nov.

Yes I'm paying a rural standard charge. Thanks for the help everyone.

the_amazing_raisin

TitianGerm wrote: »

Yes I'm paying a rural standard charge. Thanks for the help everyone.

If this is your first EV then you'll need to add in extra usage for the car. It's fairly significant, mine for example uses about 2000kWh per year.

This coupled with my heat pump takes is to over 8000kWh per year, compared to 3500kWh being the national average

This makes a difference as some suppliers have low standing charges and high day rates. They work for lower usage customers but aren't always ideal for EV drivers.

Also you mentioned you're getting a night meter. Since you have a digital meter then you don't need any new hardware, it's basically a paper exercise.

But you need to do this via ESB networks, your supplier can arrange this for you or you can do it yourself, but you can't do it as part of switching.

So if switching to Energia and you say you have a night meter, they'll check with ESB and when they see you have a 24 hour meter you'll just automatically be put on the 24 hour rate. This is what happened to me when I switched to Bord Gais and was going for 2 months on expensive electricity.

One other thing, I think all of energia's rates are called cheapest electricity, they just have a different percentage discount. Highest one at the moment is 41%. This expires after 1 year so be prepared to switch every year

TitianGerm

cruisey1987 wrote: »

If this is your first EV then you'll need to add in extra usage for the car. It's fairly significant, mine for example uses about 2000kWh per year.

This coupled with my heat pump takes is to over 8000kWh per year, compared to 3500kWh being the national average

This makes a difference as some suppliers have low standing charges and high day rates. They work for lower usage customers but aren't always ideal for EV drivers.

Also you mentioned you're getting a night meter. Since you have a digital meter then you don't need any new hardware, it's basically a paper exercise.

But you need to do this via ESB networks, your supplier can arrange this for you or you can do it yourself, but you can't do it as part of switching.

So if switching to Energia and you say you have a night meter, they'll check with ESB and when they see you have a 24 hour meter you'll just automatically be put on the 24 hour rate. This is what happened to me when I switched to Bord Gais and was going for 2 months on expensive electricity.

One other thing, I think all of energia's rates are called cheapest electricity, they just have a different percentage discount. Highest one at the moment is 41%. This expires after 1 year so be prepared to switch every year

Yes, my first EV.

We average about 600 units per two month bill.

We have a digital meter installed in the meter box and I'm nearly sure the last time I looked that there was an option to see the day and night usage and then overall usage.

If I switch using Bonkers do I need to contact Energia separately to move to day/night rate then?

graememk

TitianGerm wrote: »

If I switch using Bonkers do I need to contact Energia separately to move to day/night rate then?

Yes. Switch online and then once you get the car ring and switch over, they'll arrange with esb networks for the switch, which they'll come out and take a 24 hr reading and a start day night one. (Or change the meter if needed, by the sounds of it you don't)

If you ring esb they will tell you to ring your supplier. When I switched they were out at the start of the week

TitianGerm

graememk wrote: »

Yes. Switch online and then once you get the car ring and switch over, they'll arrange with esb networks for the switch, which they'll come out and take a 24 hr reading and a start day night one. (Or change the meter if needed, by the sounds of it you don't)

If you ring esb they will tell you to ring your supplier. When I switched they were out at the start of the week

Car is due Saturday but I don't mind paying the daily rate for the next two weeks or so because the energia rate looks to be cheaper than I'm currently paying anyway.

graememk

TitianGerm wrote: »

Car is due Saturday but I don't mind paying the daily rate for the next two weeks or so because the energia rate looks to be cheaper than I'm currently paying anyway.

It will take a day or so to get your switch sorted but once your setup give them a call

garo

cruisey1987 wrote: »

Batteries are probably better for short term peak power because their response time is very fast. Pumped hydro for long term peak power because it's cheapest

Not true. Pumped hydro is more or less instantly dispatchable. Turlough Hill, for example, can go from standstill to full generation within 13 seconds. Has a round trip efficiency between 70-80% so about the same as those much maligned lithium batteries Sir Liam complains about.

zell12

"de pain in your head"