It’s realty about seeing what could be done by consumers to spread their consumption away from peak periods, the tests now are irrelevant in the overall scheme of things, but help to frame ideas for the future.
fundamentally we all want to flick a switch and have electricity available to us. But when we’re doing it all at the same time it means the generating capacity has to be there , even if it’s used at peak periods for a very short time. The more that the peaks can be limited then the fewer generating plants are needed, which reduces costs to everyone. The way you convince people to spread their consumption away from peak periods is through variable pricing, and we’re familiar with E7, E10 and EV tariffs, but smart meters potentially could facilitate much more dynamic pricing strategies with prices changing every 30 minutes.
Personally I find this notion rather scary , because some people could not cope with the complexity and very big bills could follow on after natural disasters. Nor do I think the current smart meter system fit for such pricing initiatives- look at the issues over these trials!
I think it’s a situation where just because something could be done, it doesn’t necessarily need to be done. So long as sufficient safeguards are put in place to protect everyone from being charged extra though dynamic pricing - so bills would have to show both dynamic pricing and traditional pricing, with the lower of the two constituting your actual bill, then it might be acceptable, dynamic pricing could only lower bills, but not increase them. Without such protection I don’t see dynamic pricing being acceptable to the general public.
will I live long enough to see dynamic pricing introduced at scale in the UK? Perhaps, but the likelihood is on a par with me seeing fusion power at scale.
I’ll not worry about it!
fundamentally we all want to flick a switch and have electricity available to us. But when we’re doing it all at the same time it means the generating capacity has to be there , even if it’s used at peak periods for a very short time. The more that the peaks can be limited then the fewer generating plants are needed, which reduces costs to everyone. The way you convince people to spread their consumption away from peak periods is through variable pricing, and we’re familiar with E7, E10 and EV tariffs, but smart meters potentially could facilitate much more dynamic pricing strategies with prices changing every 30 minutes.
Personally I find this notion rather scary , because some people could not cope with the complexity and very big bills could follow on after natural disasters. Nor do I think the current smart meter system fit for such pricing initiatives- look at the issues over these trials!
I think it’s a situation where just because something could be done, it doesn’t necessarily need to be done. So long as sufficient safeguards are put in place to protect everyone from being charged extra though dynamic pricing - so bills would have to show both dynamic pricing and traditional pricing, with the lower of the two constituting your actual bill, then it might be acceptable, dynamic pricing could only lower bills, but not increase them. Without such protection I don’t see dynamic pricing being acceptable to the general public.
will I live long enough to see dynamic pricing introduced at scale in the UK? Perhaps, but the likelihood is on a par with me seeing fusion power at scale.
I’ll not worry about it!
Current Eon Next and EDF customer, ex Zog and Symbio. Don't think dual fuel saves money and don't like smart meters. Chronologically Gifted. If I offend let me know by private message, but I’ll continue to express my opinions nonetheless.
