Thread: Power prices, gas prices- ouch or Solar perhaps?

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

The Pics on the news of QLD smashed solar panels are ouch- Noting my Disco got Smashed in Melb! The Insurance about them was interesting and worth checking if you have them!

News-
Australian households will be able to access free electricity for three hours every day, in an effort to encourage energy use when excess solar power is being fed into the grid.
The federal government scheme will require retailers to offer free electricity to households for at least three hours in the middle of the day, when there is often more electricity generated than is being used, leading to very cheap or even negative wholesale prices.
The Solar Sharer scheme will initially be introduced to consumers on the default market offer in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia from July next year, with consultation to extend the scheme to other jurisdictions by 2027.
Households with smart meters will be able to run washers and dryers, air conditioning or any other appliances for free within the three-hour window.
Australians to get three hours of free electricity every day under solar scheme - ABC News

One side of me chuckled as everyone with Solar usually has more than 3 hours of no cost power. The Economist bent of myself says "It's NOT FREE' Its paid for personally or by taxpayers not given away by the power companies



The daker side of this is it seem to me that time of use power is going to be more common. It's already here via some plans.

"The government said the shift in demand was expected to lower costs for everyone by reducing peak demand in the evening, which would also minimise the need for "costly" network upgrades to ensure grid stability." The Economist bent of myself knows it may kick the can down the road a bit but inflation will make the changes cost more eventually and who pays for increased cost is very clear!
"The maximum price retailers can charge on standing offer contracts, would rise from 0.5 per cent to 9.7 per cent across the country, depending on location"

What was the inflation rate in the Video Captain R? I did note and thought it was possibly understated with out knowing if State or fed power subsidies were on those bill

The smart- organized and prepared can make use of the zero?? cost power period - Should be NO Charge period as there is costs
The No Cost bit is also No Pay bit as the Feed In Tariffs for exported Solar is usually $0.01 or possibly even a Negative amount


Its windy and raining for the Melb cup- Solar is just

1.08kW

now. that's covering me with no charge power at 08:40 My system only exports if when battery, car and load is covered.

I suspect that it's going to get to the point where you'll basically have to have a battery if you want to use power in peak periods. People who live in climates where AC is nice, and who fitted electric appliances when they were encouraging us to do so are going to get done. You've only got to look at demand tariffs now. Next level nasty.

They should really be getting around this with grid scale storage but it looks like they are going to push the problem onto the consumer. If I were a power company I'd be delighted by this. Let someone else solve your problem while you make the moulah.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

I suspect that it's going to get to the point where you'll basically have to have a battery if you want to use power in peak periods. People who live in climates where AC is nice, and who fitted electric appliances when they were encouraging us to do so are going to get done. You've only got to look at demand tariffs now. Next level nasty.

They should really be getting around this with grid scale storage but it looks like they are going to push the problem onto the consumer. If I were a power company I'd be delighted by this. Let someone else solve your problem while you make the moulah.

About to put Kim K in conspiracy theories- Grid scale storage is a hoot that belongs in there as well. Storage for how long?

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

I suspect that it's going to get to the point where you'll basically have to have a battery if you want to use power in peak periods. People who live in climates where AC is nice, and who fitted electric appliances when they were encouraging us to do so are going to get done. You've only got to look at demand tariffs now. Next level nasty.

They should really be getting around this with grid scale storage but it looks like they are going to push the problem onto the consumer. If I were a power company I'd be delighted by this. Let someone else solve your problem while you make the moulah.

I’d say your thinking is correct.
I do wonder though, where this will lead.

If everyone were to go home power storage / generation and then disconnect from the grid that could have some interesting implications for mainstream producers.

I know that if I go down the path of storage it will be sufficient alongside my generation to ensure i have no need to draw from the grid, and will disconnect from the mains in its entirety.

If others followed suit, there would only be commercial / manufacturing that had a need for power from mainstream sources and that could have serious implications on their business model.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

About to put Kim K in conspiracy theories- Grid scale storage is a hoot that belongs in there as well. Storage for how long?

The big battery (Elons first one here in SA) has the capability to run our work site for all of about 8 minutes!

Grid level storage isn’t even remotely sufficient and unlikely to meet the needs for electricity of an increasingly dependent population.

Originally Posted by Tombie

I’d say your thinking is correct.
I do wonder though, where this will lead.

If everyone were to go home power storage / generation and then disconnect from the grid that could have some interesting implications for mainstream producers.

I know that if I go down the path of storage it will be sufficient alongside my generation to ensure i have no need to draw from the grid, and will disconnect from the mains in its entirety.

If others followed suit, there would only be commercial / manufacturing that had a need for power from mainstream sources and that could have serious implications on their business model.

So we used to say "but then you can't sell back to the grid if you have excess. But then that was worth nothing and they started trying to charge to give the grid solar!

So now the only reason not to disconnect from the grid, assuming you've got a banging big system and maybe don't use that much power is those times when you have two weeks of cloud! What's the plan then? I'm not sure that we should be encouraging people in suburbia because your neighbours all running their generator might get old.

Ultimately it's really just the daily connection charge at stake.. what's that typically $1 a day?

I'm pretty sure if we bought a battery and had access to one of the plans that have three hours free .. that with solar and so on I think we would only very occasionally have to buy power. So our bills would be pretty much just the daily supply charge.

But even with the battery rebate thing batteries are a fair chunk of change.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this - but if you participate in a VPP then Tesla at least moves you to a maximum throughput for their warranty rather than a flat 10 year. Given they are now LFP I'm pretty confident they will breeze through the ten years.. unlike the earlier powerwalls

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

FYI. The Centre For Independent Studies is a well known right wing group which is known for it's anti renewable policies and lobbying.

Donald Trump'''s '''climate hoax''' comments belong to a well-resourced playbook landing on Australia'''s shores - ABC News

Just a moment...

Just for fun I had a little dig into what these guys actually think we should do, and I can't really find that they have any plan but they do think current policies are rubbish. That's the problem with all this - if you don't like what's being done come up with a compelling alternative!

OMG ...this is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. You say that women that is simply stating facts is a "right wing group". I didn't her say she was against renewables even once in that video. She simply states the issues with cost and reliability.

Then you proceed to link and ABC new website doing there usual "the world will end, trump evil stupid and bad ... we must do good ... listen to us" massive progaganda piece. Every link I looked at linked there own heavily biased previous articles. Seriously I'm so disgusted the the heavily biased one sided crap printed as "news" on the ABC website, I can't even look at it these days.

I know nothing about the national party, but look at them attack someone there .... character assassination by comparing him to the evil trump .... If only I could just go along with stupidity life would be so much easier. I'm going to have to look at the national party before the next election though, if they are already trying to run campaigning on how scary and terrible they are ... Do we finally have somoene speaking logical, sensible truth