Battery Vehicle Society

Hi,

Currently looking at switching my electricity supplier.

A couple of questions related to "Every unit of electricity you use will be matched with one produced by a renewable source, e.g. Wind or hydro"

a) What are people's interpretation of the above ?

I would like to think that the unit of electricity produced from a renewable source is only matched to my unit used. i.e. they dont match one unit of renewable to multiple users.

b) How can we be sure that what companies do what they say ?

Rob

Hi Rob

mmmmm green energy supply eh

In a lovely shiney green world I'm sure its all true, in reality I think you'll find its a lot of clever marketing, yes some of the energy is and will be greenly produced.

However dont forget the electrical industry like all industries are in it to..........make profit and keep the shareholders happy so unless green energy is profitable then there not too interested in my opinion, yes they pay lip service to it all but if you actually look at it they could have been producing green power years and years ago but they havent, exactly the same can be said for EV's etc again the car industry could have been producing EV's that peeps could buy years ago but again they havent........why not..........cos its not profitable

Interesting bit of info : Did you know we import about 1000MW of Electricity or there abouts ALL the time ( day in day out, 365 days a year) from France, which from memory is about the most the cables can cope with (data from about 5+years ago)
Why do we do this.......cos its cheap nuke generated power from the 4 nuke stations dotted along the northen edge of France and hence once re-sold back out can make them a lot of profit.

So as for these so called green electrical sellers selling proper green electric I am very sceptical. The only real way of knowing your getting true green energy is make it yourself

I certainly wont be swapping my supplier for a more expensive so called "green" energy unless they can PROVE and show REAL evidence that they are doing what they say they are doing.

Just my take on the subject

ChrisB

Hi Rob,
We have a grid connected 6kW Proven wind turbine (see details elsewhere in this forum) and are with GOOD ENERGY.

Good Energy only supply 100% renewable energy sourced from the sun, wind and water.

They are a little more expensive per kWh (11.76p) and there is also a fixed charge of 12.87p/day and then the 5% VAT on that.
Not sure how that compares with what other suppliers charge.

We chose Good Energy before we had our wind turbine installed and have stayed with them because of their "Smart Generation Scheme". We export well over half of the energy we generate.

We intend posting further information on our turbine after it has been working for about a year (probably around May next year).

Jan and Colin

OK I could be wrong but to me that means: "50% of our electricity is from a renewable source, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the electricity YOU are using is "green."

OR, it could mean: You use one unit of electricity (non-renewable) and we own another company that sells "green" energy at a higher price and they produce one unit to mach yours and we make money on that,too.

I'm not usually so skeptical but I don't like it when companies use hard-to-understand wording, it usually means that they have something to hide.

If all the electricity they supply to you was from a renewable source then why not just say so, instead of using an ambiguous statement like that?

Just my 2 öre's worth.
--
Ed

I buy my electricity from Scottish Power. Most of their electricity is produced from hydro and wind with the shortfall made up from Scottish nuclear. I therefore know that I am paying for mostly green energy. The actual electricity in my wires may have been produced by a different process and a different company but is directly swopped with Scottish power. Scottish power make the profit to reinvest in green wind and Hydro. This may not be ideal but is the best that most ordinary folk can acchieve.
Peter

Thats not too bad actually , well thats about what I pay for my day rate, I start to gain with the night rate being under 5p which is what I use for my van charging of course

I'd love to generate my own but unless I installed at least something the size you have it wouldnt be worth while due to the house ticking over at around 800-1200watts 24hrs a day due to amount of kit that I have running so doubt I'd ever have much to flog back, BTW how much do they pay you for the re-sale and how much do you actually get spare to re-sell ??

ChrisB

Hi ChrisB,
We get just over 4p per kWh for every kWh that we generate whether we use it on site or export it. On top of that we are paid just over 3p per kWh for every kWh we export. Well that's what the contract tells us but we haven't been paid anything yet

It has been a lot of hassle ( and that's putting it mildly) because we have had to claim ROCs REGOs and LECs and data has to be submitted on special forms all accessed and completed on their website and via e-mail. As we are only a small generator we only have to submit details once yearly which is presumably why we have not yet been paid anything

Briefly in the 8 months that it has been up and running we have generated an average of around 22kWh every day. Obviously some days we haven't generated anything but on very windy days we have generated over 100kWh (max so far 131).

We have exported well over half this amount but think we may well use more on site in future as we are in the process of buying one of John Lilly's Elcats

Hope this has answered your questions.

Jan and Colin

I was reading about Ecotricity, who are currently the only supplier who can give you a 100% green tarriff, at a slight premium, and will match your local suppliers price for the regular tarriff which is slowly increasing in green-ness, much more than any of the majors. They're a small independent company investing primarily in wind.
Sorry if this is old news or is a repeat, I have a browser problem stopping me from reading all of the threads I would like to read