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There are flexible consumer energy tariffs based on the spot market + fee now. But although you even get negative prices, I was surprised that those tariffs are
by john61 2y ago
There are flexible consumer energy tariffs based on the spot market + fee now. But although you even get negative prices, I was surprised that those tariffs are not economical for me. I have 2 heat pumps that are responsible for 75% of my energy consumption. I could optimize their working hours to low/negative hours by software and work with the thermal inertia of the house / water tank.
At the moment it is not worth the effort, a monthly floating tariff is more or less the same. Especially because the net fees are not based on the spot market and are 50% of the energy bill. This is a political failure.
- afiori 2y agoTo be fair if consumers where to en masse react to spot prices then the grid would open itself to gamestop-style failures. The mistake the big investors made with GameStop was assuming that retail investors would not coordinate, so when meme stocks started the big investors found themselves in unexpected waters. If a sizable chunk of heat pump where to use the same algorithm to react to spot prices then the grid would have to adjust how spot prices are calculated. It can be done, but I suspect the grid will want to retain some level of control (eg by providing you with the algorithm)
- john61 2y agoI am not going to allow the grid to control by heating and warm water.
- _nalply 2y agoWhen everybody cranks up their usage when prices fall and stop when prices rise then the whole system might be unstable wildly swinging between low and high usage. Added with natural changes from solar and wind it's a tough nut to crack.
- afiori 2y agoIn particular I suspect that even the most reactive energy sources (which I suspect are fossil fuels) takes minutes to scale up or down to follow demand.
- john61 2y agoThis is not a problem, because in my market each day at 17:00 the fixed hourly prices for the next 00:00-24:00 period are published. Weather and therefore renewable energy yield is good predictable for 24 hours.
- wortelefant 2y agoHigher network costs just reflect added expenses for redispatch and additional grid infrastructure required by variable energy production. The more decentralized and intermittent energy in the system, the higher the cost for infrastructure and keeping backup power plants running - in case of Germany, coal and gas
- john61 2y agoFlexible, localized net usage prices could smooth the intermittency and lower the demand on the net.