Most people may have noticed by now a decrease in the PSO levy in recent electricity bills. However, what you might not have noticed is that the unit charge increased from 15.74 cent in May 2018 to 16.72 cent by September, pretty much negating the savings from the PSO.
As the graph below shows, this is the largest and steepest increase in the unit charge during the past seven years. So as per usual in Ireland the drop in the PSO Levy has not been passed on to most consumers.
I'm guessing the CER now CRU knew we were on to them in tracking the increase in the PSO levy over the years and so they have now made it more difficult for us to track the increases in renewable energy subsidies and additional renewable energy infrastructure supports via the PSO Levy.
ReplyDeleteSo instead the additional costs are dispersed across the PSO Levy, the rate per kilowatt hour and the standing charges and so it has made it more difficult for utility customers to track the sum increase of the additional charges going towards intermittent renewables and supporting energy infrastructure for renewable wind energy, smart electricity exchange dual/diesel generators, highly questionable and potentially highly dangerous Industrial Battery Energy Support Systems. And then there's Anaerobic Digestion producing renewable bioga$ which may very well end up being potentially bigger than the 'Cash for Ash' scandal depending on the sourcing and quantities required of raw materials such as slurry and grass and in particular what happens with the sludge by products. And will livestock produce also become a mere waste byproduct of renewable bioga$ production? And will Ireland see a conversion of grass fed to zero grazed livestock to facility renewable bioga$ production and in turn ruin Ireland's Green Clean Agrifood and tourism sector?
Also will someone please explain how does conversion to a Flexitarian diet work with the intensified livestock farming and increased grass production required to produce renewable bioga$?
Whatever way the apple is sliced, on balance, electricity bills have increased and are continually increasing and impinging negatively on market competitiveness.
Time to examine the PSO Levy, standing charge and unit rate per kWh of electricity bills under the microscope and to start asking questions about where the bulk of the cost of electricity bills is going to.
The government has released a recent Data Centre Strategy statement in support of making Ireland the Data Centre hub of Europe however they state that electricity bills may have to be increased to support such a policy. And what about the increased carbon emission fines from fossil fuel guzzling data centres?
Currently there is about 3400MW of wind turbines installed in the Republic of Ireland. How many are aware that there is now about 3500MW+ of Industrial Battery Energy Storage Systems being proposed of which more than half has already been granted planning permission and which may cost far more than renewable wind energy to support?
And to that has to perhaps be added the costs to support Anaerobic Digestion and Offshore wind energy which is far more expensive to support than onshore wind energy.
Then factor in the proposed carbon taxes. Is it any wonder that several copped on politicians have already had their homes deep retrofitted or built to zero energy standards?! They know only too well what is coming down the line.
Avoid being fooled by the reduction in the PSO Levy which is merely pure optics and spin.
And do ask your Public Representatives how progress is going on the European Commission Member State Electricity Blackout Preparedness Plans!!!!
My understanding is that wind energy receives the same amount per MW generated each and every year as long as they are in the REFIT scheme. So the PSO can go up or down, it doesnt matter. The PSO will be adjusted up if the wholesale price decreases, and vice versa (as whats happened here).
ReplyDeleteThe subsidies and additional costs to support more proposed onshore and even the more expensive offshore wind energy, banks of demand side diesel/dual fuel diesel generators, State Aid electricity subsidies for Data Centres and costs of related energy infrastructure, subsidies and costs of supports for grid frequency control industrial battery energy storage systems, Anaerobic Digesters and renewable bioga$ subsidies and cost of related energy infrastructure supports will be spread out over the PSO Levy, rate per kWh and standing charges and possibly other taxes such as the proposed new carbon taxes. Electricity bills are only going one way and that is up and that's before one even switches on a low energy lightbulb and any increased electricity bills negatively impinge on market competitiveness. That is unless of course the wholesale price of fossil fuels goes down significantly. Who said that there are two ways to conquer a country? One is via war and the other is through impoverishment of a nation and perhaps via Fuel/energy poverty, reduced market competitiveness. One way out is to go off grid for both commercial and residential customers alike! I would recommend this for anyone who can afford to do this. Many a Public Representative has gone close to doing this already. It is strange how government departments can come together to develop a government strategy to support State Aid for Big Corporate Data Centres but as soon as an ordinary citizen questions flawed energy policy that they all renege on responsibility and pass the buck from one government department to another and tell you that your only option is to make planning observations on each and every speculative energy development when energy policy in my opinion and lengthy experience appears to support more and more the speculative energy developers. Please Wake Up Ireland!
DeleteOriel Wind farm Limited plan to build a 330 MW wind farm in Dundalk bay on the East Coast of Ireland. It will cost 825 million Euros and have a load factor of about 22%. At to-days REFIT rates for on-shore it will receive about 75 Euros per MWh exported. If we use the running costs figures for on-shore wind and apply it it this project (and assume a life span of 20 years) we can make an educated guess at how long it will take to pay off the capital sum. If all financing is by equity it will take 72 years to pay off. If a loan is raised, the interest will have to be paid first and that will extend the time to pay off the capital sum by a lot more. It could possibly take 100 years to re-pay it with no income for the last 80 years.
DeleteWhen existing on shore wind farms aim to repay all debt within the lifetime of the wind farm, they are loosing 65,000 per MW per year. An off shore wind farm will have much higher expenses for everything. Oriel will loose 330 X 80,000 = 26.4 million per year. In such an environment, lenders and investors are eager to get rid of their money. Very strange.
The combined Standing Charge, Rate per kWh and PSO Levy are headed only one direction and that is Up except perhaps for Big Corporates who negotiate favourable rates that look very much like State Aid. It's ironic that the higher the energy demand the less one pays per kWh. High carbon emitters receive in effect high rates of electricity subsidies. Let's for a moment look at the Government Statement on Data Centres and what they say about network costs and the PSO Levy.
Delete'Based on existing data centres, committed expansion and expected growth, total demand could treble within the next ten years. A consistent and supportive whole of government approach will be brought to the realisation of the transmission and distribution assets required to support the level of data centre ambition that we adopt.
The cost of safely building out, operating and maintaining the electricity transmission and distribution networks is ultimately borne by energy users and is reflected in customer’s electricity bills. The Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy is designed to support electricity generation plant to meet national policy objectives including the use of renewable energy sources in electricity generation. While intensified data centre activity will likely play a key role in stimulating demand for increased renewable electricity generation, it is also likely that it would result in higher network charges and PSO levies for consumers unless mitigating measures are taken to minimise such charges.'
https://dbei.gov.ie/en/Publications/Publication-files/Government-Statement-Data-Centres-Enterprise-Strategy.pdf
Would it be more accurate to call it the 'ZERO GRAZE' Bioga$ Project?
DeleteHow else are they going to get access to the raw material of slurry and grass all year round unless they intend tying buckets to animal livestock?
Or is the conversion of slurry and grass to renewable bioga$ going to be strictly seasonal?
How much are these Graze renewable bioga$ projects going to add to network costs, standing charges etc.?
'The GRAZE Gas project is being funded under the first phase of the Climate Action Fund, administered by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. The project will be implemented between 2019 and 2022.'
https://www.gasnetworks.ie/corporate/news/active-news-articles/major-step-forward-to-bring-renewable-gas-on-to-gas-network/
The problem that they have with the whole renewable scam is that their assumption were totally incorrect. Oil was supposed to exceed $150+ a barrel. Wholesale electricity prices would be so high that the PSO would not be needed. Now they are flailing around try to save a hopelessly financially compromised plan that no body with half a
ReplyDeletebrain would have started in the first place.. Wind Farms loosing €10m+ per annum were hardly part of their consideration.Then they go around buying 1 megawatts capacity for €2m. When in reality as it will never make a meaningful profit it is effectively valueless. With regard to offshore and the ESB. The Arklow Bank in its early stages had a capacity factor of 25% and a few years later it was down to 17%. 17% capacity factor is a little higher than BNM achieves at that disaster in Co.Offaly Mount Lucas. Offshore capital costs will be substantially more than onshore, Maintenance costs will be substantially higher. It is pretty obvious where the ESB is going with their much ballyhooed investment. Down the tubes.
Over the past years the percentage of the total PSO charge being paid by large users has been falling, while that attributed to domestic users has risen. Are large users being subsidised by domestic users? Neither the CRU, ESB Networks, nor Eirgrid will provide the data on how much power large customers consume versus their domestic counterparts, as percentage of total.
ReplyDeleteIs the €1Bn Celtic Interconnector more about providing 'Critical Infrastructure' and 'Security of Supply' for Big Corporate Data Centres at the expense of the citizens of Ireland?
DeleteWhat will that the proposed €1Bn Celtic Interconnector plus operational costs add to the cost of electricity for ordinary citizens and SME's?
'......senior bank officials have told RTÉ News that preparatory work on the energy pipeline between Ireland and France is being accelerated.'
'The EIB is also accelerating the planning stage for the so-called Celtic Interconnector, a €1 billion undersea energy link between Ireland and France.
Mr McDowell says the risk of a no-deal Brexit has added urgency to the planning process.
"There's no overnight risk in terms of north south power supplies, but it clearly becomes a bigger strategic issue for Ireland, to have direct continental access."
The bank wants to bring forward the regulatory side of the project from next year to this year because of Brexit.
"The regulators in France and Ireland need to be comfortable about this," he says.
"That means the regulators need to be comfortable about how much they are willing to do that, how much of the benefit of this goes to Ireland, how much of the benefit goes to France, how much each side should pay for it," he said.
The project is expected to be funded by the EIB, Ireland and France, with additional support from the European Commission, as it is part of their long terms energy plans, under the so-called Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
"We would hope - and we met the promoters last week - it will require a level of grant aid from the Commission as well as cheap EIB financing. Initially we've been looking at full appraisal next year but we want to bring that forward to this year," says McDowell.
"We want to work together, France, Ireland, the Commission, ourselves, very closely over the next two months to put together a finance package. It is a security of supply issue for Ireland."
Mr McDowell says that aside from the security of energy supply issue, and the fears over Brexit, there are significant commercial opportunities for Ireland.
Given that both France and Germany are progressively switching away from nuclear and coal to renewable energy, there are opportunities for Irish Sea wind farms to feed directly in to the European power grid via the Celtic Interconnector.'
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2019/0130/1026462-brexit-european-investment-bank/
http://www.datacentreandinfrastructure.ie/
Note the European Commission is currently requesting Electricity Blackout Preparedness Plans from Member States
Electricity Blackouts and State Member Risk Preparedness Plans (22nd November 2018)
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-18-6533_en.html
Industrial energy demand customers connected to the National electricity grid system are subsidised by other utility customers. It's ironic that the less energy one uses the more one pays pro rata and the more energy one uses the less one pays. Where is the incentive for high energy demand industry connected to the national electricity grid system to become more energy efficient thereby reducing the overall national energy demand and therefore reducing the per annum 2020 EU EED carbon emission fines which of course are destined to be paid for by non industrial lower energy demand utility customers. High Energy Demand Industry customers create more work for the likes of ESB Networks and Eirgrid. It makes one wonder if the electricity system is being run more for the benefit of ESB Networks and Eirgrid and Big Corporate Industries than for the citizens of the Island of Ireland.
ReplyDeleteThe dysfunction we see in relation to energy in Ireland is just one example or a general dysfunction in government. The EU was forcing Britain to go down the same path, but Brexit may stop that and restore Britain to it's traditional respect for economic and engineering principles. Ireland's economy may take a nose dive soon so we will see if Britain wises up.
ReplyDelete