While through the summer our electricity consumption is about a third of what it would be in the winter ( the coldest days it is 4x from summer), a recent problem with the electricity supply has meant that prices have spiked considerably. We are now on "spot prices" so that we pay whatever the hourly market rate is and while most of the summer it has been very low, that has changed significantly in the last few days.
As you can see from this graph of price over the last 30 days:
The problem has to do with the new nuclear plant, that despite being well over a decade late, still isn't up and running efficiently, with lots of teething problems getting in the way of regular production. No critical issues that compromise safety, more niggling things that halt the processes and take time to repair.
This is how it looked overall yesterday:
And the spot price by hour yesterday:
The average is 10x up on the normal prices over the last 30 days, and the high is 22x up - which means that depending on when things are being done, something like using the dishwasher can be 4 cents or 88 cents. That is quite a difference. but it is the heating costs that impact the most and we are using around 40 kWh a day at the moment in total, so at the average of 30 cents, electricity was €12 yesterday. If this was the winter, that would be €60 on the colder days, and €70 on the coldest.
Today it is down a bit.
While I get that there are problems with the nuclear powerplant, this isn't the only source of energy and Finland is also able to get supply from Sweden. As this is summer, there should be an over supply of energy at the moment, so it makes no sense that the prices are this high. But, there are some kinds of restrictions on power coming from Sweden, so there is an engineered shortfall of between 500 and 1200 MW per day, which is what is propping up prices.
You'd think with what has been happening in the last year and a half, they would have sorted these things out, but if there are these problems in the summer, it doesn't bode well for the coming winter. If the problems persist, it is going to be another expensive six months. As a result, I am looking at what kinds of fixed rate contracts there are and what kind of costs that will bring, as it might make more sense to pay a bit more now, and not have to deal with the high prices later.
Though, I really don't think that this should be needed and I believe that there should be a change in attitude when it comes to energy prices. Ultimately, we'd want energy (if clean) to be absolutely (or close to) free, right? As that would enable innovation to happen without having to worry about energy consumption at all, which is the major constraint. We are a long way away from any kind of true clean energy, let alone it being free, but unlimited energy provides unlimited opportunity, so reigning in innovation through energy constraints is counterproductive.
Obviously though, energy is such a massive industry in and of itself now, that the profits from peddling it are higher than what people can imagine the innovation can bring. Yet ultimately, energy itself is just a tool, and it is what that energy is used to create that has the real value, not the energy itself. It is like money in this sense - it isn't how much is made, it is what it enables that is important.
This latest spike won't last long, as they are expecting it to be fixed in a few days and things will return to the "new normals", but still, it is a wakeup alarm for what is to come in the winter, so I will have to start looking now. The longer it is left, the more expensive the fixed contracts will get, so even though the price might be higher per kW now, we aren't consuming so much currently due to the weather, but the savings in the winter might offset it. It is a cost averaging approach.
Paying more now might mean paying more overall later, but doing nothing now might end up costing a huge amount more, but have the potential to save very little. A risk and reward mechanism.
I am average at all of this.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
