Powercuts and renewable energy in uk

[indy]

When reading the paper today I saw an article that suggested that if you had a source of renewable energy ie: your own wind turbine that in the event of a power cut from the national grid, you would be forced to switch it off within so many seconds ... I think that this totally defeats the object!!! . I must have read it about 4 times to make sure that I wasn't being daft and that I had understood it properly. Is this true?? Has anyone else heard or read this?

[Green Rosie]

Here in France of you have photovoltaic solar panels you have to sell the power they generate to EDF and then buy your electricity back from them. You do sell at a higher rate than you buy but why not use what you need and sell the excess ?

As for switching off your own renewable energy source that is just barking - and how would they police it?

[indy]

I have absolutely no idea!! Am horrified by the whole conccept. If this is truely the case then does this mean the self sufficiency dream in that department is not possible? Now theres a thought

[brett53]

When reading the paper today I saw an article that suggested that if you had a source of renewable energy ie: your own wind turbine that in the event of a power cut from the national grid, you would be forced to switch it off within so many seconds ... I think that this totally defeats the object!!! . I must have read it about 4 times to make sure that I wasn't being daft and that I had understood it properly. Is this true?? Has anyone else heard or read this?

you got a link to this artical please ??

well screw that anyways - the WHOLE idea of HAVING renew ables is to be independent OF the grid ain't it or have i got that totally wrong ( i suppose if its linked in TO the grid that does make sense )

and as to HAVING to sell power to EDF ?? jeez another EU ( hock spit ) dictate ?? - good job i don't live in France then

sounds to me like another well researched bit of journalism as don't they realise most people who have solar etc don't have it linked in and its more likely they want to AVOID using grid power where ever possible ??

[indy]

I don't have a link I'm afraid but I do know it was in the daily mail, I will find it again and post the whole thing...I'm just shocked!!Hope there is a way that you can get the renewable energy you want without connecting to the national grid, damn goverments, they just want people to be totally reliant upon things they can't control!

[brett53]

I don't have a link I'm afraid but I do know it was in the daily mail, I will find it again and post the whole thing...I'm just shocked!!Hope there is a way that you can get the renewable energy you want without connecting to the national grid, damn goverments, they just want people to be totally reliant upon things they can't control!

guess us "Eco anarchists " wont be flavor of the month then ??

[spookymuffin]

How I understood the whole thing which was first mentioned about a year ago (so Daily Mail is a little slow) is that, until they have a failsafe system, if there was a power cut and they had to do any work on...cables?perhaps?....then if there were folks still generating in the area they could be in danger of electrocuting the workforce unless they could guarantee that everyone would at least disconnect from the grid. Did that make sense?

[pumpy]

How I understood the whole thing which was first mentioned about a year ago (so Daily Mail is a little slow) is that, until they have a failsafe system, if there was a power cut and they had to do any work on...cables?perhaps?....then if there were folks still generating in the area they could be in danger of electrocuting the workforce unless they could guarantee that everyone would at least disconnect from the grid. Did that make sense?

That's how it seems to be, but isn't the whole idea of self-sufficient power-generation, to be independent of any national net-work??

[Big Al]

How I understood the whole thing which was first mentioned about a year ago (so Daily Mail is a little slow) is that, until they have a failsafe system, if there was a power cut and they had to do any work on...cables?perhaps?....then if there were folks still generating in the area they could be in danger of electrocuting the workforce unless they could guarantee that everyone would at least disconnect from the grid. Did that make sense?

That's how it seems to be, but isn't the whole idea of self-sufficient power-generation, to be independent of any national net-work??

Spookymuffin has it right and so does pumpy but there is one copany that is out there that installs a large bank of back up batteries so that if the power is disrupted in say a power cut or outage then the power generated is automatically diverted to the bank of batteries. Obviously this is going to cost more in the set up but in the long run it will be better.

I think there's a link toi this company on my tother comp if anyone is interested.

[contadino]

More lazy journalism from the Daily Mail...

If you have a grid-tied microgeneration system, the rule is that in the event of a power cut, the grid-tie inverter is required to shut down. AFAIK, all the inverters certified as suitable for grid-tieing do this function automatically. This has been a condition for grid-tie systems since they were first invented, so it's not news.

If you have a standalone, or off-grid system, obviously it can continue working.

There are ways of having a battery bank as part of a grid-tied system, which would mean that you have a reliable supply, even in the event of a powercut, but you would require a second inverter too.

Of course, with the new feed in tariffs in the UK, you will get paid the same, whether the system is grid-tied or not.

[indy]

Thank you all...that has made me feel much better, would rather spend the extra money and have the batteries

[indy]

Whats the name of that company Big Al? The one that does the batteries with your system? Am probably being daft but I couldn't find it. Thank you

[Big Al]

Whats the name of that company Big Al? The one that does the batteries with your system? Am probably being daft but I couldn't find it. Thank you

These are from my fave folder but if you google solar pv grid tie with battery backup a shed load more info comes up. Hope this helps.

Big Al.
http://solar.smps.us/grid-tie-backup.html

http://www.sma.de/en.html

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/back-up-power.html#Gridpower

http://www.brightgreenenergy.co.uk/solar_array_cost_estimation.asp

[shiela_robins]

You want the grid-tied power generator to shutdown in an outage because they (power company) can't charge you correctly, did I get that right? :D

[contadino]

You want the grid-tied power generator to shutdown in an outage because they (power company) can't charge you correctly, did I get that right? :D

Well, there is that, but I think the main reason is that an engineer working to restore power could get electrocuted by power fed into an otherwise inactive grid.