We pulled out of the project (even though we had planning consent) because we couldn’t be confident that there wouldn’t be a problem or an accident in fact that might result in injury. It’s a peculiar site from a wind H&S point of view, much of the week it’s empty enough but match days it’s stacked with folk.

We weren’t able to control the area around and under the turbine either and this would have been our normal way to control/reduce risks to an acceptable level. That left us looking at something we couldn’t be sure enough of.

From our point of view the PR from such a machine would have been awesome, and it’s exposure to people (and vice versa) well worthwhile – but we felt the risk of an accident and the subsequent damage that would do to the reputations of wind energy, Ecotricity and the Club (man City) – on balance just wasn’t worth taking.

Hard decision to come to I can assure you, I really wanted to build this one. If we could have controlled the ground under the turbine on icy days we’d have been on the right side of the line. But that wasn’t possible.

Cheers.

The £/customer figures are simply the amount of money spent divided by total customers. The idea is that this shows the proportion of spend each supply company makes, which does tell you more IMO than just their total spend (because some are much bigger than others). It also allows a comparison to be made on the basis of how much of a typical electricity bill has been spent. That is relevant to consumers.

And that’s the second bit that might have confused a little here. Ecotricity’s figure for 08 was about £400 per customer spent on new renewables, the five year average figure is £450 per customer. We’re saying that this is roughly a typical electricity bill in the UK – and therefore we’re spending our customers entire bills, in effect, £ for £. Or put another way “for every pound you spend we spend a pound”.

I realise that some people spend more and some spend less. Comparing to a typical bill is just a handle, to give people a sense of scale. I think it’s a big story, the whole of a typical electricity bill being spent on new clean sources – each year for five years (and customer numbers quadrupled in that time BTW).

Then there’s the next bit – how on earth can we do that? Don’t we have overheads, sell ROCs, buy electricity etc etc. All correct – it’s an equivalent sum, not the actual money our customers pay with, because we do have to pay staff and for power and lots of other things and our eventual profit margin is actually pretty small – not 100%…!

This is how it works: When we finance a wind project it’s a bit like buying a house, you stump up a % of the capital cost and a bank stumps up the rest. And just like houses you could get mortgages for 90% of the cost if the project were strong enough (I say could, because the credit crunch has had an impact on that). Anyway, what that means is that we need say 10% of the cost of a windmill, to actually build one – the rest of the money comes from the bank. So we can leverage a small profit margin into a big spend on renewables. It’s easy enough.

All it takes is the will and the commitment to fight the planning system, day in and out. Other than that any power company can do it.

Pete, the HH market (Half Hourly) is quite difficult for us to operate in, it’s a high volume low margin thing, and we’re currently unable to operate there in any major way – that will change over time as we grow. And a mini Merchant scheme for this sector is a great idea, if our Urbine works we’ll scale it up to 5 and 10kW for just this purpose. We’re doing the most we can as fast as we can, just can’t do it all straight away.

Justin, glad to see you got to the bottom of your consumption issue – your bills should shrink somewhat from here….

Cheers.

I have to say, there is an outspoken anti-wind lobby out there…

Are there any plans to start supplying Northern Ireland in the near future?

now there’s an idea!

Jeffrey – thanks for the heads-up on the construction ‘blogs’ over on the Ecotricity site – I have been told that there should be some updated news appearing on those very soon.

Keep up the good work! I became a domestic customer of Ecotricity as soon as it was possible and remain very happy with my choice.

Can I ask if Ecotricity has plans for smart metering and monitoring of domestic customers?

I’m in the planning stage of a low energy renovation of my house in Cambridge and it would be good if electrical loads which were not time critical could be switched on when a surplus of renewable energy was available. Perhaps something like The Demand for Wind Project (http://demandforwind.co.uk)?

The Super-Smart Metering technology under development by ISE, Intelligent Sustainable Energy (http://www.ise-oxford.com) sounds very interesting. I particularly like the simplicity of a single point connection to monitor usage rather than having to have specially equipped devices.

Rgds

Damon

But I’m guessing, Dale could probably give a better and more accurate picture.

Hmmm – that does seem a bit high for a 1 bed flat.

My annual bill is around £1100, but for a 3 bed terraced pre-fab at the top of a windy hill with 4 residents – we have no gas supply.

Using electric for heating makes a *big* difference – especially if you use it outside E7 times, and without storage heaters.

We try to use local wood in the multifuel stove for heating and this saves a lot of money in the winter.

Combined average gas/electric bill is around £1350 p.a. apparently. Here’s a recent discussion about average elec/gas prices on a different forum.

I would suggest contacting customer services to discuss your concerns and steps to reduce your bill – or perhaps I can get them to contact you?

Paul

Bear in mind the day rate on a E7 tarrif is huge compared to a standard tarrif.

give Eco a call with a meter reading, they can calculate to see if you are better off on a standard tarriff! unless the majority of your usage is at night, i’d say you probably are!

J

Your best bet is to take a series of readings over a week and see how much you’re using. Are your bills estimated or to actual readings? Also if you are on Economy 7 do you have night storage/immersion heaters or the like? Economy 7 is only really worth while if you have. My understanding is that the majority of Economy 7 meters record off peak usage between 12 midnight and 7am so unless your heating your water etc over these times you’re losing out.

Matt

£1400 seems truly excessive for a studio flat, even with electric heating.. if I were you I would start reading your meter every week to see where it’s all going!!
Try http://readyourmeter.org/ and http://www.wattzon.com/

Dave

Averages are very good for statistical analysis but fail when you try to apply them to individual examples. Don’t forget, there are three types of average, the mode, which is the most frequent value, the median, which is the numerical “middle”, and the mean, which is used here, which is the total value divided by the number of individual values.

This is a statistical representation and is not a reflection of a “typical” bill.

With respect to the basis for comparison, it goes without saying that one of the Big Six, with a customer base and turnover which are multiples of those of Ecotricity, can invest much more in sheer volume on building sources of renewable energy. What this table shows is each companies individual commitment to investing in those sources. If I have £10 and spend a pound, but you only have a pound and spend a pound, on building new sources of renewable energy, which one of us is investing more, proportionally?

I think it’s as important to remember that Ecotricity stands out in this respect (how much they invest proportionally in renewable energy), as how much of their customers’ money they invest. Although essentially they amount to the same thing.

Matt

Rgds

Damon

The total spend over 5 years is on the chart above

Derek