The key elements include six high speed charging hubs on motorways capable of charging eight vehicles simultaneously; 16 high speed charging hubs capable of charging four vehicles simultaneously; additional high power chargers at 34 current 50 kW locations; upgrading over 50 22 kW chargers to 50 kW, and replacing up to 264 locations with 528 charge points at the pre-existing pilot grade of 22 kW to next generation high reliability models.
Ugh, just when it seemed Ecars had given up on that stupid layout 🙄
It’s a big unit and a small unit so I’m guessing the big one is 2x CCS and the smaller unit is the 50kW with CCS & AC.. and ‘maybe’ CHAdeMO?
that carpark is a sh1tshow though so expect serious ICE’ing issues at this site..
Yup, the charger worked fine when I started it normally. I’m curious about the AutoCharge enrolment feature.
I thought that was a fancy looking new design for the charger before I realised it was a cover 🤦♂️
Off topic but reports on plugshare nearby lidl is working but not shown on easygo map. Two different recent reports lidl may is working. Presume it's still testing.
@markpb I live in the area and have used this twice, most recently yesterday evening with no issues. Present the ESB card as normal and it initiates. Only went live last weekend.
Another new site being installed in a badly underserved location in Northside Shopping centre, Coolock. (There is a new charger across the road in the new Lidl, but almost a year later it’s still to be turned on)
I used a new-ish 100kW charger in Claremorris yesterday and the app prompted me to enroll for Auto something. I tried twice and it failed both times so I gave up. Has it worked for anyone else? Is it based on Plug & Charge or something else?
Some Companies can under Power Purchase Agreements
Again I don't think you're allowed to do that, pretty sure there's a condition of being a generator that you do all your energy trading through SEM-O
They are not selling outside the country. Just outside the market
I'd expect not, national interests should take priority and it's all controlled by Eirgrid anyway so unlikely that a generator could unilaterally choose to do that.
Can a generator sell to another country if there's demand here? I thought the interconnectors only worked if there's an excess of power at one end
I agree on the reliance on imported gas, particularly considering we can only import from the UK and they have no gas storage so are susceptible to the spot prices
Once the accountants have factored in the different rates for all of the different supply types from all the different hedging contracts, you then have to consider all the different rates (and their associated discounts) that your customers are on, both domestic, industry and wholesale.
Not quite right.
we also have a bilateral market. Wind energy etc wasn’t affected by gas prices the producer just benefited from higher market rates. So they could have sold outside the market at lower prices.
it’s a complicated system.
Competition isn’t an issue. The reliance on imported gas is the issue
I don't agree with Red that it's a conspiracy, but I do think there's a significant lack of competition in the energy market at the moment, we've something like half as many suppliers as there were in 2020
This is probably leading to a reluctance to drop prices or offer discounts
The hedging wand gets waved a lot but I think the reasons are much deeper than that
First off, the wholesale price of electricity is back to 2021 levels, which is still pretty high. So I don't think 4c/kWh night rates are coming back
Second, the consumer price of electricity went up by something like 100% last year between all the price hikes, but the wholesale prices went up by 1000% in some instances
The means anyone selling energy into the market at a hedged price lost a load of money. So guess what, they want to make that money back now and aren't really in a hurry to offer competitive contracts
Third, a bunch of energy suppliers lost money last year. EI said they were forgoing any profits, and I think SSE did as well. Energia and Bord Gais both lost money
So again, they want to make that money back and aren't in a hurry to offer any deals because they don't want to get burned again
In summary, I don't think it's a conspiracy, but I do think this is the result of low competition and high input costs
Yes, so the purchaser would go on the open market bidding platform for a part-buy based on their projected consumption over the next forecasted period. It could be 33% of the projected units for a period of 12 months and they might get a high unit cost due to the market fluctuations. Then later on the purchaser would go back out for a 20% buy and get a better price... repeating that again later on for the remaining 46%, but obtaining a much higher unit rate.
After each of these purchases you'd then leave the accountants to work out what the effective unit rate is to the consumer is for the future units. You're then locked in for a period of 12 to 18 months while you consume those units. You'd be under contract to consume the units too within the time period.
One way of breaking that pricing arrangement is by expanding the network so that you can go back out to the market for additional units at a much lower cost price, therefore allowing you to lower the overall price for all users. Except that can't happen if you're not rapidly expanding...
Whether I trust them or not isn't the question, you have no evidence to counter the argument put forward by supply companies that hedging and forward purchase contracts are the reason we're still paying high prices. Your position is that energy companies are conspiring to keep prices high. It's almost the definition of a conspiracy theory.
All this talk about hedging reminds me of a “shall remain nameless” power station in the U.K. that I dealt with over the years who hedged their gas supply for 12 months, only for one of the GT’s on-site to sh1t the bed and be unusable for about a year…. (similar thing happened in Whitegate, Cork about 2 years ago)
their gas deal was use it or lose it…..
we also offered them a spare gas turbine rotor we had lying around for £6m, but needed an answer within 3 days as another customer in Asia also wanted it, but we gave 1st dibs to the U.K. plant…. They came back 5 days later saying they wanted it, by which time it was being boxed up to be sent to Asia and a new rotor from the factory would be about £10m-£12m…. With a 6-9 month lead time…
Ah, fun times…
Prices are still over double feb 21 prices.
I would expect to see drops within the next few months.
So your theory is they might hedge half their energy needs today and then 6 months later hedge the other half, for example? That would make sense for the price rises but it doesn't explain then why prices haven't subsequently dropped since the wholesale price began dropping 12 months ago
You probably wouldn't hedge all of your energy needs for 12 to 18 months in one tranche. Hence what I was saying above that we probably paid a calculated average of those hedges, hence the price rises over the period.
But if they hedged for 12-18 months pre december 2021 why was there increases 6 and 9 months later? Surely the price agreed in the 2021 "hedge" would be active throughout 2022, no?
Is it really in the bounds of conspiracy theories that when prices are supposedly fixed for 12 months that questions should be asked as to why prices increased 3 times in those 12 months? Not sure why you trust what those energy companies say so much
between Jan 21 and Dec 21 the wholesale rate increased by over 300%.
aug 22 is 8 times that of Feb 21.
we didn’t see those increases
electric Irelands first price rise was in September 21, the wholesale price had already increased by 260% yet the Increase was only 37.5%
it shows that they had been protected by hedging for several months (possible 12-18) and that there are external factors aswell such as cost of running a business which affects the retail price
At this point your level of scepticism is verging on the conspiracy theory forum. Multiple suppliers are reporting the same reason (hedging contracts) as the reason for continued high prices, you are choosing to not believe them and have no evidence.
Until we get any evidence to the contrary bad hedging remains the most likely explanation for why eCars prices are higher this year than they were last year.
Let's take Airtricity as an example
They increased their prices on the following dates
So are you suggesting they made a 12 month hedge previous to December 2021, which is still in effect today but passed the full increase on to us in 3 waves last year? I'd be skeptical
Because the consumer price increases weren't anywhere near the supplier price increases. Supplier prices increased FAR more than the rate of increase to the consumer.
If consumer prices were reflective of the supplier increases, then they would have increased the consumer prices far more, and probably less frequently. Instead, they increased them less than the supplier increases, and that's why consumer prices haven't fallen in line with supplier prices.
Essentially the consumer prices are being passed on on a "level pay" type of structure.
Waterpower basically buy their electricity from the market and sell to the consumer with a markup. They hedge* with the market suppliers for a month at a time and slap on a profit margin for us to pay resulting in their prices also changing for the consumer on a monthly basis but generally following the market trends both up and down
*Not sure if "hedge" is the right word to use for a monthly deal
We as an island are more exposed. We have no gas storage. We are last in along pipeline.
our power system is mainly gas
we don’t have AC interconnecters like the rest of Europe
we have the Celtic interconnectors and greenlink In development which should help , Both are DC so we still need to procure Ancillary Services , we have additional generation coming online soon
producers hedge their gas or other fuel
suppliers should hedge many of the smaller ones in England failed by not hedging
not sure about water power , never heard of them but many comp airs make losses in the first few years to gain market share
