Posted by: @hcas

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Interesting to see whether the market will move to Time of Use (Octopus) or Type of Use (OVO) tariffs... 

Time of use is the one which makes economic sense, its a way to balance the grid load thus reducing the infrastructure build needed to electrify the country. 

In a few years a typical house will be able to store 100kWh+ in a car plus a tank of water, many houses with multiple cars a lot more.  It makes sense to encourage people to use this to to the maximum extent possible to equalise the load on the grid.  People will need to be incentivised to suffer a small inconvenience, but with a suitably slick control capability, whether via an app or physical, its not difficult to imagine the inconvenience being very small.  I think we are experiencing the tip of an iceberg with ToU tariffs and energy storage.  Its going to be massive IMHO.

Posted by: @jamespa

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think we are experiencing the tip of an iceberg with ToU tariffs and energy storage.  Its going to be massive

But it depends on smart meter being possible. We have one, with zero communications to the outside world. In this day and age it's a complete joke. Is anything being done to get rid of smart meter black spots - no as far as I can tell.

Why Scotland needs to rely on long wave radio, and not mobile network or internet, I have no clue.

Posted by: @Anonymous

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Posted by: @jamespa

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think we are experiencing the tip of an iceberg with ToU tariffs and energy storage.  Its going to be massive

But it depends on smart meter being possible. We have one, with zero communications to the outside world. In this day and age it's a complete joke. Is anything being done to get rid of smart meter black spots - no as far as I can tell.

Why Scotland needs to rely on long wave radio, and not mobile network or internet, I have no clue.

Indeed so.  I am told by a reliable source (someone who was working on the software) that the smart meter 'back end' infrastructure is being substantially upgraded. 

I don't actually know if the upgrade extends also to the underlying comms.  I think the challenge with this is that almost nothing is universal, so more than one carrier type needs to be supported; remember that there are mobile and internet black spots also.  Im guessing also long wave radio is an option in some comms blackspots, it propagates rather well. 

Posted by: @Anonymous

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Why Scotland needs to rely on long wave radio, and not mobile network or internet, I have no clue.

Because Arquiva have met their contractual obligation with 99.25% population coverage and the geographical rest is in the -  To bad, So sad, Never mind - category.

Posted by: @jamespa

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don't actually know if the upgrade extends also to the underlying comms.

Pretty sure they can pull off the shelf, smart meters that do long wave, cell phone or WiFi to suit the property and then just point it the correct IP address or communications centre. Installer then arrives at site with a phone app that checks the various signal strengths, then pulls the right tech out of his van, successful installs, first time, every time.

But that maybe a little too simple. Instead try 4 smart meter installations, before you give up and say it can't be done.

@johnmo They can use H-Lan which works at 5ghz for better communication but they only fit those when there's a 'failure' because it costs lots more than the usual smart meter comms gear.

But it still won't work in total black spots - that probably needs some kind of deal with Elon. Heaven help us...