Electricity costs 4X more than gas per Kwh but why??
Discussion
Pistonheadsdicoverer said:
Someone may be able to enlighten me here (pun intended).
Why, per Kwh, does electricity - which is usually generated locally - cost much more than gas which is usually imported?
Basically, UK electricity is made from gas.Why, per Kwh, does electricity - which is usually generated locally - cost much more than gas which is usually imported?
This affects the cost in two ways:
1) When you burn gas to boil water to turn a steam turbine to generate electricity, half of the energy disappears up the chimney as hot air (or steam or CO2), so you need say 200 kWh of gas to produce 100 kWh of electricity. So that explains a factor of two in price.
2) The power station containing all that machinery costs money to build and maintain, so you're paying for that in the electricity cost. Gas is simple by comparison, just pipe it from the North Sea to your house.
There are lots of other incidental factors, for instance gas can easily be stored whereas electricity production has to be constantly adjusted to match demand, which requires extra capacity to be 'on hand' ready for immediate use, but those are the main two I think.
samoht said:
Basically, UK electricity is made from gas.
This affects the cost in two ways:
1) When you burn gas to boil water to turn a steam turbine to generate electricity, half of the energy disappears up the chimney as hot air (or steam or CO2), so you need say 200 kWh of gas to produce 100 kWh of electricity. So that explains a factor of two in price.
2) The power station containing all that machinery costs money to build and maintain, so you're paying for that in the electricity cost. Gas is simple by comparison, just pipe it from the North Sea to your house.
There are lots of other incidental factors, for instance gas can easily be stored whereas electricity production has to be constantly adjusted to match demand, which requires extra capacity to be 'on hand' ready for immediate use, but those are the main two I think.
I thought a lot of the electricity in the UK came from renewable rather than fossil fuels - which I presume gas and charcoal are. I guess some more astute providers like Octopus are starting to change that paradigm (e.g. with Agile).This affects the cost in two ways:
1) When you burn gas to boil water to turn a steam turbine to generate electricity, half of the energy disappears up the chimney as hot air (or steam or CO2), so you need say 200 kWh of gas to produce 100 kWh of electricity. So that explains a factor of two in price.
2) The power station containing all that machinery costs money to build and maintain, so you're paying for that in the electricity cost. Gas is simple by comparison, just pipe it from the North Sea to your house.
There are lots of other incidental factors, for instance gas can easily be stored whereas electricity production has to be constantly adjusted to match demand, which requires extra capacity to be 'on hand' ready for immediate use, but those are the main two I think.
Pistonheadsdicoverer said:
I thought a lot of the electricity in the UK came from renewable rather than fossil fuels - which I presume gas and charcoal are. I guess some more astute providers like Octopus are starting to change that paradigm (e.g. with Agile).
You're right, it's roughly equal between fossil fuels and renewables. However it's the cost of generating electricity from burning gas which tends to set the electricity price. I think this is because the renewable supply is uncontrolled and so you need to 'top it up' with the right amount of gas-fired electricity (which you can turn on and off at will) to meet demand, and it's this 'last kWh' which sets the overall electricity price.(See 'past year' stats here https://grid.iamkate.com/)
Power is a commodity traded both within and outwith the UK. It maybe that renewables can be generated at far lest cost but it still gets sold at market value. We no longer have a nationalised power industry so will remain at the whim of the market.
The price we pay is a reflection of the average commercial price over a period of time.
With the advent of smart meters and companies like Octopus energy some consumers are ble to realise potential savings by having a flexible tariff. Those that stick with the more traditional power companies have a price averaged out over a greater period so may end up paying more.
The price we pay is a reflection of the average commercial price over a period of time.
With the advent of smart meters and companies like Octopus energy some consumers are ble to realise potential savings by having a flexible tariff. Those that stick with the more traditional power companies have a price averaged out over a greater period so may end up paying more.
When you generate electricity from fossil fuels, the efficiency is in the 25 to 40% league.
That tends to drive the basic cost of power.
AIUI, the UK electricity market is a right mess, but how different is it elsewhere in the world?
Our electricity bills are also loaded with subsidies for all sorts of stuff, our gas bills have a lot of costs other than the wholesale gas.
It's tempting to consider generating electricty at home using gas. Run a generator at say 25% efficiency and use the waste heat for heating.
That tends to drive the basic cost of power.
AIUI, the UK electricity market is a right mess, but how different is it elsewhere in the world?
Our electricity bills are also loaded with subsidies for all sorts of stuff, our gas bills have a lot of costs other than the wholesale gas.
It's tempting to consider generating electricty at home using gas. Run a generator at say 25% efficiency and use the waste heat for heating.
Terminator X said:
Will be interesting to see how they justify the extortionate cost at the point that most of it is generated "free" as in coming from the Sun / Wind / Sea,
TX.
Wind turbines have a finite life, the first installation or replacement cost of these needs to be amortised.TX.
Then you have the overhead and employee base for keeping everything going, ongoing R&D, producing glossy brochure to keep convincing people that the grid can actually cope, etc.
No different to any other business.
Installing loads of additional wind turbines because we got cute about how to to use the electricity should off course be avoided.
It's not just cost either, at some point you'd run out of windy coastline.
GT9 said:
Terminator X said:
Will be interesting to see how they justify the extortionate cost at the point that most of it is generated "free" as in coming from the Sun / Wind / Sea,
TX.
Wind turbines have a finite life, the first installation or replacement cost of these needs to be amortised.TX.
Then you have the overhead and employee base for keeping everything going, ongoing R&D, producing glossy brochure to keep convincing people that the grid can actually cope, etc.
No different to any other business.
Installing loads of additional wind turbines because we got cute about how to to use the electricity should off course be avoided.
It's not just cost either, at some point you'd run out of windy coastline.
TX.
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