Emission fines inflate our electricity bills...

[cyprusmax47]

EU is becoming more strict with new fines for Cyprus regarding the production of electricity with heavy fuel. In the end the customer has to pay for it, except people which were able to put a photo-voltaic system on their premises to produce their own electricity and therefore reduce their bills to nearly nothing.




This article in the Press says it all:

Emission fines inflate electricity bills

Financial Mirror (Cyprus)11 Mar 2023

While consumers struggle with inflation, there are fears that electricity bills will bulge as the Electricity Authority is called to pay an increased cost for emitting greenhouse gases.

According to Phileleftheros daily, the state Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) will have to pay EUR 300 mln of taxpayers’ money in 2023, 21% more than last year, for purchasing EU greenhouse gas emission allowances.

The EAC paid EUR 248 mln last year. The penalty for greenhouse gas emissions is rolled down to consumers.

As Phileleftheros notes, the calculation of the fine is a result of the trend in the cost of greenhouse gas emission allowances in previous years.

It is estimated that with current carbon prices, the purchase of emission rights corresponds to 29% of EAC’s production costs.

Within the first two months the price adjustment for greenhouse gas allowances shot up to 7.8 cents a kilowatt hour from 5.8 cents. At the same time, the current EAC fuel price adjustment is 16.7 cents per kilowatt hour.

Based on this data, EAC is estimated to pay almost EUR 300 mln in 2023 for the emission of 3 mln tonnes of carbon dioxide, said Phileleftheros.

Last year, the authority paid EUR 248 mln with an average rights purchase price of EUR 80 per tonne, in 2021 it was

EUR 165 mln with an average price of EUR 54, and in 2020 EUR 74 mln with an average price of EUR 25 per tonne.


Max

[Devil]

My PV system was switched on on the 15th of this month. Since then, the total electricity generated averages a roughly estimated 65% of what it should have done, had the weather been more clement. I don't have any accurate data on it. A good start!

[cyprusmax47]

At least you installed a system even when you was against it for many years. One has to wait a year after installation, after that time you know how much you produced. However you will see on your next bill already a big reduction.

Keep moaning...

Max

[trevnhil]

On the box on the wall in my system I can look at any time of day and see what it is producing. And also the total number of units for the day

[cyprusmax47]

"The box on the wall" is called inverter....

Max

[trevnhil]

Thankyou for that info Max.. At least it is a box on the wall.

[cyprusmax47]

You are welcome... it is always good to know the basics when you have a PV system, in order to communicate with experts when there is a problem...

Max

[Anarita John]

Our last bill showed we had consumed 1070 kwh. Cost, with net metering, €55.57. That works out at €0.052 per kwh. Most of our consumption was for heating our swimming pool, during the day.

For our swimming pool, we used 700kwh through the meter and 354kwh solar units. Whilst our swimming pool heater was switched on, we exported 547kwh to the grid and produced 895 kwh. These figures also include household usage during the time our air source heater was switched on.

I've emailed Christos at Greenair about a device which is being used in the UK to divert your electric so that you do not export as much to the grid. It is used to heat the water via the immersion heater in the UK. However, if a device like this could be used to divert electric to an air source heater, it would be very useful in Cyprus, for 2 reasons. You would not be exporting as much electric to the grid, so the grid would cope better. You would be using totally green energy even though the financial reward, with net metering, would be small. The device is called an EDDI.

Even for small consumers, PV panels are worth installing. By my calculations, even if you consume only 600kwh bi monthly, you would be saving over €800 per year.

Cyprus should be doing everything it can to cut down on the use of fossil fuel. 0% vat on installations would help encourage pv installations. Upgrading the grid so it can cope with more input from pv electric and finding ways of storing energy via batteries and even hydro electric power, like in Dinorwig, where water is pumped to an upper lake during the night and then run through generators during peak times to produce electric.

[Anarita John]

We have an app on our phone which tells us how much electricity we have produced each day. It also shows us how much each of our panels are producing each day, week, month, year.

Our meter has two readings, consumed and exported, so we know exactly how much we have used each day, from the grid and which we have to pay a net metering charge for, and how much we export to the grid.

Our invertor is a solar edge one and we are having one fitted in the UK, along with a TESLA battery.

[mark4007]

An EDDI might make economic sense in the UK where there is a lage difference between the amount received for exported enegy compared to the amount being paid for imported enegy.

I cant see how they make any economic sense for consumers in cyprus for those in the net metering arrangement. The cost of importing electrity (and the only possible saving) is far too small.

I am sure John knows the next two points.. but just for clarification...

In Cyprus there is currently no net metering charge for enegy exported or imported.. There is a network useage charge which everyone (whether they have PV modules or not) pays..

In Cyprus electric bills dont actually show how much electricty households consume.. The bill actually says consumption but the reality is the EAC have no idea how much a household with PV is consuming. Instead the electric meter measures how much electricty is imported and exported. In Johns case, his actual consumption of electrity will be far higher than the amount shown on his bill, particularly as he is heating the pool during times he is generating PV electricty.

[Anarita John]

Mark, looking at my figures I agree, an eddi which would hardly be worth it. If the pv energy was all diverted to heating the pool the saving would only be around €1 per