Savings through Smart Grid Technology...

The Irish Electricity Market is based on a central pool system where power stations all bid into a central market. The price changes ½ hour by ½ hour and a forecast price is published by the market operator 24 hours in advance.

Electricity tracker tariffs offer business direct access to the wholesale electricity market. These trackers can offer savings over fixed electricity rates in much the same way that a variable rate mortgage is (on average) less expensive than a fixed rate one.

With Smartpower these savings go further, the smart server controller uses electricity and weather forecasts downloaded every six hours to allow customers to choose when to run / stop energy intensive processes automatically.

Smart Power uses Echelon Smart Grid Technology adapted to the Irish market to maximise savings to medium and large users of energy.

The introduction of the Single Electricity Market (SEM) has brought important competitive benefits to the electricity market, however one of the disadvantages to the business consumer is the increased complexity and the difficulty of comparing tariffs in any meaningful way.

It is generally poorly understood that the wholesale electricity tariff changes over 48 half hour periods in every day. This change is dramatic, often below 6c per kWh for many off peak hours, spiking to over 20c (or higher) per kWh during the evening peak or during other times of national grid constraint.

Businesses with some movable load such as; HVAC, Water pumping, Cold stores, Aggregate processing or with onsite generation can really benefit and bring the average electricity cost down even further by reducing demand during short high price periods.