Is it possible electric rates can go down with oil crash?

[garth_angst]

For most of you (who make me sick with your low electric rates) it probably doesn't make any difference, and I'm really tired of people assuming electric rates are low (not where I am), but could the crash in oil prices possibly lower electric rates?
Forgive my ignorance of how electric companies generate their power to supply to us, but here on Long Island, where I am paying over 19.5 cents per kWh, which is almost double and in some case tenfold times what others are paying and for some reason assume everyone else is paying too, I don't know if oil is a factor at all. I "think" when oil skyrocketed years ago, our electric rates went considerably higher. Any chance low oil prices trickle down to lower electric rates, either for the rate or delivery charge or whatever voodoo math they use to set price per kWh?

 

[RayK]

I doubt that your electricity generation is wholly tied to oil prices. My guess would be that your region is powered by a combination of natural gas, nuclear and hydro.

edit: Just checked my utility bill. I'm paying 21.1 cents/kWh for off-peak usage. It goes up to 40.5 cents for peak. However I'm not charging my car at home. I've been using a local Supercharger (@ $0.28/kWh) as I've yet to install my HPWC. Oh, and I've got solar on my roof which might explain my electricity rate.

edit2: Corrected prices.

 

[shan2shan]

Depends where you are. Your question is probably better asked locally? On Oahu, electricity is highly tied to oil prices because oil is used for generators. (2019 averaged 31¢ residential.) But right now there are far fewer businesses using electricity right now as well as very few tourists generating trash (which is burned for electricity). So even if oil price is going down, the electric utility company has a huge amount of revenue and resource loss, and therefore its highly unlikely they can afford to reduce rates.

 

[MXLRplus]

In certain states, the government indirectly controls electric tariffs. Do you think your state government cares more for you, or their utility company campaign donors?

 

[MXLRplus]

PS - I can tell we took some generation off-line. Our voltage dropped about 2%.

 

[Mirlen]

Make sure you're comparing apples to apples. Some people say they're paying x for electricity and they are only saying x as generation when there may also be a delivery charge which is the other half.

Under PECO in Philly PA area I'm paying $0.0575/kWh for generation, $0.06505 for distribution, $9.98 customer charge $0.05 "charge" charge (?!). Comes out to about $0.12825/kWh, no tiers, no off peaks no monthly fees.

 

[Stars_Fan]

I hope these rates stick with us through summer. Our 3 a/c units run non stop all summer.

We’re down a hair from last months .1005

 

[MXLRplus]

Deregulation is a wonderful thing. They even tax us here for our solar production.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Natural gas prices are in the toilet too. You're in the part of the country that gets shafted from every different direction, so you are better off to just grin an bear it.

 

[Sandiegodoug]

Never seen our rates go down. I did see that this summer, due to virus, no high usage fee, but no decrease in lower tiers.

 

[P3dStealth]

I doubt that your electricity generation is wholly tied to oil prices. My guess would be that your region is powered by a combination of natural gas, nuclear and hydro.

edit: Just checked my utility bill. I'm paying 21.1 cents/kWh for off-peak usage. It goes up to 40.5 cents for peak. However I'm not charging my car at home. I've been using a local Supercharger (@ $0.28/kWh) as I've yet to install my HPWC. Oh, and I've got solar on my roof which might explain my electricity rate.

edit2: Corrected prices.

I am on long island also. We are mostly fuel oil gas turbine and fuel oil steam turbine. We literally have small power plants with jet engines scattered around that turn on and off with demand. We also have natural gas and internal combustion methane. We have no hydro. Very little nuclear we buy from a plant in Connecticut across the water.

Our bills include payments for a nuclear power plant that was built but not opened because of protesters. Now we have no nuclear plants on long island. They actually have a fuel oil turbine in shoreham now.

Decades later, Shoreham nuke plant sits empty

 

[P3dStealth]

It is cheaper to drive an ICE truck than a Tesla 3 here. I don't know how OP came up with 19.5 but its closer to 21.

Our electric will never go down. LIPA is over $3.5 Billion in debt.

 

[garth_angst]

It is cheaper to drive an ICE truck than a Tesla 3 here. I don't know how OP came up with 19.5 but its closer to 21.

Our electric will never go down. LIPA is over $3.5 Billion in debt.

Sorry, I was basing the 19.5 cents the last time I looked at my bill. I haven't looked at it in a long time. My mistake, because rates are always going up. I didn't expect them to stay static long, I just was too lazy to look at a current bill.

 

[dmurphy]

For most of you (who make me sick with your low electric rates) it probably doesn't make any difference, and I'm really tired of people assuming electric rates are low (not where I am), but could the crash in oil prices possibly lower electric rates?
Forgive my ignorance of how electric companies generate their power to supply to us, but here on Long Island, where I am paying over 19.5 cents per kWh, which is almost double and in some case tenfold times what others are paying and for some reason assume everyone else is paying too, I don't know if oil is a factor at all. I "think" when oil skyrocketed years ago, our electric rates went considerably higher. Any chance low oil prices trickle down to lower electric rates, either for the rate or delivery charge or whatever voodoo math they use to set price per kWh?

It all really depends on the fuel mix used for your electricity. Here in NJ, we’re about 45% natural gas, 50% nuclear, and approaching 5% renewable. Almost no fuel oil or coal, so the crashing oil prices won’t mean anything to us ... and I mention coal because I’ve had the “long tailpipe” argument thrown at me a few times and it’s complete bunk.

My electricity rate with JCP&L is about 12.7c/kWh.

 

[smartypnz]

No.

 

[Bluefin V]

I've had my M3 LR AWD for about 2 months, averaging 550 miles per month (normally 1,500 miles per month) My recent PSE&G Long Island bill was 20 cents per kwh and increased my electric bill approximately $60.00 per month. With current fuel prices on Long Island ($2.10 for premium), my 2018 BMW 330i is definitely more economical. I'm thinking about enrolling in their "Residential Time of Use" program, but not sure if it will be worth it.

 

[Merrill]

In California I have never seen electric rates go down, since Pacific Graft and Extortion is a monopoly and the California Public Utilities Commission is in bed with them they do what ever they want. We are also dealing with an extra charge for having solar and they want to move to a TOU peak rate that starts at 4pm in stead of 1pm which is not good for solar production. We have net metering which with time of use works well if you have solar, so why would they want to keep something that benefits their customers!

 

[Saghost]

Electric utilities are highly regulated and usually have fixed rates that take months to get approval to change. That makes them much more stable than oil or gas prices, which is usually a good thing.

There are some overlaps, and if the price of oil stays low enough for long enough you may see some decrease in electric rates, but electric generation based on oil only happens in remote areas.

The continuing decrease in the cost of installing renewable generation should lead to a downward trend in electric prices too, depending on what else is happening in the world.

 

[SSonnentag]

Power companies have to fight for months in order to raise rates. There is zero chance of them lowering rates voluntarily. Competition is the only thing that can lower rates, and most areas have only one power provider.

 

[Merrill]

I’m hoping that our Governor might try to split up PG&E into smaller micro grids and make them more accountable. Since they are in bankruptcy and have not maintained their infrastructure now not only do we pay more we get to have our power shut off in the summer. They call it a PSPS, or public safety power shutdown, wow they really care about us!