Prediction: Coal has fallen. Nuclear is next then Oil.

[mspohr]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

To the dismay of the nation’s powerful oil industry and its worker unions, the opposition Labor Party over the weekend decided to withdraw its support for oil exploration offshore the sensitive Lofoten islands in Norway’s Arctic, creating a solid majority in parliament to keep the area off limits for drilling.

The dramatic shift by Norway’s biggest party is a significant blow to the support the oil industry has enjoyed, and could signal that the Scandinavian nation is coming closer to the end of an era that made it one of the world’s most affluent.

 

[SageBrush]

I think demand based metering is probably more equitable than service size based monthly service charges.

For example, I have a 1" water meter. This costs more than $46/mo before any usage charges. This size of meter is only necessary for a house with fire sprinklers. My house does not have fire sprinklers, but I have to pay the higher service fee anyway. By the same token, I have 400A electrical service to my house. I only draw more than 2.4kW (10A) during Off-Peak hours. Should I pay the same monthly service fee for my connection as someone who regularly uses 40A during peak hours for their air conditioners?

Fixed charges are meant to pay for infrastructure while demand charges are part of use. It is a fair guess that your larger pipe did not cost *that* much more, but that is a failure of infrastructure allotment pricing.

 

[miimura]

Looks like you have oversized water and electricity service. Was this to meet future demand? (My fire sprinkler systems have separate water connections which do not have meters but I am charged a monthly fee. They have never, fortunately, drawn any water but there is a cost to the water company for maintaining the ability to service the demand if required.)
The problem is that people with solar might have zero net demand even though they are pumping lots of electricity into and out of the grid and the grid needs to be sized and managed to handle those loads.

Yes, I have larger service than I technically need. I don't know how I ended up with the larger water service. Probably the water company thought I would have fire sprinklers, but I was exempted from the requirement due to close proximity to a fire hydrant.
I also intentionally requested a larger electrical service because I knew I would be getting solar and electric vehicles at some point during the life of the home. In 6.5 years since completion, I still haven't installed the two air conditioning compressor units even though it was all pre-plumbed and wired for them. I also installed Powerwalls to reduce my consumption during the peak period.
Clearly some combination of monthly fee based on service size and demand charge for peak draw or feed in during various TOU periods would be appropriate. I would imagine that many people with solar would have greater feed-in power than consumption power during the daytime. While it may seem counter-intuitive, I think the demand charge should use the value with the greater absolute value.

Fixed charges are meant to pay for infrastructure while demand charges are part of use. It is a fair guess that your larger pipe did not cost *that* much more, but that is a failure of infrastructure allotment pricing.

Demand also affects infrastructure requirements and therefore costs. This is the crux of the discussion. It is not obvious what the "correct" way to assign grid costs is going forward.

 

[mspohr]

Here's some more on Ohio's "clean energy" bill... read it and weep.

Ohio’s FirstEnergy Nuclear Bailout Bill Could Undermine Funding for Renewables and Efficiency

Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature has drafted "clean air fund" legislation that would slash renewable energy and efficiency subsidies while adding about $300 million a year to electricity bills in the state, in the name of keeping its nuclear fleet from closing. The move diverges sharply from other state-level policies in the U.S. to prop up financially struggling nuclear power plants for their carbon-free electricity.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Here's some more on Ohio's "clean energy" bill... read it and weep.

Ohio’s FirstEnergy Nuclear Bailout Bill Could Undermine Funding for Renewables and Efficiency

Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature has drafted "clean air fund" legislation that would slash renewable energy and efficiency subsidies while adding about $300 million a year to electricity bills in the state, in the name of keeping its nuclear fleet from closing. The move diverges sharply from other state-level policies in the U.S. to prop up financially struggling nuclear power plants for their carbon-free electricity.

Probably just what we’ve all come to expect from the grand oil party.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Here's some more on Ohio's "clean energy" bill... read it and weep.

Just what happened in Nevada a few years back. Voters flipped out immediately and I'm sure the same will happen here.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Here's some more on Ohio's "clean energy" bill... read it and weep.

Ohio’s FirstEnergy Nuclear Bailout Bill Could Undermine Funding for Renewables and Efficiency

Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature has drafted "clean air fund" legislation that would slash renewable energy and efficiency subsidies while adding about $300 million a year to electricity bills in the state, in the name of keeping its nuclear fleet from closing. The move diverges sharply from other state-level policies in the U.S. to prop up financially struggling nuclear power plants for their carbon-free electricity.

Here’s a comment on that website:

Leave it to Ohio Republicans to come up with the worst bill possible. After years of whining about how wind and solar power will increase electricity rates, they explicitly increase rates for the technology we were told over half a century ago would be "too cheap to meter". The Party that claims it's "wrong for government to pick winners and losers" does exactly that, and as expected, picks exactly the wrong ones, trying to kill new industries with vast growth potential to subsidize dying dinosaurs.

 

[Dave EV]

I think grid services should be unbundled from electricity price. You would have a separate grid connection charge (based on your service connection... 100 amp, 200 amp, etc.) then they pay for electricity metered separately. The utilities should be able to calculate the grid cost and bill for this separately.

At least here in San Diego w/SDG&E, this is how you are billed now. Distribution (maintenance of power lines, transformers, etc) and energy charges (power generation) are split up.

Businesses must use a rate that includes demand charges if they have peak usage over 20 kW. And rumor has it that demand charges will eventually come to residential customers, too. They are just now starting to phase in TOU rates (peak hours are 4-9 PM) for all residential customers, though winter rates are basically flat.

Whoa - I didn't realize just how high the new TOU residential rates are - ~40c/kWh in the winter, and 40-50c/kWh in the summer depending on time of day. That is nuts - getting on a Solar or EV plan gets you on a TOU plan with rates of ~24-25c/kWh in the winter and 23-52c/kWh in the summer. If you use more than 160 kWh during super-off-peak periods, there's an even better EV-TOU5 plan that drops super-off-peak to 9c/kWh.

 

[SageBrush]

Whoa - I didn't realize just how high the new TOU residential rates are - ~40c/kWh in the winter, and 40-50c/kWh in the summer depending on time of day.

Painful without PV

 

[RubberToe]

Coal is dying...

“We are declining faster,” he said. “We don’t know what the new normal is anymore. We thought we knew it. Now we’re not sure.”

Wyoming coal is likely declining faster than expected

A bit off topic but when I link to a posted article and LOL, I have to report what I saw, right?

So when I linked to the above Wyoming story in what is apparently the local (Casper) newspaper site, I was hit with a ginormous top of page ad, the right portion shown below.

I have to give a big shout out marketing genius who put "diesel" in the corner of the picture in the cute explosion bubble. You don't run across a special thing like that here in SoCal very often. Of course, I'm not driving 60 miles to work at the coal mine either so you have to factor that in too.

BTW, this special used "diesel" Dodge cost more than my Model 3, my "fully loaded", check all the boxes Model 3. Though I did not opt for the diesel version...

Seeing things like this are why I don't often leave the state. Its a different world out there.

P.S. Diesel ! ! !

P.P.S. This guy gets 15MPG versus my Model 3 getting 126MPGe. So it is 8x less efficient. If you drive it 100,000 miles and gas is $3.00 per gallon the gas will run you $20,000 versus $2,500 for electricity. Maybe whomever unloaded it after 1k miles traded "down" to a Model 3?

 

[mspohr]

A bit off topic but when I link to a posted article and LOL, I have to report what I saw, right?

So when I linked to the above Wyoming story in what is apparently the local (Casper) newspaper site, I was hit with a ginormous top of page ad, the right portion shown below.

I have to give a big shout out marketing genius who put "diesel" in the corner of the picture in the cute explosion bubble. You don't run across a special thing like that here in SoCal very often. Of course, I'm not driving 60 miles to work at the coal mine either so you have to factor that in too.

BTW, this special used "diesel" Dodge cost more than my Model 3, my "fully loaded", check all the boxes Model 3. Though I did not opt for the diesel version...

Seeing things like this are why I don't often leave the state. Its a different world out there.

P.S. Diesel ! ! !

P.P.S. This guy gets 15MPG versus my Model 3 getting 126MPGe. So it is 8x less efficient. If you drive it 100,000 miles and gas is $3.00 per gallon the gas will run you $20,000 versus $2,500 for electricity. Maybe whomever unloaded it after 1k miles traded "down" to a Model 3?

And people complain that Model 3 is too expensive.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Coal is dying...

“We are declining faster,” he said. “We don’t know what the new normal is anymore. We thought we knew it. Now we’re not sure.”

Wyoming coal is likely declining faster than expected

I love this quote from the article:

Being a Republican, you are not supposed to interfere with private industry. But we are definitely trying to interfer

 

[SageBrush]

could signal that the Scandinavian nation is coming closer to the end of an era that made it one of the world’s most affluent.

Norway has been staring at peak oil for years now, but they are also well aware of their mind-boggling natural hydro reserves. Unlike the UK which is burdened with Trumpism, I think Norway will become the battery of Northern Europe.

Big money

 

[mspohr]

Brown coal generators failed the grid in Victoria heat-wave, blackouts

As AEMO notes, brown coal performed substantially worse than expected when it was putting its plans together a few months ahead of time, gas and hydro performed as expected, but both wind and solar did a lot better than expected.

This is important. Wind and solar are often criticised because they are variable, or intermittent. They don’t claim to be dispatchable – unless they are paired with storage of some sort – but they can claim to be predictable

 

[SageBrush]

They don’t claim to be dispatchable – unless they are paired with storage of some sort – but they can claim to be predictable

Somewhat, and improving -- about as predictable as the weather.

More to the point though, the unpredictability of wind+solar is manageable.

 

[mspohr]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

New Coal Plants Are Just Too Expensive in China, Analysis Says
New investments will be in renewable energy, analysts say

 

[mspohr]

2019-04-24

Sales of motor gasoline down 12.5% YOY in Norway.

 

[mspohr]

Denied: Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission rejects Vectren's power plant proposal

Indiana rejects power company proposal to build new NG plant. Says renewables are cheaper.

 

[Dave EV]

Southern California Edison Picks 195MW Battery Portfolio in Place of Puente Gas Plant

This week, utility Southern California Edison selected a roster of energy storage projects to supply local capacity needs around the coastal city of Oxnard, instead of the 262-megawatt natural-gas peaker plant it had chosen previously.

If regulators give their approval, Strata Solar will build and own a 100-megawatt/400-megawatt-hour system in Oxnard, and dispatch it on behalf of SCE.

 

[SageBrush]

Denied: Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission rejects Vectren's power plant proposal
Indiana rejects power company proposal to build new NG plant. Says renewables are cheaper.

And in other news:
Court: Vectren can bill customers for $55 million lost revenue from energy efficiency plan

How brain-dead is that ?