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Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

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Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#161
post #8
post #2

I need more context. Is that a lot? Is that low? Is it a big change from before? In what direction?

This is a lot. $1000/MWh is $1/kWh. A kWh is leaving 10 old school incandescent lightbulbs on for an hour. Usually this costs a few cents.

A single 60W bulb draws 0.06 kWh. So not 10 bulbs, but 17 bulbs.

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#163
post #54
post #9

Do wholesale prices directly translate to consumer prices?

Not directly. In Texas and other deregulated markets, you can be on either a fixed rate for n months or on a variable rate. If you're on a variable rate, the rate will be much higher than normal for the next few months. If you're on a fixed rate you're fine for now, but keep an eye on when your fixed rate expires. This assumes that your supplier is still in business after the next few months (many suppliers will go b…

> If you're on a variable rate, the rate will be much higher than normal for the next few months

Wont it be normal in a few days when temperatures get back to warm?

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#164
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why we need this so called baseline. It is an outdated concept pushed by the nuclear industry. We need (i) to harness the cheap energy coming from the sun and the wind and (ii) another source of energy to make up shortages when solar and wind are unavailable. The source (ii) should be able to be ramped up and shut down quickly, which is a requirement where nuclear flat out fails. The baseline concept of a…

The UK has Dinorwig Power Station which is a pumped storage hydro station to supply spot demand when it's time for tea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station But at the end of the day, it uses more energy than it generates due to the inefficiencies of pumping water up to the top of the mountain (basically, it's playing arbitrage with spot electricity pricing & demand).

By hydro i did not mean pumped storage hydro but ordinary dam hydro. It does not technically store energy but it is a very effective on demand power producer because you can turn it on or off at will (provided there is enough water in the reservoir).

Also, it is very good for intermittent generation, because when you stop it, you can fill up the water in the reservoir and give yourself potential energy for the next time you start it up. It does in a way store energy, it stores the energy of rivers, not of electricity.

Of course whether you can access it depends on your environment. You have to have convenient rivers to dam up, and you have to have no water shortages. In a case of water shortage the decision to let water out or not is usually made based on water needs, not electricity needs.

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least gas is pretty cheap. I hope your fish make it. And now you know the value of camping gear :)

My expensive 12v camping fridge and lithium battery just saved the contents of my fridge so there's that at least.

The fridge should be a very efficient heat pump, moreso than an resistive electric heater. Can you get its waste heat to the fish tank?

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised by this. I would have guessed lots of solar there and potentially wind.

Lots of answers about various renewables, no one addressing why diesel, so let me throw that in: Everything comes to Hawaii by boat or plane, and boats run on diesel. So our power plants burn diesel, instead of coal, because coal, while cheaper per unit energy, would be a whole additional supply chain just for power plants. And yeah, there's more solar and wind every year, but not nearly enough to provide the overpro…

> would be a whole additional supply chain just for power plants.

This isn't an issue. There are coal ships, coal trains, coal trucks, you name it. Storage is easier too, you just dump it.

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#168

Texas electric prices have been capped at $9000/MWHr for the last few days. Average is about $35/MWhr. The Texas electric bill is about $10 billion per day right now.

Wow, is there a source for that? That would be $1000 per person every three days, right?

(edit: found a Bloomberg article confirming it for Monday)

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#169
post #144
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average price paid for residential^W power in California last year was 16 cents, not 30, not 40.

Not sure where you’re getting 16 cents, the lowest PG&E tier is 24 cents [0] [0] https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-ra... To add, Santa Clara city is served by Silicon Valley Power which I believe has substantially lower rates than PG&E.. there may be other such local providers..

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/ According to their data the average includes all customers. For residential alone (their table 8) the average was 19.15 cents.

Re: Electricity over $900/MWh in most of Western US now

#170
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$900 to charge a Tesla in Texas right now

The biggest battery tesla sells will will hold 100kwh, not 1000kwh.

I said Texas

>Spot electricity prices at the West [Texas] hub have soared above the grid’s $9,000 per megawatt-hour cap

That's 10X more than even OP headline price.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Texas-Freeze-Rais...

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