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Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

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Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/carbon-intensity-electric... They mean the rate of reduction in the metric graphed above.

Why was Poland so high?

From that data, for the same reason as China: overdependence on coal.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) China is third to US and EU in terms of GDP. And their economy is on a downwards trajectory. b) Majority of the early R&D in solar, EVs etc came from the US. China has been vital in driving unit economics.

a) China is third to US and EU in terms of GDP. And their economy is on a downwards trajectory. what about population? as that's the main driving factor for pollution - especially if you couple that with energy needs.

Their population is stagnating and there's some good signs that the numbers they gave were not accurate in the first place, China's real population is likely lower than India.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#263
post #184

The rate shown is 29p which comes to 36 cents. It is substantially less than PG&E California prices, which average around 50-55 cents.

According to the EIA Monthly, average California residential prices were 30¢ in October. Your statement is closer to being correct if you say "PG&E prices" instead of "California prices". PG&E has ~6 million accounts in a state of 40 million people.

  PG&E has ~6 million accounts in a state of 40 million people.
Apples to oranges. 6 million accounts works out to roughly 16 million people according to their site. That works out to a bit over 40% of the 39 million (38,965,193 says Wiki) people out here.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#264
post #257
post #184

The rate shown is 29p which comes to 36 cents. It is substantially less than PG&E California prices, which average around 50-55 cents.

I've had cheaper, more reliable, higher quality power every place I've lived with a population over a few dozen people. Why is PG&E like this?

Regulatory capture.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#265
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heat pumps are something like 5-6x as efficient as resistive electric heaters. So no surprise that your bill would be lower. Of course, heating an entire house with (non-heat-pump) electric heat in a cold climate is kind of crazy. Natural gas is way way cheaper. But I've seen it in old houses here in the Upper Midwest, so it's not _too_ out of the ordinary.

Heat pumps are so affordable now, that just feels like a poor decision-making rather than an economic hardship. You could finance a heat pump and the savings would pay itself off in a year.

Yeah it's called apartment living. I hit nearly $350 in Oakland a couple years (and many PG&E rate hikes) ago in a 600 sq ft apartment. Even if I wanted to pay for a heat pump installation it's doubtful the landlord would've been on board.

Last time I did the math, even with a 60% efficient furnace natural gas was cheaper than an electric heat pump. PG&E's electric rates are simply that much more expensive than their natural gas rates. Currently that's up to $0.49/kWh on the most popular rate plan vs $2.49/therm. Keep in mind that the fifth and sixth electric rate hikes of 2024 were just approved today by Newsom's regulatory body and don't factor into the price I quoted.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#266

29p / kWh doesn't hold a candle to PG&E costs in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's ironic that it's quite a bit cheaper to use natural gas here, since we're supposed to convert to electricity to save the planet.

The cost of bailing out owners of burnt down homes in Paradise, CA worth $0 for $700k is rolled into every San Francisco PG&E bill.

And Hinkley, and San Bruno, and Santa Rosa, and elsewhere in Sonoma County, and a few billion in stock buybacks, another few billion in dividends, another few hundred million in executive bonuses, etc., etc., etc.

Buying off the guy doing research into hexavalent chromium wasn't cheap either. Nor was keeping Willie Brown on their payroll.

Re: Why are UK electricity bills so expensive?

#267
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree PGE was negligent, but it also doesn't make sense to assign the entire cost of the resulting fire to PGE. The scale of the fire damage was a result of many factors, only some of which are due to PGE. A huge destructive fire was a matter of time. Whether it was caused by PGE, lightning, or an RV tire blowout was a matter of chance. Or another way to put it, how much liability would you give the RV drivers in t…

> . A huge destructive fire was a matter of time. You can't avoid legal ramifications by saying _something_ was bound to happen

So then, $1.6B of liability to the driver of the RV at the Carr fire, and a few thousand to the Colorado RV driver? For the exact same error in both cases?

Legally, maybe you are right. I honestly don't know. It doesn't seem right to me though.

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