Can Utility Companies Accommodate the Increased Demand for a Switch to EVs? (2010, German)
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Thats' assuming people only charge their cars overnight. Millions of people don't work 9-5. Ever have a meter that charges based on peak usage? It SUCKS! It's ridiculously expensive.
Tesla's own Supercharger network is responsible for "demand creep" in its rates. While new Model S owners used to be lured into purchases with free supercharging, those incentives have now expired. It now costs $20+ for a full "tank" to charge at one of these 30-min fast stops. That's equivalent of only 50 MPG if we're comparing to $3.00/gal gas.
Fortunately, I live in an area with a pretty much flat $0.10/kWh residential rate.
Unfortunately, this does absolutely nothing to lower the price of commercial charging stations when out and about
Good insight, in fact I would expect them to take advantage of the opportunity to make more money by raising rates during that time when a significant increase in EV charging happens in 10-15 years.
You can bet they will. We always hear about how evil the oil companies are, well I have some news for those people, the electric companies are no better.
You can bet they will. We always hear about how evil the oil companies are, well I have some news for those people, the electric companies are no better.
Much trickier than that. They much deal with roof top solar. And it is likely full contained solar will become availabe over the next few years. In fact the utilities can likely offer integrated roof top solar well cheaper than the independent dealers. But if the utilities attempt to harvest big profits from solar the independent dealers with have a great time and make a lot of money.
So my projection is the utilities will attempt to hold electric costs low enough that the independents are not competitive. Should be fun and I expect most of us will save some money...
The one thing to be careful of the utilities will try to establish government rules that make the independents none competitive. So we need to be careful not to let that happen.
And note the conditions of that arrangement will be tricky. At the moment self contained solar is not economically practical...but that is going to change radically over the next few years. And the utilities are smart enough to know that. So they have to try and keep the independents non competitive...and that battle should be good for the rest of us.
Much trickier than that. They much deal with roof top solar. And it is likely full contained solar will become availabe over the next few years. In fact the utilities can likely offer integrated roof top solar well cheaper than the independent dealers. But if the utilities attempt to harvest big profits from solar the independent dealers with have a great time and make a lot of money.
So my projection is the utilities will attempt to hold electric costs low enough that the independents are not competitive. Should be fun and I expect most of us will save some money...
The one thing to be careful of the utilities will try to establish government rules that make the independents none competitive. So we need to be careful not to let that happen.
And note the conditions of that arrangement will be tricky. At the moment self contained solar is not economically practical...but that is going to change radically over the next few years. And the utilities are smart enough to know that. So they have to try and keep the independents non competitive...and that battle should be good for the rest of us.
"Government rules" such as what?
Utilities are fighting regulators for rate INCREASES, which would HELP make alt-energy more attractive. That is, unless solar company owners get greedy and think they can raise their prices even more. At $0.10/kWh flat rate, neither solar nor LED bulbs make any kind of economic sense or have any ROI on the visible horizon.
Yes, having a cash cow (geographic monopoly such as utilities, or even just having your main revenue stream fund smaller pet projects that don't necessarily need to turn a profit... ever) sure helps utilities have an advantage. It may even help strike down any claims that they are monopolizing the solar industry because:
1.) utilities are typically regional, not nationwide
2.) solar packages are not being sold as a profitable product, can be subsidized by PoCo
3.) it may even count as a capital investment (read: write-off) to the power company if they advertise it as a "no-cost" solution to their customers, as they actually have a self-interest in configuring net metering. Solar installation companies have a self-interest in directing excess production to their complementary products, such as battery arrays.
Solar companies need to get smart and figure out how to keep their own prices low. Maybe manufacture their own panels, ATS, proprietary products, etc. instead of worrying about maintaining margins on the losing end of a reseller relationship with their suppliers.
One thing that's difficult for solar companies is the business model typically results in lump sum jobs with no residuals. They have no vested interest in where the energy goes, except when the customer agrees to divert it to another one of their products - also a lump sum purchase. PoCo's won't share net metering payments (they barely pay the homeowner!) so the best thing they can do is offer service plans, warranties, financing, etc. but that gets old after awhile. Turns them into a car dealership type business.
Utilities are fighting regulators for rate INCREASES, which would HELP make alt-energy more attractive. That is, unless solar company owners get greedy and think they can raise their prices even more. At $0.10/kWh flat rate, neither solar nor LED bulbs make any kind of economic sense or have any ROI on the visible horizon.
Yes, having a cash cow (geographic monopoly such as utilities, or even just having your main revenue stream fund smaller pet projects that don't necessarily need to turn a profit... ever) sure helps utilities have an advantage. It may even help strike down any claims that they are monopolizing the solar industry because:
1.) utilities are typically regional, not nationwide
2.) solar packages are not being sold as a profitable product, can be subsidized by PoCo
3.) it may even count as a capital investment (read: write-off) to the power company if they advertise it as a "no-cost" solution to their customers, as they actually have a self-interest in configuring net metering. Solar installation companies have a self-interest in directing excess production to their complementary products, such as battery arrays.
Solar companies need to get smart and figure out how to keep their own prices low. Maybe manufacture their own panels, ATS, proprietary products, etc. instead of worrying about maintaining margins on the losing end of a reseller relationship with their suppliers.
One thing that's difficult for solar companies is the business model typically results in lump sum jobs with no residuals. They have no vested interest in where the energy goes, except when the customer agrees to divert it to another one of their products - also a lump sum purchase. PoCo's won't share net metering payments (they barely pay the homeowner!) so the best thing they can do is offer service plans, warranties, financing, etc. but that gets old after awhile. Turns them into a car dealership type business.
There has been great progress in the cost of silicon solar panels over the past 40 years. That said, things are leveling off and it's still a pretty expensive system. Tandem solar panels using a perovskite layer over silicon are said to be a disruptive technology that will begin to reach consumers in the next couple of years. If the promise is fulfilled, solar will begin to make sense from a financial perspective, especially for people that use e.g. an electric heat pump for both heating and cooling.
US power grid has not been upgraded for decades. The failures are just proof that power is not being distributed properly. Our Federal government have not spent any money upgrading the infrastructure while allowing utility companies to reap the benefits of solar. Utility companies now make money on services rather than on consumption. Because laws passed forbid them from jacking up prices but they slap on all sorts of service fees.
My mistake bunker #6 is out of the loop by today's standards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WRM20
There will be a bunch of inquisitions, with the executives of the power companies and ERCOT, the grid operator, in front of legislators and others, explaining what happened. The unregulated power generators have no incentive to winterize their plants, since it cuts into profits. Regulated generators can make their case to the Public Utilities Commission to get the costs put in the rate base. However, that does nothing to resolve the issues where natural gas is unavailable due to gas plants shutting down or wells getting shut in due to freezing of lines and other issues.
As far as I know, none of the NG plants can use bunker crude. Their emissions permits won't allow it, and they don't have storage for the oil.
The issues can be avoided, but the Legislature or the PUC will have to start using their big sticks to get hte generators in line.
Texas is 3.8 times bigger than Oklahoma in size, and over 7 times larger in population. That all makes the issues harder to deal with, but there's no good reason for the power to be out to 4 million people.
My mistake bunker #6 is out of the loop by today's standards.
But Duel fuel burners on boilers are still using both N.G. and whatever oil currently meets standards with scrubbers.
Close inspection of failed plant operations would see rose-bub tips on oxygen- acetylene outfits heating frozen pipe and steam tracers and busted pipe replacement by the thousands of feet. That's if the water feed supply pipe is iron and god help them if the supply water pipes are plastic.
Most of it being done on ladders in the freezing cold. The men trying to bring electric back to Texas have one of the hardest jobs in the world right now.
I think the national grid held up pretty good in this cold spell.
It appears we have 3 grids: The West, The East, and Texas (someone correct me if I'm wrong). It is the Texas grid that has suffered a disastrous failure.
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My mistake bunker #6 is out of the loop by today's standards.
