Skyrocketing electricity costs?

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

You refuse and do what, instead?

Go solar with battery backups like I did

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Go solar with battery backups like I did

Do you find that cost effective? I was talking with a friend tonight who is in the energy business as a supply forecaster and his views are mixed. On one hand, there are good tax breaks right now that will not be there in a few years so the time is now if that's your plan. On the other hand, there can be delays in getting permits and the grid is not buying back at a decent rate, and storage is still pretty limited. Can your battery backups power you for 24 hours?

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

Do you find that cost effective? I was talking with a friend tonight who is in the energy business as a supply forecaster and his views are mixed. On one hand, there are good tax breaks right now that will not be there in a few years so the time is now if that's your plan. On the other hand, there can be delays in getting permits and the grid is not buying back at a decent rate, and storage is still pretty limited. Can your battery backups power you for 24 hours?

Cost effective? No. I have other reasons for doing it though.

Backup power for 24 hours? I have 3 batteries so yes.. and longer.. especially if I'm still receiving sunlight because my system is designed to produce more than I consume, which isn't the typical solar system.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Cost effective? No. I have other reasons for doing it though.

Backup power for 24 hours? I have 3 batteries so yes.. and longer.. especially if I'm still receiving sunlight because my system is designed to produce more than I consume, which isn't the typical solar system.

Ok so you're going for the island strategy. It *can* work but it comes at a price. Not sure where you are at but my friend is sure the supply constraint in TX is slowly easing and about additional 800kw is scheduled to come online every month through the end of 2023. By 2024 they will be have to artificially keep capacity offline. Prices will be lower in 12-24 months than they are today.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

You refuse and do what, instead?

I refuse and keep digging, as I intend to enter not more than a 12 month contract.

ETA - found a plan that is 14 per kWh for 12 months or 13 per kWh for 24 months with a 125 cancellation fee. I may just do the 24 to save a few dollars.

Sheesh...still more than the 8.6 per kWh hour I was paying, but it'll do.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Hashtag

Deregulation isn't the culprit for unreliability, it's the fact that Texas recently have shutdown numerous coal powered plants in favor of windmills.

To shut down those power plants, was a huge mistake.

Deregulation is directly responsible for unreliability. When electric utilities were regulated, the PUC could mandate extra capacity and other reliability items, and the cost went into the rate base to be recovered from customers.

The State and ERCOT had nothing to do with the coal fired plants closing. Those plants closed because utilities, especially Luminant, made bad choices. Electricity prices were based on natural gas costs, which were higher than coal costs, so the coal plants would be extremely profitable. Unfortunately for Luminant, the fracking boom made gas prices drop, and the coal fired plants became extremely unprofitable. Portions of Luminant went bankrupt because of that, and the plants were closed. No big loss, those plants burned lignite, a really nasty type of coal that created a lot of pollution.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Would be nice if in some way they could still utilize those plants in peak usage scenarios to bring extra capacity where rolling blackouts may occur otherwise. Then shut them back down when we are within reasonable margin of supply vs demand. I’m sure it’s not that easy but it would at least allow us to retain reliability if it could be done.

The coal plants that closed cannot be reopened. The mines were also closed.

Coal plants cannot be used as peaking plants, as they take 24 hours or more to come online. Coal plants are useful only for baseload

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by LF2Better

I’m not saying this to be critical of your investment, but I know from doing my own pricing of battery back up solar systems that if you have 3 batteries, it is absolutely not cost effective. It sounds like you have other priorities than cost which obviously make sense for you.

I already stated it wasn’t cost effective.

Cost effective is throwing up a $5k Generac Whole House Backup Generator.

[Need4Camaro]

I have to admit, this is pretty dumb.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08...s-wind-energy/

Why are we throwing up wind turbines and not upgrading transmission infrastructure to get the additional power where’s it’s needed? What good are all those turbines if much of the energy is isolated to the High Plains?