Electricity Price Increases

[Rockbadchild]

But but the government said electricity will become cheaper....

 

[rontaki]

I lived in LA in the late 80's and remember the smog, so thick it used to be part of the weather forecast.

But once they got it under control, they kept adding more and more layers of regulations to anything they could. Raising costs and driving business away.

However , I have never seen them do anything about planes and airports and anything the political elite want to use. Houses the size of a city block.

Government will always try to exchange at the expense of the governed.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Under normal conditions, NG power generation is Always cheaper than coal.
What’s happened in the last few years is political sanctions on Russian NG , plus the sabotage of the Russian pipeline. Western Europe was of course, talked into not using Russian NG.
The US, of course, said, no problem Europe, we’ll help you, so we massively ramped up compressing our NG, to ship to Europe, which drove up our domestic prices and electric prices. Propaganda blaming it on Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Got to luv it

Kanasta has one of the biggest NG reserve in the world but they want too keep it untap to ''save the world from CO2''

 

[rontaki]

Kanasta has one of the biggest NG reserve in the world but they want too keep it untap to ''save the world from CO2''

Probably saving it for later, when natgas is precious or just higher in price. Might come in handy during our next ice age.

 

[Eagle1]

Probably saving it for later, when natgas is precious or just higher in price. Might come in handy during our next ice age.

For when the greens want to warm the planet to manage climate change?

 

[ultrarunner]

The foundry was located in a part of California with major air quality issues, and yes, with decreasing local air quality, they were being asked to reduce their emissions. When the local geography doesn't trap air in a bowl, you get "the solution to pollution is dilution" and the emissions get blown away and diluted. So, yes, different air quality regulations in most of Texas.

The foundry made a lot of things for the local area, and won out lots of bids due to their low freight costs. I think that the fact that most locals didn't know they existed speaks for how great a job they were doing on their emissions. However, low emissions is not zero.

In California, we have lots of the population crammed into a couple of bowls, and the air quality goes down the tubes on a regular basis, and those low air quality days lead to Federal crackdowns on local air emissions boards (e.g. CARB) to further reduce emissions. Hence the drive for electric water heating, heat pumps, and EVs. Higher on the list of pollution sources are older vehicles (sorry, I know you are a fan and a collector), small engines, diesels, especially older diesels, and, wait for it, restaurants. Yes all that flame broiled, charcoal grilled food generates a significant amount of local pollution. Currently, the restaurants get an air quality pass, but that's not likely to last. They are just too big a source. In today's economy for food, especially fast food, there is very little margin left, so those regulations are going to be an issue for the restaurants staying in business, as they will either need more filters, or different grills, neither of which is free, and yet millions have their health affected by the lower air quality. Kids stay out of school, parents don't or can't work, and folks die sooner.

If we all get healthy and quit eating fast food, then yes, the air quality problem, and the restaurants would go away. I'm of the mind that Darwin was probably right and we were evolved to pack on the pounds in case of poor harvests and cold winters, so I don't see most folks easily giving up what their bodies are telling them they "ought" to do.

The number one heavy metal water pollutant in the South Bay Area isn't the locally occurring mercury, it is copper, and not from pipes, but the trace amount of copper in disk brake pads washing into the San Francisco Bay when it rains. Lots of commuters, lots of cars, lots of paved areas into a small drainage system.

All the best,

Peter

Restaurants are emission regulated… at least if they have a fixed location.

Flints BBQ that prepared food for the A’s VIP boxes closed because it could not meet increasing air requirements for the BBQ.

The irony is many street corners in sections of Oakland have pop up mom and pop BBQ that have zero over site.

The gypsy pop up’s get a pass and fixed locations get shut down.

The local wood fired pizza place also had to close and the address is no longer occupied.

Part of the issue is to follow the regs is costly, time consuming and constantly evolving… yet street vendors for food to curb stoning car sales go largely unchecked.

My antique cars have not been on the road since 2019 yet all remain fully insured and many currently registered… with the balance registered non-op with the state.

The foundry, paint manufactures, steel mill, fab shops shutter as doing business here is constantly challenged…

Mentioned before family auto business that was zoned out of business this year as my city continues to ban anything auto related from repair, parts and sales…

With all the commercial users closing and the public venues such as Coliseum closed electricity production should have excess capacity.

 

[ruffdog]

I mine Bitcoin in my spare time. /s

View attachment 3999224

There are many stories of electricity bills going up once data centers go in.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

It’s not clear that any state has a solution and the actual effect of data centers on electricity bills is difficult to pin down. Some critics question whether states have the spine to take a hard line against tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta.

As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act

"The explosive growth of data centers around the country — driven in large part by the burgeoning use of artificial intelligence — could come at a “staggering” cost for average residents with skyrocketing electricity bills."

Power for data centers could come at ‘staggering’ cost to consumers

 

[not2old]

My knowledge of California is limited but I have to wonder why bother to produce more clean power to supply more and more people if there is not going to be enough water????

 

[DarkBlack]

The local wood fired pizza place also had to close and the address is no longer occupied.

Sad

 

[riptides]

There are many stories of electricity bills going up once data centers go in.

Yep. 30 minutes up the road...another county.. tagged as "data center capital of the world".

Major battles going on in neighborhoods over build outs.

Our electric provider already approved for transmission.. sub station upgrades...and passing the cost to the entire state.

 

[ponytug]

My knowledge of California is limited but I have to wonder why bother to produce more clean power to supply more and more people if there is not going to be enough water????

Per capita, California has steadily used less and less water and energy per capita since the '70s, but yes, air and water are vital resources. LA recycles much of its water.

The more and more power comes from a couple of things; there are more people here, and there are more industrial use of water, e.g. there are more data centers (see above).
For perspective, here is the energy use per capita compared to the US as a whole, and a couple of other states. I would point out that heating and cooling for the SF Bay Area and coastal California is minimal while the Central Valley needs AC much of the year, so it is not exactly apples to apples.

From Figure 52. Statewide Electricity Consumption Per Capita - Next10

For a deep dive, have a look over at the data on eia.gov.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jstpssng]

Some wind farms have diesel generator installations to balance grid loads when the wind isn't blowing

This makes sense. The posts I questioned made it sound like they need a spark, the way that an auto alternator does.

What bugs me is that we are spending all of this effort and money to "modernize" our electrical infrastructure; yet I see no attempt to protect it. Look at what one idget did with a rifle a couple of years ago.

 

[sd455dan]

Swimming pool, air conditioning, UV light on a tortoise, cold beer... summer is a killer.

View attachment 3998986

Amateur.

check out January 2024 ~ 5600 KWH.

We are doing much better this year by cutting the grid use by about 75% but the panel array picture is helping now. Going to add another 17KW of panels to to the 14.4 KW of existing solar before winter hits.

We also have had an 8% rate increase last month.

Before adding solar -using the numbers at the bottom of the bill average KWH daily use we were @ ~ 36 MWH a year consumption.

 

[ultrarunner]

My knowledge of California is limited but I have to wonder why bother to produce more clean power to supply more and more people if there is not going to be enough water????

Water is another issue…

Some call it the fraud of the century and others call it environmentalism at its best.

The Delta Smelt advocates are cause for huge volumes of water flowing to the sea…

Dams with hundreds of millions spent around the state never materialized even after some have cleared/obtained land and built span bridges and then we have existing dams that produce power and AG water being removed…

It all comes down to
Philosophy of those in charge…

 

[California]

My knowledge of California is limited but I have to wonder why bother to produce more clean power to supply more and more people if there is not going to be enough water????

It's simply a case of people migrating here because its notably better than wherever they are leaving. And so far, it works. As for the future, we can expect that ag, the largest user of water, will have to give way to urban water use and everyone will pay a lot more.

There are huge investor groups buying land that has grandfathered unlimited water rights (pre 1910), notably almond orchards. This is becoming more evident as it progresses.

And one example of how things are changing, is that UC-Davis, the ag campus of the state university system, was offered a nearby huge ranch including its water rights but declined to pay the asking price out of taxpayer funds. Now they are paying a lot more for their water from the new investor-owned water rights owner.

 

[Tomtint]

The whole woke "green" energy scam is playing out right before your eyes.. They want to do away with all other energy sources and push everyone to electric.. On an infrastructure that isn't robust enough to handle it and is double the cost to run... Stupid is as stupid does.

 

[Jstpssng]

The whole woke "green" energy scam is playing out right before your eyes.. They want to do away with all other energy sources and push everyone to electric.. On an infrastructure that isn't robust enough to handle it and is double the cost to run... Stupid is as stupid does.

It's just a redistribution of wealth.
Don't get me wrong, I believe we need to keep our air clean. Prevailing winds mean that we get all of the crap which the rest of you spew into the air. Yet I also believe that 30 years from now they will be complaining about the detriments of electric the way that they do ice engines now.

 

[rontaki]

It’s a cost of doing business…

What might be low cost in one area isn’t in another…

The 100 year old union foundry which had many well paying jobs left the Bay Area for Texas…

California officials celebrated its leaving and Texas officials celebrated its arrival…

According to the foundry it could not continue to operate given the ever increasing California compliance costs.

Texas, apparently does not have the same regs?

Is this the foundry that was in Berzerkeley near the frontage road? Sometimes I could smell it, it was not that bad. Ah, for when that was a nice city to visit! Berzerkely is too crowded and decrepit these days, for me. It's turning into Manhattan, or seems like its trying to.

 

[ponytug]

Is this the foundry that was in Berzerkeley near the frontage road? Sometimes I could smell it, it was not that bad. Ah, for when that was a nice city to visit! Berzerkely is too crowded and decrepit these days, for me. It's turning into Manhattan, or seems like its trying to.

Yes, it was that foundry. I always enjoyed seeing their products around the area, rather like seeing the Neenah foundry products.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

Is this the foundry that was in Berzerkeley near the frontage road? Sometimes I could smell it, it was not that bad. Ah, for when that was a nice city to visit! Berzerkely is too crowded and decrepit these days, for me. It's turning into Manhattan, or seems like its trying to.

AB&I Foundry had its beginning in the months following the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. At that time, the foundry's primary products were decorative light poles and iron and brass statuary.

When World War II started, AB&I changed its focus and began making submarine net weights and other iron products to assist the war effort.

After WWII, AB&I began making cast iron soil pipe to meet the demands of the housing boom of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Cast iron pipe and fittings remain the foundry's main product line, and AB&I has grown into a major nationwide manufacturer.

AB&I Foundry in East Oakland announces permanent closure

The century-old company, which employs 200 workers, many who live in East Oakland, is moving to Texas.

oaklandside.org