The impossible just happened in Texas

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[ProtectOurFreedom]

The Impossible Just Happened on Free Republic

This article was posted for the twenty-fourth time, breaking all previous records. The strange thing is you are going to have to pay me to read it.

[FreedomNotSafety]

It happens. When you add up the costs of disposal or even destruction of excess goods, along with carrying costs, and warehousing costs, and taxes it can make sense to pay someone to take it. The economic principle is “sunk costs are irrelevant for decision making”.

[VTenigma]

So let’ see if I have this right. At the point of negligible demand, in the middle of the night, when few need it, and wind turbines are spinning like dervishes, they are paying to offload excess production. Is that about it? What a crazy world we live in. Call me when they start paying people to use power on a Wednesday in July on a 100 degree day at 2:00PM.

[meyer]

This is not necessarily a phenomenon related only to wind power. Electric demand at night is, in general, 40-60% of what it is in the daytime, at least in the summer. Winter load curves are different but there are peaks and valleys. If the generation source cannot be regulated to match the customer demand, then “free” power will occur as it is often less costly to give the stuff away than to take a unit off line and restart it when the load picks up the next morning.

This has not been a major issue most of the time as long as the source can be regulated to follow load. Coal generation, hydro generation, natural gas generation - most sources can be regulated. In addition, energy storage systems like pumped hydro storage can serve to “level out” the load curve.

But, when a non-regulatable source like wind or solar enters the market, we see an increased need to regulate other resources to maintain the generation-load match. And if those sources reach their limit of regulating capability, we see the market price reflecting that.

I've skipped over nuclear - most can be regulated, but getting a nuke plant to reduce output almost takes an act of congress. They are a stubborn, cantankerous lot, those nuclear folks.

[Jedidah]

Your son needs to either change providers or add insulation.

I do have a relatively large house, all electric, and my bill last month was $125. In August. In Texas.

[Jedidah]

There’s something flaky happening with water bills in cities all around the DFW area. It may be state-wide.

In our neighborhood, with no increase in water rates, August bills spiked to double or triple the same time last year. The bills claim a huge increase in usage, and it’s the consumer’s word against the city.

However, in multiple instances, the home owner wasn’t even living in the house during the disputed time and could nont possibly have used that much water.

These are fradulent bills, probably a result of new meters or maybe a software glitch, but there’s no proof and the city isn’t interested. Sounds like what’s happening to you.

[crusty old prospector]

And unlike electricity, water is a monopoly where we live. Your only option is to drill your own well but the payout is too long.