Posted on 06/02/2021 8:33:53 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
LANSING, Wis. (WMTV) - Millions of people in Michigan could see a big hike in their electric bill this summertime afternoons.
With the summer months heating up, one of the largest utility companies in the state plans to increase drastically the cost of electricity, starting Tuesday.
From then until September 30, Consumers Energy will charge its customers a 50 percent higher rate between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. According to the company’s website, it has more than 6.5 million customers in Michigan.
When announcing the rate spike, Consumers’ spokesperson Brian Wheeler explained the move is intended to make sure everyone has power during those times.
“You have to build more power plants to accommodate those peaks, those increases when it comes to energy usage,” Wheeler said in April.
Consumers sent letters to customers detailing the increase and telling them how much more it would cost them if they did not change how much power they used. In most cases, Wheeler claimed customers would end up paying about $2 more per month.
The letter also asked them to consider running their dishwasher later in the day or raising the thermostat a couple of degrees to save on electricity.
Most likely.
If they’d heavily cool down their homes in the mornings, when rates are lower, close the blinds/drapes/whatever, they could probably get thru the afternoon w/ little or no AC. I’m sure many will do that.
Consumers just build a wind farm in Hillsdale County and they look to be operating at near 100 percent. I’ve also noticed an increase of trucks carrying the tower components traveling west on US-12 towards the Coldwater area, so they must have another project going in somewhere.
Imagine now, if electric cars were the norm. Ho. Lee. Crap. The rates would be insane until those evil coal and gas plants were paid off.
I live in Oregon, about 40 miles north of Eugene. Electric cost is 8.43 cents. Probably won’t be going up much, thanks to the BPA, until the green nazis succeed in destroying Columbia River dams.
Yep, i see those wind farms whenever i head up that way.
We did all that last summer, but it was a brutal humid summer, and while it helped some, it was still really miserable. I could see where folks not using ac like us, but In Poor health, might not make it through. It was so bad at times I felt like I was close to passing out. So far this spring has been cold. Hopefully it won’t get as humid for as long as it did last summer, that was brutal
just got my monthly CE bill yesterday...$52.19 here in White Lake, Michigan.
customer charge $12.60
gas distribution 5.1 @ 4.457900 $22.74
gas cost recovery 5.1 @ 2.909300 $14.84
state sales tax $2.01
I hope you’re joking when you say that, solar panels can’t charge your car unless you have one acre of solar panels in one car
They don’t work, they are dependent on the Wind, they break down often, they generate noises that irritate neighbors within a quarter mile two or three quarter mile distance in radius, they kill birds, the windmill blades are not recyclable and must be destroyed in an open pit, the amount of rare earth minerals necessary to generate the magnets for that is astronomical and you actually burn more carbon and mining for those Metals than you do create energy when the windmill runs
C’mon man...just build a few more uneconomical windmill and solar farms...
My solar panels pay me mail box money every month from ERCOT. They buy during the peak of the day when my panels are maxed out at 15 kw my home uses 80 kWh in August per day or less the panels make 180 to 200+ kWh per day in the 14+ hours of daylight in August 100 kWh at a peak average of 40 cents per kWh is fourth bucks a day of peeler electricity rates we get 220 days of sunlight per year the majority of it from June till September when the peak demand is right in the hottest part of the day. People with panels who have LLCs can sell in the open ERCOT market place where spot calls of $90 a megawatt hour is not uncommon and $40 is seen in the afternoon peaks on the regular. I have had $1100 a month in mail box money from one my panel systems and I own four 15,000 watt systems each of them sell to ERCOT via my LLC . What was a off grid project turned into real mail box money.
Your math skills are terrible. A Tesla model S has a 60kWh pack. A 15,000 watt system will full charge it in 4 hours if dedicated just to it. 15,000 watts of panels is well under 4500 sqft of roof space. An acre is 43560 square feet ten times larger. I could change 3 Tesla per day off my panels on my roof. Or run my dual HVAC at 68 degrees and still have 100kWh left over to charge two Tesla with. 60kWh takes a model S 330 miles. No one drives 300+ miles per day. The NHTSA has years of data that shows the vast majority of Americans drive less than 40 miles per day or less 80% by the data. 40 miles of charge is 10kWh in city mode driving. So my panels would meet the daily needs of ten Americans in model S Teslas no where near an acres worth of panels.
Here are 500 watt panels, for 15 cents per watt. A single panel in ten hours of day light would make 5 kWh two of them would charge a Tesla for that 40 miles per day. Ten of them would be a 5,000 watt system and 30 would be a 15kw system look at the dimensions of the individual panel.
Dimension 1956x1310x45mm
https://m.alibaba.com/product/62313907859/product.html
Do you drive at night or do you drive in the daytime? How much daylight do you have left when you return from your trip? Cuz you ain’t got nothing to charge that battery overnight.
Summer in Michigan starts after the July 4 snowfall and summer ends after you pick the tomatoes from your garden on the last Sunday in July.
Then you start getting ready for deer season.
No one can explain this to me...
When my house is at 72 in the Wintertime, I can’t STAND it! Too hot! We both run hot, so we keep it at 68 MAX during the day, and 58 at night with lots of quilts and a few cats on the bed.
BUT - in the Summertime, 72 feels too COLD to me!
It’s the SAME 72 degrees! Aarrgghh! LOL!
We are starting Summer early, as we always seem to do up here on The Frozen Tundra. High humidity and 90’s by the weekend. Blech!
Yuck! It has been so nice.
Our best temperature except winter at night (68°) is 71°.
We’re $.42 in the “Peoples Republic of Vermontistan”.
That may be true. But, Consumers is still moving ahead with the construction of the wind farm. I was surprised last summer when we started seeing numerous trucks carrying the tower sections, then the blades, and finally the generators start to appear along US-12. Since we don’t go west on 12 very much, I was very surprised to see the development of the farm along a long stretch of the highway between Moscow and Jonesville. Now we are starting to see more trucks driving westbound on 12 headed towards the Coldwater area.
Obviously, Consumers is expanding their reliance on wind. Don’t know if it’s feasible, but they are making the investment. My understanding is they have made it very lucrative for the farmers whose land they are using for the farms.
All of your points are well-taken, but obviously the money must be good or no one would sign a lease.
I don’t think there’s any money in there but subsidies, they are an inconsistent power source, they must be backed up by fossil fuel use of the creation of the machines that dig the holes for its foundation, to build the Tower, to mine the rare earth metals for the magnets for the generator, to make the fiberglass for the blades and steel spar, to set the thing up in place with cranes, it is a huge myth that there is a green energy that is non stop. These things are Nifty technology but they will never have the power output of fossil fuel generators or nuclear reactors.
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