Posted on 04/26/2023 9:57:38 PM PDT by grundle
Perhaps you forgot about the physical plant that requires all the maintenance.
The utilities say customers should expect to also see lower costs for their kilowatt-hour usage.
That would be contrary to reality. I’m not expecting to see lower costs and I don’t live in CA. Frankly Scarlett, CA shouldn’t be allowed to acquire electricity from any State other than CA.
With that simple rule they can now do whatever they like and suffer their own consequences for bad decisions. If WE don’t get a handle on this green energy scam the world is going to go out of balance when all of us living in the North have to move south for survival.
Where will you go when there aren’t any so-called red states left?
It sounds cheep for everyone. Even the rich only pay less than a hundred a month. That’s not bad.
No longer charging based on usage? Sounds like a sure-fire formula for people to use a LOT more energy. Especially the people paying $20/month.
“How exactly do utility companies know the household income of their customers?”
They simply ask the state government.
Black households in LA, San Francisco and San Jose receive an electric power reparations subsidy paid quarterly
“This proposal would give each household unlimited electricity for a flat monthly fee. That is a horrible incentive.”
Why not just give the poor a subsidy for their electricity like we do for their food, housing, medical care, child care, abortions, etc.
Venezuela did this same thing 20 years ago.
1. For now the per kWh rates are going down to offset the increased flat rates. But soon they'll go back up and power consumers will be paying both higher flat rates and higher per kWh rates.
2. I'm surprised the flat rates aren't more in California. Here in Alabama the total flat rate is $15.60/month (the official $14.50 flat rate, plus a 50 cent natural disaster recovery rider, plus 4% state tax on top of that).
So whatever dollar amount my total bill is above that, I count as the per kWh usage fee. (Which is hard to calculate directly because there are a handful of per kWh undisclosed riders added to the stated 12.23 cent rate, plus the 4% state tax on top of that.) So I calculate the overall per kWh rate by subtracting the flat rates first, then dividing the rest of the bill amount with the total kWh pulled that month.)
In my last bill, which was $30.76, that meant I had a usage charge of $15.16. Divide that by the 95 kWh I bought from the grid and it's 15.9578 cents per kWh. With my solar/battery system (putting no power onto the grid), that 95kWh is just the 110W constant pull I do on the grid to keep them from either automatically shutting off my power (for being off the grid too long) or signing me up on their power purchase plan (though I'm actually in negotiations with them on that and may soon sell power to the grid). Only one day this last billing period did I pull from the grid beyond that 110W, and that was only an extra 3.2kWh to make sure our EV was charged to 100% before we drove out on a trip that morning. Of course, we're talking about the April bill which is a good month here for trying to be energy independent with solar (good amount of sunshine, mild temps so not having to run the heat pump a lot). Averaged across the year it produces 80% of the power we consume in our all-electric home.
If Alabama implemented these income based flat rate polices like Commiefornia, I'd grumble a lot. But my overall energy project would still be worth it. Since I upgraded my solar at the end of August last year, I've saved a total of $5,189 from Sep to April in power costs + natural gas costs + gasoline costs (by converting my two nat gas appliances to electric in 2021 and getting an EV when my wife's car needed replacing anyway in 2022 so that we can use our free solar power for local driving and the first 250 miles of each trip). That's $648/month in savings, and that's with mainly fall and winter months (since the Aug 31st upgrade). That savings per month will increase a lot between now and the 1 year anniversary of the solar upgrade because I'll consume a lot of power in the summer keeping the house cool, but I'll have even more free power by having more sunshine.
Therefore, if my flat rate increased from $15/month to $73/month, the $648/month in savings would drop to $590/month or even lower (to whatever the reduced rate per kWh is now with the new Marxist California rate plan). But IMHO it'd still be worth doing the energy project. And of course, California's new lower usage rates are temporary anyway; they'll raise the rates to back to "normal" and then higher to save the world from our 1st world lifestyle sins.
The utilities likely have easy access to your tax returns ... you know, because the returns are “confidential” and “confidential” in California has a different meaning than everywhere else.
Which group gets it for Free ? Let me guess ,LOL
Flat fee. Everyone leaves everything on all the time.
What is the percentage of each income group that has solar panels?
I’ll bet the higher income has more panels. And the lower are more likely to rent.
Companies got to get that solar cost back that they have been paying.
“If I’m tracking at all, here, with my analysis this seems an inexcusably mammoth slap in the face to ratepayers who’ve invested into solar power, especially since it is being perpetrated against them after they’ve already committed the funding and are locked into contractual repayment obligations.”
One party changing the terms of a contract without negotiations and agreement with the other party is grounds for termination of the contract.
In reality word anyway, who knows now with this new clown world we’ve all been forced to live in.
I see a lot of lawsuits in the CA utility companies future.
You’re missing the part where you pay per kw used in addition to this “baseline” fee.
It’s essentially just an add on to your existing bill.
“Flat fee. Everyone leaves everything on all the time.”
No. There is still a per kw charge as well. Just a bit lower per kw than it is currently.
Indeed
Fixed-rate bill not what you use.
Illegals who make under $28,000 free you pay their way.
Ca. phone system is already set up that way
Dumb idea.
A better idea, which would force “the rich” to
“pay their fair share” AND would discourage waste while encouraging conservation would be to
Simply charge a higher cost per kwh at higher kwh usage, on an upward-sliding scale.
The more kwhs you use, the more you pay per kwh.
For example maybe 10cents per kwh for up to 2000 kwh, (I typically use 250-500 kwhs per month.) 15 cents between 2000-4000 kwhs, 90cents to $10.00 per kwh over 5000 kwhs. The John Kerrys & Leo DiCaprios would either conserve or pay big bucks.
California wants to destroy the middle class…this is a great way to invent them to leave.
California wants a population of about 10% super-wealthy masters and 90% impoverished peasants that are easy to control. This moves that right along.
It’s the model for America (and the dying West) in the 2030s.
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