Posted on 06/26/2021 8:50:18 PM PDT by blam
Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability – and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers.
Last week, the state’s grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, issued a “flex alert” that asked the state’s consumers to reduce their power use “to reduce stress on the grid and avoid power outages.”
CAISO’s warning of impending electricity shortages heralds another blackout-riddled summer at the same time California’s electricity prices are skyrocketing.
In 2020, California’s electricity prices jumped by 7.5%, making it the biggest price increase of any state in the country last year and nearly seven times the increase that was seen in the United States as a whole. According to data from the Energy Information Administration, the all-sector price of electricity in California last year jumped to 18.15 cents per kilowatt-hour, which means that Californians are now paying about 70% more for their electricity than the U.S. average all-sector rate of 10.66 cents per kWh. Even more worrisome: California’s electricity rates are expected to soar over the next decade. (More on that in a moment.)
The surging cost of electricity will increase the energy burden being borne by low- and middle-income Californians. High energy costs have a particularly regressive effect in California, which has the highest poverty rate – and some of the highest electricity prices – in the country. In 2020, California’s all-sector electricity prices were the third-highest in the continental U.S., behind only Rhode Island (18.55 cents per kWh) and Connecticut (19.19 cents per kWh.)
Before going further, let me state the obvious: California policymakers are providing a case study in how not to manage an electric grid. Furthermore, that case study shows what could happen if policymakers at the state and federal levels decide to follow California’s radical decarbonization mandates, which include a requirement for 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2045 and an economy-wide goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.
Even though the state’s tattered electric grid can barely meet existing demand – and more rolling blackouts are almost certain this summer – California continues to pile bad policy on top of bad policy. The state has banned the future sale of cars powered by internal combustion engines which will result in dramatic increases in electricity demand and will require, according to a recent report by the California Energy Commission, the installation of 1.2 million new EV charging stations by 2030. Bans on natural gas will further increase electricity demand. Cheered on by the Sierra Club, which is getting tens of millions of dollars from billionaire Michael Bloomberg, about 46 California communities have banned the use of natural gas in homes and businesses. Making the whole thing even more absurd, is that California is pledging to achieve these goals while closing the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which by itself produces nearly 10% of all the juice consumed in California.
The state’s surging energy costs demonstrate the regressive nature of decarbonization policies and how renewable-energy mandates drive up the price of power. California’s electricity prices are “absolutely exploding,” says Mark Nelson, an energy analyst and the managing director of the Radiant Energy Fund, who used that phrase on a recent episode of the Power Hungry Podcast. He added that the electricity price hikes are happening before the state’s utilities have incurred all of the costs of the deadly wildfires that swept the state, trimming millions of trees to prevent future wildfires, and adding all the mandated renewable-energy capacity, transmission lines, and new battery storage that the state will need to meet its climate goals. Further, the costs do not include all of the costs that will be incurred after the proposed shuttering of Diablo Canyon in 2025.
Last week’s power conservation requests are likely the first of many to come. On May 27, CAISO CEO Elliot Mainzer warned that if the state is hit with another hot summer like the one that required rolling blackouts that left more than 800,000 homes and businesses without power over two days last August, “our numbers tell us the grid will be stressed again.” That warning followed a May 12 CAISO press release which warned that “reliability risks remain” and the state will likely need “voluntary” electricity conservation this summer to avoid a repeat of last year’s blackouts.
The specter of more blackouts is yet more bad news for California’s beleaguered consumers. Between 2010 and 2020, the state’s electricity prices jumped by 39.5%, which was, the biggest increase of any state in the U.S. Even more worrisome: California’s electricity rates will soar over the next decade.
In a report issued in February, the California Public Utility Commission warned that the state’s energy costs are growing far faster than the rate of inflation, and that “energy bills will become less affordable over time.”
What’s driving up prices? The report says that “electrification goals and wildlife mitigation plans are among the near-term needs…that place upward pressure on rates and bills.” The report projected that residents living in hotter regions (that is, those who can’t afford to live close to the coast) who get their electricity from San Diego Gas & Electric could see their monthly power bills increase by 47% between now and 2030. When future gasoline-price increases are included, overall energy costs for that same consumer are projected to increase by 60%. Furthermore, the CPUC expects residential ratepayers in SDG&E’s service territory will be paying close to 45 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2030. For reference, that is more than three times the current average price of residential electricity.
Meanwhile, the state’s renewable plans are being thwarted by rural Californians who don’t want wind and solar projects in their neighborhoods. California has added essentially no new wind capacity since 2013. The latest rejection of Big Wind happened on Tuesday when the Shasta County Planning Commission unanimously rejected a permit for Fountain Wind, a project that proposed to put 216 megawatts of wind capacity (and about 71 turbines) in a mountainous area west of the town of Burney. The project met fierce resistance. According to David Benda, a reporter for the Redding Record Searchlight, “The 5-0 vote capped a marathon meeting that went nearly 10 hours and ended just before 11 p.m. The unanimous vote was met with cheers.”
As I have previously reported, the backlash against Big Wind goes far beyond California. It can be seen throughout Europe and from Maine to Hawaii. Since 2015, more than 300 communities in the U.S, have rejected or restricted wind projects.
In addition to the raging land-use conflicts, California policymakers are facing a growing backlash from California’s Latino population, which is the largest in the country. As I reported last year, the state’s Latino leaders have sued the state over its housing, energy, and climate regulations. Jennifer Hernandez, the lead lawyer for The Two Hundred, a coalition of Latino leaders, told me those regulations are “incredibly regressive” and are bringing “Appalachia economics” to California’s “non-coastal elites.”
Robert Apodaca, the founder of United Latinos Vote, a non-profit group, told me recently that the ongoing electricity price hikes in the state “will be crippling for low- and middle- income Californians, particularly for those who live in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire. They are going to really feel the heat, in more ways than one.”
The punchline here is clear: the blackouts and high electricity prices that are plaguing California provide a neon-lit warning sign about the electric reliability and energy affordability crises that loom if policymakers attempt to decarbonize our economy too quickly.
From Wikipedia:
The plant was built entirely underground, and located about 5.5 miles (8.9 km) up the Connecticut River from Turners Falls Dam. A stretch of the Connecticut River, extending some 20 miles (32 km) north from this dam to the Vernon Dam, Vermont, serves as the station's lower reservoir. During periods of lower electrical power demand, the plant pumps water from this lower reservoir through the Northfield Mountain Tailrace Tunnel to a man-made upper reservoir. At times of high demand, water is released to flow downhill from this upper reservoir through a turbine generator, where it then collects in the lower reservoir to be stored until again pumped to the upper reservoir.
Northfield Mountain's upper reservoir covers 300 acres (120 ha) at 800 feet (240 m) above the river, with total storage of 5.6 billion US gallons (21 Gl) of water. Its underground powerhouse lies at 700 feet (210 m) below the surface and is accessible through a 2,500-foot (760 m)-long tunnel; it includes four large reversible turbines, each of which can pump 15,200 cubic feet (430 m3) of water per second and release 20,000 cubic feet (570 m3) of water per second to generate 1,143 megawatts (1,533,000 hp) of electricity. The turbines can ramp up in 10 minutes, and deliver full power for 8 hours
So basically, they use cheaper and more available energy at night to fill the reservoir, then during the day, when energy is more expensive and scarcer, they empty the reservoir through hydroelectric generators.
Back when Massachusetts was sane.
The villages outside of the cities in a lot of countries, have no electricity. That’s what the elite want for the whole world.
Where did you see that?"
There was a one hour special on Netflix about this whole nuclear effort by Gates. I thought it was pretty good. He spent something like $250 million on this effort.
No, the majority of us left before 2008. Those who were left stayed because they had either purchased really nice property during the downturn in the 90s, inherited it, or otherwise already paid it off and kept thinking maybe they could turn the state around with a RINO legislature. Then the property taxes increased to the point it was no longer worth owning the property mortgage-free. Now, it's becoming evident that's not going to turn around and they can cash out by selling their inherited 2 bedroom 1940s cottage to Blackrock for $2.5 million.
I left in 2004 because my neighborhood was getting more and more dangerous. My car got broken into in a locked garage, my next door neighbor had a junkie climb up the outside wall to look in the windows off her balcony, and I was starting to feel threatened just walking down to the coffee shop or the gym (IMO, one of the best features of my place was being able to walk everywhere). Someone made me an offer over the phone for my condo and I took it and fled. Besides, my family had already moved out, so I just followed them.
Good!
Here:
A Netflix Documentary on Bill Gates: Inside Bill's Brain
"The third segment discusses another incredible breakthrough that the Gates Foundation's money has made: the development of a radical new design for nuclear power reactors that dramatically eliminates the threat of a radioactive disaster. It also uses spent fuel that is piling up around America to generate electrical power."
You'll have an electric car and nowhere to plug it in to charge at $50 for 200 miles.
Yikes, I pay 7 cents.
Your $1K a month UBI will take care of it...
Now if we could only elect a communist dimocrat to governor, this would all be fixed. Maybe we should elect the current mayor of San Franhomofrisco. He/she/it/whatever it calls itself could fix all of it. Look what a wonderful job he/she/it has done in turning San Franhomofrisco into a third world nation.
The solution to that is use some of Biden’s “renewal” electricity. That will solve their problem. They just keep “renewing” it to the get the electricity they want.
About 60% efficient IIRC. Thermodynamics not your strong suit?
Don’t feel bad, it isn’t for most opining on this stuff, especially those on the Left.
That was compared to batteries. What does it cost to make batteries? The entire process including mining. How long do they last? Don’t forget that we are talking about an acre of batteries.
Hydro pumped storage is better than batteries, no doubt. It has been around a long time. But it’s a very, very low bar.
It won’t make solar and wind viable replacements for carbon fueled power plants.
Bingo! Easterners!
Small world, I was there also! As I recall, the Grateful Dead were at the eastern side of the music concourse in GG Park. I was within 20 feet of them. I brought their LP album and had all the band members sign the cover. I was very upset when I found out my sister gave the album away to a friend. It would be worth thousands today.
You're right, about how many young people came after that song. Haight Street and the park panhandle were easy going with free band concerts (Jefferson Airship etc.), and all that changed to crowded conditions in 1968 (and the bands doing paid concerts). So many people came to SF that were from outside California.
Vicious, lecturing morons living in moronic conditions of their making.
Oh well.
One can hope. You're in better shape than my wife. She has had PG&E stock for years; at one time it was $72 a share. After their problems, it dropped to $6 a share, and has slowly climbed to $9 a share. It will never climb back to the old high values.
I’ll keep hope alive 👍
I don’t think it’ll ever seen anything north of $20 again either.
Those were the days. Young and reckless as hell.
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