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I don't know why Californians put up with this mess from their politicians. In Texas, one company maintains the infrastructure and a variety of companies comp

by txsh 9y ago

I don't know why Californians put up with this mess from their politicians. In Texas, one company maintains the infrastructure and a variety of companies compete to provide service to customers. Separating these concerns means cheap, reliable electricity. Power is quickly restored after natural disasters and we don't have brownouts during the summer. Electricity is affordable and we don't pay extra during peak hours. I pay $0.10/kWh for a plan 100% provided by wind power. When power is in demand, the smart meter my electric company provided for free (with free installation) will adjust my thermostat and give me a credit on my bill (under a program I opted into). If my state made me pay $0.40/kWh for unreliable energy, I'd be furious.

chipotle_coyote 9y ago
If my state made me pay $0.40/kWh for unreliable energy, I'd be furious. I would be, too! Fortunately, here in Santa Clara, California, we're paying about $0.11/kWh to Silicon Valley Power, as opposed to the $0.23/kWh that PG&E charges residential customers on average. Even that's sure not anything like $0.40/kWh. I think we've only lost power maybe twice in the eight years I've lived in Santa Clara, so I'm not too concerned about reliability issues. Since I'm in an apartment complex, I don't have the option to switch to Santa Clara's "green power" option for 100% renewable energy sources, although they've recently gone coal-free for all their generation sources. http://www.siliconvalleypower.com/svp-and-community/about-svp/area-rate-comparison http://www.siliconvalleypower.com/svp-and-community/about-sv...
couctto 9y ago
Why do Texans always need to lie about California? I hear Texas has many nice parts, I don't get the insecurity.
bsder 9y ago
California used to be just like you describe. Then a bunch of criminally negligent politicians, of both political parties, in the pockets of Enron "deregulated" the industry out here without sufficient safeguards and sold off a bunch of power plants in the name of "efficiency and competition". The current kerfuffle with Calpine is fallout from those actions almost 20 years ago. Since CA doesn't control any power plants directly, anymore, they don't have a lot of negotiating leverage. This is a transient problem because as the article points out, renewables and batteries are wiping out the ability of these producers to exert too much influence as the spot price of electricity gets increasingly controlled by supply rather than demand. And, to be fair, California hasn't really had any electricity problems since Enron died.

by txsh 9y ago

chipotle_coyote 9y ago

If my state made me pay $0.40/kWh for unreliable energy, I'd be furious. I would be, too! Fortunately, here in Santa Clara, California, we're paying about $0.11/kWh to Silicon Valley Power, as opposed to the $0.23/kWh that PG&E charges residential customers on average. Even that's sure not anything like $0.40/kWh. I think we've only lost power maybe twice in the eight years I've lived in Santa Clara, so I'm not too concerned about reliability issues. Since I'm in an apartment complex, I don't have the option to switch to Santa Clara's "green power" option for 100% renewable energy sources, although they've recently gone coal-free for all their generation sources. http://www.siliconvalleypower.com/svp-and-community/about-svp/area-rate-comparison http://www.siliconvalleypower.com/svp-and-community/about-sv...

couctto 9y ago

Why do Texans always need to lie about California? I hear Texas has many nice parts, I don't get the insecurity.

bsder 9y ago

California used to be just like you describe. Then a bunch of criminally negligent politicians, of both political parties, in the pockets of Enron "deregulated" the industry out here without sufficient safeguards and sold off a bunch of power plants in the name of "efficiency and competition". The current kerfuffle with Calpine is fallout from those actions almost 20 years ago. Since CA doesn't control any power plants directly, anymore, they don't have a lot of negotiating leverage. This is a transient problem because as the article points out, renewables and batteries are wiping out the ability of these producers to exert too much influence as the spot price of electricity gets increasingly controlled by supply rather than demand. And, to be fair, California hasn't really had any electricity problems since Enron died.