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As people turn to home power generation, PG&E will lose revenue. So, PG&E will suffer in the longer term as they lose customers. Not very good business planni
by Fjolsvith 7y ago
As people turn to home power generation, PG&E will lose revenue. So, PG&E will suffer in the longer term as they lose customers. Not very good business planning.
- kylehotchkiss 7y agoKeeping a gas or diesel generator fueled and running for days at a time is not super cheap. Plus if your whole city's power is cut and everybody else is running their generators, there's a risk of fuel price increases or even fuel shortages. Solar & batteries are a solution but people won't adopt as a solution with this sort of timeline and current solar/battery prices. There'd need to be a slow but certain rise in PG&E prices and a some sort of tax rebate to really get people to convert over.
- Fjolsvith 7y agoReliability is what sells me on electric supply. Take that away, I will find something more reliable, and I will make the investment in local, personal generation if there isn't a source.
- lazide 7y agoLocal, personal generation is usually incredibly inefficient due to loading factors (you need to buy a generator that can handle most of your peak load, but they are only efficient at roughly half that - so your idle load is a huge waste, and when near peak you will be horribly inefficient). Maintenance is also a huge pain - I've got an off grid cabin, and I can assure you, you will quickly tire of dealing with it if you are using it as your day to day power source. Backup (propane or natural gas) generators that auto kick in aren't a bad option, but are much more expensive (about an order of magnitude higher).