4 ms·
Capacity is a fixed cost. Society expects five nines, so we build the grid to meet the peak hour of the peak year out of ten years. But the cost to meet that p
by ghouse 5y ago
Capacity is a fixed cost. Society expects five nines, so we build the grid to meet the peak hour of the peak year out of ten years. But the cost to meet that peak is amortized over all of the electricity. And because the per capita use in California is lower than most other states, the fixed cost is amortized across fewer hours. Rooftop solar decreases total retail usage. Afternoon air conditioning increases the peak. Both contribute to increasing retail rates. Importantly, wholesale rates (where the market is deregulated) have not seen the same increase that retail rates have seen.
- londons_explore 5y agoI would like to see some system were you pay for the number of 'nines' of reliability you want. At my house, I'd be happy with just 2 nines. Maybe the same for street lighting or sewerage treatment. For that, I would like to not pay for the peak capacity doubly-redundant inspected monthly power lines. Let those who actually want reliability pay. I propose that the electric company provide meters which can have selectable 'reliability', and merely shut off lower service tiers like me whenever a line is down or generation reaches capacity. For a property that already has a GFCI/RCD, a $6 mesh LoRA board and a 1 cent resistor is sufficient for the energy company to switch off the GFCI.
- d1str0 5y agoGiven 2 9s, you’d be okay with 87 hours of no electricity? Also, assuming this outage would probably come at a peak tome when AC or heat demand is high so you’d be either without heat or AC for 3 & 1/2 days? That’s how many texans died this past year. Edit: you also mention sewage. I personally would not be happy with no sewage for 3.5 days in a row
- londons_explore 5y agoExcept it's more likely to come in the form of 3 hours from 1pm to 4pm every hot weekday all summer... Sewage treatment systems typically have a few days spare capacity.
- mattnewton 5y agoExcept we don’t get anywhere near 5 9’s in much of California, there are rolling blackouts in Oakland when the wind blows too hard because of the risk of wildfires. It’s just mismanaged and under invested because regulators let them and the market rewards them for it.
- User23 5y agoAlso wind turbines have to be turned off when the wind blows harder than their max rated capacity.
- spodek 5y ago> Society expects five nines Since each increase in uptime costs so much, requires peaker plants, and makes intermittent renewables harder, I experimented with living more resiliently. After all, the reverse works too: each decrease in uptime saves huge costs, relaxes needs for peaker plants, and makes intermittent renewables more feasible. Most of the world can handle some downtime. Electric power didn't exist for most of human existence. We've become more needy, dependent, and entitled. I suspected that living more resiliently would improve my life. It did. My last three electric bills were $1.40, $1.70, and $1.70 (plus tax and fixed connection costs). That's living in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. I wrote up some of my experience here, with scans of my bills: https://joshuaspodek.com/i-used-2-5-the-average-americans-electric-power-last-month https://joshuaspodek.com/i-used-2-5-the-average-americans-el.... I don't expect many people to reach this level of resilience and stewardship, but we don't have to to decrease our insane entitlement to such uptime. A few cultural changes and we could lower our grid costs tremendously while improving our quality of life.