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That’s amazingly cheap to me if it’s a unit price per kWh. In the UK for me unit prices from April to July last year were £0.50/kWh (USD$0.64) and that was wit

That’s amazingly cheap to me if it’s a unit price per kWh. In the UK for me unit prices from April to July last year were £0.50/kWh (USD$0.64) and that was with the government implementing a price cap and subsidising it. It’s down dropped to a more reasonable £0.29 (USD$0.37) but that’s still with the government capping the maximum rates that can be charged, but no longer subsidising energy companies as the UK wholesale rate is lower than the cap.

HideousKojima 3y ago
The most expensive states (except Hawaii) for electricity like Massachusetts and New Hampshire have electricity at about 18 cents per kWh. Hawaii has it at about 30 cents per kWh but they're an island so I imagine that complicates things. In most states it ranges from 9 to 14 cents per kWh.
- freeAgent 3y ago
  Connecticut and California really have some explaining to do regarding their electric rates. https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-a...
  - inferiorhuman 3y ago
    California will vary quite a bit. The municipal power companies are quite reasonable (in the Bay Area: Alameda, Palo Alto, Santa Clara?). PG&E (the dominant player in northern california): - lobbied hard against muni power - spent its safety budget on executive compensation - is recouping its maintenance costs and criminal penalties from its ratepayers instead of from its shareholders - got Newsom to stack the regulatory body (CPUC) with PG&E sycophants - is back to paying its shareholders dividends - has one of the most influential California politicians (Willie Brown) on their payroll Yes, it's obscene that in a climate as mild as the Bay Area, $400+ utility bills are the norm. Short of some major revolt, rates are set to go up in March as well.
sys_64738 3y ago
You have to remember that in the US we have deregulated electricity so power charge and delivery charge are separate. That 12c might only be the electric cost. Delivery charge is about 60% of the cost of the whole kwh for me. 40c is probably the delivery + cost of electricity itself.
- piperswe 3y ago
  In central Texas, my power rate is about 9.4 cents per kWh, inclusive of "wires" and "energy" (as my bill breaks it down).
- ssl-3 3y ago
  Indeed. Everyone would do well to remember that kind of thing in the US, but only some people actually do. That's why these discussions almost always quickly devolve into irrelevant things like "What? I pay $0.05 per kWh! It says so right on my bill under 'Price to compare'!" And then the discourse diverges into yet-another discussion about how billing works, and power deregulation, and other things. But the only number that matters is the total cost per kWh -- including delivery, distribution, generation, taxes, fees, grift, and whatever else might be included in the bill total. And that's easy to figure out: Total dollars billed divided by total power consumed, for any given billing period. The result is a number, in US dollars (or whatever local currency), that neatly and inclusively expresses what a person was actually-charged, per kWh, for electricity in their home for that period. --- So, for example: My most recent electric bill was, in total, $176.26. I used 1,111kWh during that period. $176.26 ÷ 1,111kWh = a cost of $0.158 per kWh, plus or minus a rounding error, for the power I used last month. --- Only now can I extrapolate that if that my total cost per kWh remains static over time (it will not, but it is likely to be close), then: A 10 Watt difference in 24/7 power consumption is equivalent to ~$13.85 per year, for me. I can now also evaluate that cost in more practical terms, wherein: I can see that using an extra 10 Watts on a 24/7 application costs me less than one decent beer per month, or one twelve-pack per year. And I'm pretty far from wealthy, but I can see that drinking one fewer beer per month isn't going to make me wealthier in any practical sense of the word. A 10-Watt difference in power consumption thus won't weigh heavily on my decision to use one system or another -- as long as it is just one such system.
- 3y ago
inferiorhuman 3y ago
Yep. PG&E + EBCE/AVA runs around $0.52/kWh on the low end to $0.68/kWh on the high end out here. Generation is about a third of that, the rest is delivery. Using PG&E for both distribution and generation would add 5% to the total cost. PG&E got a 13% rate hike approved this for year, and they're asking for another hike in March. As we race towards $1/kWh I wonder where the breaking point will be. I'm on a time-of-use plan so the costs vary both on when and how much you use.

HideousKojima 3y ago

The most expensive states (except Hawaii) for electricity like Massachusetts and New Hampshire have electricity at about 18 cents per kWh. Hawaii has it at about 30 cents per kWh but they're an island so I imagine that complicates things. In most states it ranges from 9 to 14 cents per kWh.

freeAgent 3y ago
Connecticut and California really have some explaining to do regarding their electric rates. https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-a...
- inferiorhuman 3y ago
  California will vary quite a bit. The municipal power companies are quite reasonable (in the Bay Area: Alameda, Palo Alto, Santa Clara?). PG&E (the dominant player in northern california): - lobbied hard against muni power - spent its safety budget on executive compensation - is recouping its maintenance costs and criminal penalties from its ratepayers instead of from its shareholders - got Newsom to stack the regulatory body (CPUC) with PG&E sycophants - is back to paying its shareholders dividends - has one of the most influential California politicians (Willie Brown) on their payroll Yes, it's obscene that in a climate as mild as the Bay Area, $400+ utility bills are the norm. Short of some major revolt, rates are set to go up in March as well.

sys_64738 3y ago

You have to remember that in the US we have deregulated electricity so power charge and delivery charge are separate. That 12c might only be the electric cost. Delivery charge is about 60% of the cost of the whole kwh for me. 40c is probably the delivery + cost of electricity itself.

piperswe 3y ago
In central Texas, my power rate is about 9.4 cents per kWh, inclusive of "wires" and "energy" (as my bill breaks it down).
ssl-3 3y ago
Indeed. Everyone would do well to remember that kind of thing in the US, but only some people actually do. That's why these discussions almost always quickly devolve into irrelevant things like "What? I pay $0.05 per kWh! It says so right on my bill under 'Price to compare'!" And then the discourse diverges into yet-another discussion about how billing works, and power deregulation, and other things. But the only number that matters is the total cost per kWh -- including delivery, distribution, generation, taxes, fees, grift, and whatever else might be included in the bill total. And that's easy to figure out: Total dollars billed divided by total power consumed, for any given billing period. The result is a number, in US dollars (or whatever local currency), that neatly and inclusively expresses what a person was actually-charged, per kWh, for electricity in their home for that period. --- So, for example: My most recent electric bill was, in total, $176.26. I used 1,111kWh during that period. $176.26 ÷ 1,111kWh = a cost of $0.158 per kWh, plus or minus a rounding error, for the power I used last month. --- Only now can I extrapolate that if that my total cost per kWh remains static over time (it will not, but it is likely to be close), then: A 10 Watt difference in 24/7 power consumption is equivalent to ~$13.85 per year, for me. I can now also evaluate that cost in more practical terms, wherein: I can see that using an extra 10 Watts on a 24/7 application costs me less than one decent beer per month, or one twelve-pack per year. And I'm pretty far from wealthy, but I can see that drinking one fewer beer per month isn't going to make me wealthier in any practical sense of the word. A 10-Watt difference in power consumption thus won't weigh heavily on my decision to use one system or another -- as long as it is just one such system.
3y ago

inferiorhuman 3y ago

Yep. PG&E + EBCE/AVA runs around $0.52/kWh on the low end to $0.68/kWh on the high end out here. Generation is about a third of that, the rest is delivery. Using PG&E for both distribution and generation would add 5% to the total cost. PG&E got a 13% rate hike approved this for year, and they're asking for another hike in March. As we race towards $1/kWh I wonder where the breaking point will be. I'm on a time-of-use plan so the costs vary both on when and how much you use.