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Does it work like that? Why do utilities encourage customers to become more efficient when they could sell more power and make more money instead? And even if
by triceratops 3y ago
Does it work like that? Why do utilities encourage customers to become more efficient when they could sell more power and make more money instead?
And even if it's true, an expansion of generation capacity is only useful if it's eventually freed up for non-crypto uses, right? Otherwise it's just a wash.
- jstanley 3y ago> Why do utilities encourage customers to become more efficient when they could sell more power and make more money instead? Because that kind of marketing works on a lot of people.
- triceratops 3y agoTo accomplish what end? Why are they marketing efficiency?
- jstanley 3y agoPeople like to buy energy from a company that they think shares their view on energy efficiency.
- triceratops 3y agoIs it common to have more than 2 options for a power company? I personally pick my power company, if I have a choice at all, based on their rates and proportion of renewable energy generated. Most people probably only care about the rate. Power companies aren't brands. People don't make choices based on which one is more "woke" or whatever.
- jstanley 3y agoIn that case I can't see why they would bother advertising anything at all. In the UK you have the choice of loads of energy companies, and certainly some of the marketing is around their green credentials.
- triceratops 3y agoThis article is about crypto mining in the US.
- MichaelNolan 3y ago> Why do utilities encourage customers to become more efficient when they could sell more power and make more money instead? Depending on where you live, the State likely requires the utility to spend some portion of its revenue on efficiency. Valois a prime example, overall the state uses far less electricity per person, which is at least partially because of decades of efficiency initiatives. And secondly, if utilities can get their customers to be efficient at the right time of day, the utility will make more money overall even if the total demand decreases. Lastly, most publicly regulated utilities make very little on selling electricity, they instead make a guaranteed profit on capital investment. So total kWh sold is less important overall.
- triceratops 3y ago> most publicly regulated utilities make very little on selling electricity, they instead make a guaranteed profit on capital investment. So total kWh sold is less important overall That's what I thought too. Building new capacity is expensive and time-consuming; utilities would rather run their existing capacity at full blast and reduce demand. Which means these cryto miners haven't financed 2.3% additional generation capacity in any meaningful sense. Unless they have special contracts with utilities to specifically fund new power plants and transmission.
- westbywest 3y agoThe conflict of self-interest and common good becomes especially perverse when power utilities themselves start mining coin at their own facilities (for additional profit). https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ameren-deploys-bitcoin-mining-data-center-at-coal-power-plant/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ameren-deploys-bi...
- 015a 3y agoUtility companies absolutely do both. Its not an either-or. Capacity only grows when usage grows. But, reducing usage is important, because if usage grows too fast capacity can't keep up, or it might burst too far above the load they've planned capacity for on the short-term.