Electrical Rates Skyrocket

[Kingslug20]

Yup!

 

[Edd]

Best way to piss the woke off is to ignore them and just live an enjoyable life

Watch out for drjeff, master of psychology.

 

[kbroderick]

There is plenty of capacity in Hydro Quebec. There are political actions from US generators and local nimbys that fight access.
Here is an example in Maine:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/maine-court-energy-export-quebec-1.6566934

If Hydro Quebec was willing to use existing ROWs to reduce the environmental impact and bury the lines to reduce the visual impact, a lot of the complaints would go away. But that would cost more money and they don't want to do it (IIRC, there was even a competing proposal to run a similar transmission project through Vermont, but it was a higher cost because it didn't involve as many miles of aboveground lines, with some buried and some underwater in Lake Champlain).

 

[RH29]

It won't be too much longer for attempts to ban skiing (and golf) by the green new deal socialist propagandist. Just a matter of time. Even worse for them, the two sports are primarily done by white men----oh my God (I mean mother earth).

I know she lives rent-free in your head, but the mighty AOC socialist propagandist can't arbitrarily ban a sport and shut down a multi-billion dollar tourism industry.

 

[bigbob]

Our supply doubled, it's at .23/kWh. If I shopped it from default, maybe .19/kWh. It is ironic that the coal plants and some nuclear generating stations have been decommissioned because they were not competitive on the market. But now we are pretty much held hostage by natural gas prices with no alternatives.

I locked in for 30 months with Direct Energy at $0.12 when I first heard about Eversource's proposed rate increase. My last electric bill was $68.00

 

[Granite1]

I know she lives rent-free in your head, but the mighty AOC socialist propagandist can't arbitrarily ban a sport and shut down a multi-billion dollar tourism industry.

They are trying to shut down and completely end the oil and gas industry, an even bigger industry than skiing and golf and tourism.

 

[joshua segal]

Does anyone have insight to what resorts are now paying per kWh beyond just Cannon?

I don't know what resorts are paying but based on a quick google search, the current wholesale cost of a Megawatt Hour is about $250, ($0.25 per KWH) up from about $150 a year ago.

 

[kbroderick]

They are trying to shut down and completely end the oil and gas industry, an even bigger industry than skiing and golf and tourism.

Burning fossil fuels has a direct connection to climate change with very limited mitigation options (unless you can manage to capture the carbon before it hits the atmosphere, there's not much you can do).

Skiing, golf, and many forms of tourism have significant carbon footprints but those are generally possible to mitigate much more substantially (eg by sourcing non-fossil fuel energy rather than running diesel compressors for your snowmaking).

There's also the not so small detail that, without serious change with respect to carbon emissions, the ski industry will shrink substantially without any political effort.

 

[SkiNewEngland.net]

Skiing, golf, and many forms of tourism have significant carbon footprints but those are generally possible to mitigate much more substantially (eg by sourcing non-fossil fuel energy rather than running diesel compressors for your snowmaking).

Most snowmaking takes place at night. In New England, nighttime electricity is predominantly sourced from fossil fuels.

 

[IceEidolon]

First, before skiing is specifically targeted by the government over energy use in a bad way (as opposed to subsidies for new, more efficient snowguns), we'll see energy prices rise a lot more. We're likely to see travel drop as fuel prices go up, and probably see targeted legislation against some forms of air travel.

Some resorts already participate in power saving measures - they'll avoid snowmaking on the highest demand winter days, or pay substantial fees. More provider-driven incentive and penalty based systems in that vein are likely before the government steps in.

One last point - not everywhere gets its nighttime energy from fossil fuels. As more wind turbines, energy storage projects, etc. come online in and around the northeast, the carbon footprint of northeastern snowmaking will fall. The profitability of new build renewables is at this point competitive with traditional power stations in many cases.

 

[SteezyRob]

Well I guess it's backcountry for me until we all realize that nuclear power is the answer...

 

[SkiNewEngland.net]

One last point - not everywhere gets its nighttime energy from fossil fuels. As more wind turbines, energy storage projects, etc. come online in and around the northeast, the carbon footprint of northeastern snowmaking will fall. The profitability of new build renewables is at this point competitive with traditional power stations in many cases.

New England is one electric grid. At the time of this post (9:15 PM), 49% of the electricity is coming from natural gas, while less than 1% is from wind.

 

[RH29]

Most snowmaking takes place at night. In New England, nighttime electricity is predominantly sourced from fossil fuels.

That isn't how energy storage works.

 

[SkiNewEngland.net]

That isn't how energy storage works.

Apart from pumped hydro, there is no energy storage facility in New England large enough to support even a mid-sized ski area's snowmaking consumption for a few hours, never mind an entire nighttime shift.

 

[Smellytele]

New England is one electric grid. At the time of this post (9:15 PM), 49% of the electricity is coming from natural gas, while less than 1% is from wind.

What is the other 50%?

 

[IceEidolon]

So the answer is "we're fucked, give up, no progress ever".

We shouldn't incrementally improve the grid with, say, more wind. New nuclear plants. Grid scale gravity, pumped hydro, chemical, or thermal batteries. Regional power transmission interconnects.

 

[jimmywilson69]

I just posted this in the hybrid thread, but it is every bit relevant to this thread.

Another potential flaw to the all electric vehicle is just the electric infrastructure in general. the entire country's electric grid is largely very old and fragile. Regardless of green technology, our infrastructure needs much much more investment just to be stable. Its actually rather embarrassing that we've let it slide into the disrepair that it is...

 

[SkiNewEngland.net]

What is the other 50%?

At that point last night, mostly nuclear and hydro (New England plus Canadian imports).

 

[x10003q]

If Hydro Quebec was willing to use existing ROWs to reduce the environmental impact and bury the lines to reduce the visual impact, a lot of the complaints would go away. But that would cost more money and they don't want to do it (IIRC, there was even a competing proposal to run a similar transmission project through Vermont, but it was a higher cost because it didn't involve as many miles of aboveground lines, with some buried and some underwater in Lake Champlain).

The route has lots of wetlands and burying the line will do more damage than using towers. Burying the line is also multiple times more expensive. There are areas where there are plans to bury the lines. The width of the line is roughly the same whether it is buried or towers. The suggested right of way down Rt 201 does not exist as Maine will not allow buried lines under that road and the right of ways are not big enough for the line.

The interesting part about this is NextEra - a huge generator that owns the Wyman oil burning 608MW generating station in Yarmouth , Maine, and Calpine, who own the Fore River natural gas/oil generating station (730MW) in N Weymouth , Ma, are the money behind stopping the Hydro Quebec transmission line.
Any ideas why?
The New England ISO has to rely on these stations for capacity, especially during high electric demand. The Hydro Quebec line would make these stations less needed and also reduce costs to rate payers in New England. There is not enough nat gas in New England so the ISO has to rely on oil burning plants for capacity.

Hydro Quebec can supply loads of cheap, clean electricity, day and night, and help reduce the need for expensive power from NextEra and Calpine generators. The lack of cleaner nat gas in New England is also a problem. There is no nuclear planned for the near future in NE and demand in NE continues to increase. Cutting the transmission lines through some of the beautiful areas of Maine sucks, but relying on the current generators is a worse option.

 

[BodeMiller1]

NH rejected a power line from Hydro Quebec a few years ago:

Concord Monitor

The Concord Monitor is a Pulitzer Prize winning daily newspaper and website located in the capital city of New Hampshire. The Concord Monitor is Central NH's dominant media with more than 70 percent household penetration. The Monitor is a key source of news and information for Concord, NH.

www.concordmonitor.com

This is the problem. The Siera Club and other environmental groups stopped Hydro-Quebec.
I guess they want us to burn coal in Bow.