Seen on reddit and other sources:
https://old.reddit.com/r/fresno/comments/1hxqlx7/the_more_i_try_to_save_energy_the_higher_the/
Its already 50c or more per kilowatt hour… https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/residential-electric-rate-plan-pricing.pdf
On top of the “The Electric Home Rate Plan includes a $15-per-month Base Services Charge”… because people were starting to get 100% of their power from solar and it was “unfair”.
Gee it seems like they could come up with a simple algorithm to protect low income people who are conserving.
Aaaand why aren’t costs going down as usage goes down?
Plenty of costs don’t depend on how much usage there is. If a tree falls and takes out a power line it cosrs the same whether that line was being used at 1% capacity or 100%
True, true. Other costs should track with usage though, like fuel. If they had said “when usage falls, costs don’t fall AS MUCH due to fixed costs” then I would totally get it. The way they phrased it makes it sound like costs going down just isn’t a thing that happens. Maybe that’s me.
Fuel is not the biggest cost especially in areas with renewable sources. The machinery that keeps the grid going is very complex and expensive. There are needs to be redundancy and flexibility build it which costs even more.
Prices aren’t going down because the costs aren’t going down. The infrastructure costs about the same either way.
Fuel cost should go down with usage though. And if usage goes down, doesn’t that mean the grid is better equipped to handle it well, and should experience fewer problems as a result?
Some costs should go down. Others are fixed, I agree.
Most of the costs aren’t going down. The expensive part isn’t the fuel (in the us at least)