Has anyone else noticed that electric rates are skyrocketing?

We were promised that "green electricity" would not cause electric rates to go up. Yet they seem to have skyrocketed in the last two decades. I am careful not to use too much electricity (I always turn off the lights in a room when not using it, etc.), but I have neighbours who have ridiculously outrageous electric bills. One of them pays over 400 € per month in the winter, and they are only a 2 people in a small house (though they do have an electric stove, electric heating, and a little spa).

We are constantly being told how much money "energy-saving" appliances will save us, but the cost of electricity never used to be so high! Would these appliances really be worth it if the electric bills were not being kept so high? I am fairly sure the answer is no. I know part of the problem is that our local utility company has raised its rates to help subsidize an "energy saving" program. One of my family members got a free refrigerator from them (well, almost free). Now they are talking about installing special meters that can tell them exactly what time of the day we are using electricity, so they can bill us accordingly. I have no doubt this is just going to mean even higher rates. Then they will blame the consumers for not using power at the right time of day.

It is obvious something is going on here. I suspect it was all intentional. The energy companies do not operate in a free market, it is a government regulated monopoly. It seems like the government has been using energy prices as just another form of taxation for their environmental schemes, since they have a captive consumer base. Maybe it is just a good idea to install solar panels to have energy independance over your own home. I have looked into it, and it does not really make as much financial sense as you would think. Since I mostly use the energy in the dark evenings, it would require an expensive battery system, much of the energy being lost in storage. Solar panels are not as effective unless it is sunny most of the time, another problem. If electric rates continue to go up like they have been, I might start looking into buying my own little electric generator for the house.

 

Here in Indiana the electric rates have gone up by 50% since 2009.

I am told to expect electric rates to double again by 2016.

It happens when the EPA forces the lowest-cost power generation plants to shut down.

 

I would imagine it must be really bad in California, since the state has so many greenies.

[video=youtube;FoHyTkrCLDY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoHyTkrCLDY&feature=player_embedded#![/video]

Oh god, looks like California has a "progressive" system of utility billing, with different rates for different brackets. Are they serious!? 27 cents per
kilowatt hour !? Even at tier 3, the ammount of power a typical home uses, that's still 24 cents! A typical family uses 24 kilowatt hours each day. That works out to be over 2000 dollars every year! This can't be right. Is anyone here from California?

These greenies are crazy!!

 

I did find these posts in another forum:

Apparently there may be other reasons why electricity is so expensive in California...
(cronyism and special interests)

[video=youtube;QS5aosxUfvY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS5aosxUfvY[/video]

 

It would be interesting to know what rate you're actually paying, in cents (or Eurocents) per kWh. It would also be interesting to know what country you reside in, although you seem a bit reticent to tell.

Just FYI, the German FIT for solar is something like 24¢ per kWh (or $240 per MWh), which is the governmentally-guaranteed price to the producer. Meanwhile, French nuclear giant EDF is having trouble securing a price guarantee of $100 per MWh from the UK government for two new zero-carbon nuclear reactors. Idiocy.

 

Anders wrote: We were promised that "green electricity" would not cause electric rates to go up. Yet they seem to have skyrocketed in the last two decades.

Your electrical company is probably powered by a coal-fired plant...

... that uses coal to generate electricity...

... not many electrical utilities are truly green as of yet...

... (plus there's the cost of new equipment to be installed for the switchover)...

... when the day does come that we wean ourselves off of coal and NG...

... and rely on wind, sun, geothermal and tidal power to generate electricity...

... then the truly green day will have arrived.

 

"... and rely on wind, sun, geothermal and tidal power to generate electricity..."

Taxcutter says:
...and pay a buck and a half per kwh(e) (2013 dollars) for that power.

 

I'm tired of this myth that's going around.

Lets take a look at the states/provinces in North America. In the state of California, which has a population of 38 million people, less than 1 percent of the electricity is generated from coal. In the province of British Columbia, over 86 percent of the province's electricity is produced from hydroelectric dams. In Sweden, only 1.1% of the power is produced from coal.

The places with high costs of electricity also happen to be the same places that have drastically reduced the number of coal power plants supplying their electricity. This was done for purely environmental reasons, not economic.

You know, "clean" coal technologies do exist. There is one method in particular that uses the Fischer–Tropsch process to convert coal into hydrogen, which can then power a fuel cell, achieving higher efficiencies, while greatly reducing particulate emissions.

 

Why do you assume "green electricity" is a factor in the price rises? Loads of different things impact energy prices and I very much doubt the direct costs of environmental measures in the energy production field are a major factor, though I wouldn't be surprised if all the political games and arguments that surround any form of energy generation don't help. I know energy costs in the UK are impacted by the ridiculous amount of imported fossil fuels, primarily because our politicians are unable or unwilling to address any kind of energy generation, be it fossil fuels, nuclear or alternative.

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Why do you assume "green electricity" is a factor in the price rises? Loads of different things impact energy prices and I very much doubt the direct costs of environmental measures in the energy production field are a major factor, though I wouldn't be surprised if all the political games and arguments that surround any form of energy generation don't help. I know energy costs in the UK are impacted by the ridiculous amount of imported fossil fuels, primarily because our politicians are unable or unwilling to address any kind of energy generation, be it fossil fuels, nuclear or alternative.

 

Norway has plenty of fossil fuels, yet fuel and electricity prices are still outrageous. (And it's not because of labor costs either, they hire cheap Croatian contractors to work on the power lines)

Now let's look at China with all those coal power plants... only 0.538 yuan per kW hour. (0.07 € )

 

This may have be just part of the reason utility rates are so high in California:

More crazy "green" policies jacking up prices and reducing the standard of living for consumers. If "energy saving" bulbs were really so wonderful, why do they have to be subsidized ?!? California is slowly turning into a Soviet-style command econonmy, with economic quotas.

 

Granny makes her `lectrical from corn mash...

94% of Electricity in 2013 Came from Reactors, Dams and Fossil Fuels
March 28, 2014 -- Ninety-four percent of the electricity generated in the United States in 2013 came from nuclear reactors, dams, and fossil fuels--including petroleum, natural gas, other gases, and coal--according to a new report from the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration.

 

We've replaced most bulbs with LED but seems like we're still paying more than last year. Haven't checked if the rates went up or if our overall use still went up tho

 

You might find this schematic interesting Anders.(click to enlarge)



Can you guess which of these countries have proportionally the greatest committment to these 'cheap' renewables ?

 

Replacing a 75 watt PAR30 incandescent bulb - which cost $1.79 - requires a LED bulb that costs $32.

That LED better last til the next Ice Age.

 

Finding (on e-bay) that an equivalent LED to the 75W PAR draws 18 to 19 Watts, breakeven time @ (US average) 12 cents/kWh would be 4456 hours, or about 4 1/2 years in typical use. You should get at least 25,000 hours of life from a residential LED bulb, so it's well worth the money.

 

WiFi electricity?...

Can Wireless Electricity Power the World?
March 27, 2014 ~ Remember the last time you wanted to recharge your cellphone only to discover that you forgot the electric cord somewhere else? And if you are hopelessly dependent on your cellphone and there is no replacement charger in sight, then you have a problem.