How about your power company

[pezzy84]

Georgia Power here (part of the Southern Company conglomerate) and honestly they have been fantastic to say the least. I deal with about 20 different utility companies across multiple states in my day to day job and I can tell you Southern Company has their stuff together compared to almost all the others.

Now the Plant Vogtle reactor #3 and #4 expansion has been a total cluster and WAY over budget and WAY past schedule. Reactor 3 was supposed to be connected to the grid and providing power ~5 years ago (now estimated for end of this year) and #4 connected ~4 years ago (now estimated for YE 2022). Meanwhile every single customer still paying for the construction, they have thrown us a few refunds here and there though as a 'sorry power plant isn't ready yet'.

Anyhow - here is my latest bill for 499 KWH usage. The simple solar is optional and while it does not guarantee my house is fed by solar it is basically where GA Power (Southern Co?) will make sure at least 499 KWH somewhere on the grid is solar, details on it are muddy at best but for ~$5/month I'm fine with it.

 

[spackard]

I just remember, back in the '70's, staying with relatives in Ensenada, watching their TV. The several-per-hour brown-outs were severe enough to see the TV stop scanning and put a white dot in the middle of the CRT (accompanied by house lights dimming/off). I'd look around, shocked, as everybody else acted like it was no big deal, they had become fully acclimated to it.

The power plant polluted the air. No air movement at night so the lowlands filled with smoke. Throat felt scratchy in early morning, eyes watered. As you wondered if you could take it much longer the sun-heated land caused winds to blow again, and all the pollution moved on, replaced by fresh ocean air. If you were a day visitor to Ensenada you'd never see the brown-outs nor feel the pollution.

That said, I bought a few generators since moving to LA County. Infrastructure is regulated, and for a few decades has been under repair-only mandates. Unless power goes out long and wide, and a Congress critter gets involved, things stay as they are. Power outages average 2/year, but power quality is excellent. Orange County power outages were maybe one every 5 years. (I'm in the foothills here; in O.C. I was on flat land, which gets one tenth the rain.)

 

[Ws6]

In my part of America here in upstate South Carolina our power company is Duke Power.Yep is is nuclear plant that was built in1970.It was supposed to be a thirty year program with three reactors but when when NRC took each reactor down for inspection they renewed the plant for thirty more years.They have a hydro-electric dam on Lake Hartwell to handle the peak times during high usage during extreme cold and hot weather.Sometimes I see electric bills from from other parts of the country and think "WOW." I just hope the America I grew up in will be here for all our generations to come.

My bills ranged from $75-299 before solar. Now they range from $29-240 (solar doesn't help in the winter in the snow...). I don't really know or care where the power company gets it from. I use 1400-2500kWh per month.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

View attachment 49707

Mostly coal with some hydro and wind. Wyoming baby! 5.725 cents per KWH less than 500kw to 12.68 per KW for over 500 KWH. I work for them. The 4 unit 720 MW coal plant is slated for closure in 2027. I hope to be retired and on the beach by then.

That would be Jim Bridger?

 

[sloinker]

That would be Jim Bridger?

Dave Johnston

 

[JHZR2]

We have PSE&G. I don’t exactly recall the rates, but I’m not complaining. I don’t think we’ve so much as lost power in the last 8-10 years. They replaced our gas line to the street as proactive/preventive maintenance (all homes in town).
I suspect most of our power comes from Salem Nuclear, but I’ve never seen the impedance and load flow to know that as a fact.

 

[4WD]

Going down to the coast yesterday and noticed 48 x 3 MW units were not turning.
Departing that afternoon the wind was up and all were turning. Just a random day.

 

[Skippy722]

We pay ~$0.12/kWh… but factor in fuel costs and it’s $0.14/kWh.

 

[jimbrewer]

"Renewables" is not a viable alternative to power produced by water, fossil fuel or nuclear. Solar/Wind/etc can't overcome the cost to make it economically viable.

Not so. It’s a legitimate part of the mix. Not necessarily The Answer. In a lot of areas output matches or exceeds nuclear generation.

In the Southwest Power Pool they have 40% overcapacity, ( more than the 20% reserve they try to keep for system reliability.) Oklahoma is evidently the Saudi Arabia of wind.
Wind is pretty cheap. Not very “dispatchable” but cheap.

 

[Skippy722]

Not so. It’s a legitimate part of the mix. Not necessarily The Answer. In a lot of areas output matches or exceeds nuclear generation.

In the Southwest Power Pool they have 40% overcapacity, ( more than the 20% reserve they try to keep for system reliability.) Oklahoma is evidently the Saudi Arabia of wind.
Wind is pretty cheap. Not very “dispatchable” but cheap.

I think the disconnect is there are people who think renewables like wind and solar can supply the whole grid as a base load, which isn’t so. As you mentioned Oklahoma gets a ton of wind, making wind power a great option there… not so much the case up here.

The future I would like to see is everyone at minimum owning battery systems (like a Tesla Wall) assuming we can get battery storage tech better and cheaper at a minimum, with most people owning their own solar panels as those get ever cheaper and more efficient. Charge the batteries during off-peak times when there is an excess supply of solar/wind from utility scale renewables and draw from batteries during peak times/at night. If we can get rid of the fear surrounding nuclear/NIMBY, nuclear is a fantastic base load supplier as Canada has proven.

 

[BrianF]

We in Saskatchewan have a Crown Corporation, SaskPower.

While not well versed in the grid, costs (have to look at my billing costs) but overall I am happy.

We are a majority of fossil fuel powered. Coal, natural gas, some wind and I think one hydro ****.

From what I gather, the government is looking to delve into nuclear. Not surprising but we have some large uranium deposits in the north.

I will say that I am impressed with this outfit. Rarely do we have power issues. Being rural we pay a bit more but maybe once a year in the summer we might lose power for a couple hours total after a large storm. Thats it.

I also like that its owned by saskatchewan. Money from saskpower goes back to the people.

 

[sloinker]

We in Saskatchewan have a Crown Corporation, SaskPower.

While not well versed in the grid, costs (have to look at my billing costs) but overall I am happy.

We are a majority of fossil fuel powered. Coal, natural gas, some wind and I think one hydro ****.

From what I gather, the government is looking to delve into nuclear. Not surprising but we have some large uranium deposits in the north.

I will say that I am impressed with this outfit. Rarely do we have power issues. Being rural we pay a bit more but maybe once a year in the summer we might lose power for a couple hours total after a large storm. Thats it.

I also like that its owned by saskatchewan. Money from saskpower goes back to the people.

Uranium mining is sort of a nowhere business right now. The low yield to medium yield for fuel rods is expensive using mined yellow cake. The disposal of thousands of nuclear missiles by the USA and Russia has flooded the market with high yield weapons grade material that can be diluted for fuel rods. Don't look for much in the way of profitable uranium mining for decades unless demand really picks up.

 

[eljefino]

I have Central Maine Power, with the worst customer service of any PoCo, according to us at least. They are great at losing power in a minor storm. They blame the high forest percentage.

~14 cents per kwh. They offer a very confusing peak time-of-day program that makes peak about a nickel more and off peak a penny less. Not sure I'd benefit.

CMP is presently trying to run a long distance transmission line between Hydro Quebec and Massachusetts with the power skipping over our heads. They already have (lease?) a line through NY but want this one so they can badger the NY guys to be cheaper.

Hydro is a great peak power source and storage medium, IMO. Save it for when solar and wind aren't happening. Just dam it up and shut the valve.