Power company: We want more money from people
RepubliQan committee: Done
People: ??!
(In episode 2, people vote in the republiQans again)
Maybe… but Arizona has slowly been turning blue. It’s a purple state at this point. Trump and Biden are definitely going to have a big battle over it.
This is not a partisan issue. See California, a very blue state, doing the exact same thing.
Pull your head out of the sand.
Commission Chair Jim O’Connor told reporters Friday that he and three Republican colleagues approved the new rate plan without knowing the exact impact it would have on customers since it was projected to be “in the ballpark” of about 8%. O’Connor reasoned that the margin of error was too small to delay voting for another day.
The Democrat on the committee voted no
OP was mocking the urgency and willingness to get the deal done, not just having a rate increase.
Yes and the democratically controlled CPUC in CA did similar. They rushed through rate increases and reimbursement reductions on the whims of the power companies.
This is not a republican vs democrat issue. This is showing regulatory capture around the country.
This is not a partisan issue. See California, a very blue state, doing the exact same thing.
Please cite your source that shows that California raised rates customer have to pay simply because they are solar customers.
Please don’t post NEM 3.0 stuff, because you know thats not the same thing as your statement claims.
A rate charge increase targeting solar customers is fucking horseshit.
Should they pay for infrastructure? Absolutely, but the same flat rate that all customers pay, that are tied in.
That the rate scale was passed without any real review by the elected officials is fucking egregious. Can’t even do their fucking jobs.
Just to play a bit of devils advocate, power companies have to be ready for maximum demand scenarios, so they have to build all their generators to handle extreme cold and cloudy days/nights, as well as very hot cloudy days/nights where solar isn’t effective enough.
Generating power is a big balance act between creating too much or too little, and due to clouds being unpredictable, power generation for the correct amount becomes harder. Undershoot and you have to fire up less efficient generators. Overshoot and you may be wasting it. With wind/solar it isn’t quite as simple as you use less overall, so so pay that much less.
If you want that, build/buy your own battery storage system and enough solar panels to cover all your electrical usage year round and disconnect from the grid.
None of that justifies charging those who use solar panels more than other customers. Especially when you consider that solar can actually provide power to the grid when there is excess power produced in a household.
I agree with the idea behind your message. But keep in mind that in many places you aren’t allowed to disconnect from the grid. I ran into that problem a lot when searching for a property to build an off-grid house, many counties simply require that you are hooked up to utilities if they are available within a certain distance of your house. Be it electricity water or sewer you just don’t have a choice
Well that’s just some bullshit, right there.
You do realize that in some states those privately owned battery systems are offered up to help with peak demand events, right? Owners sign up to be part of a virtual power plant, allowing the utility to send power from the batteries to the grid when needed. The utilities pay the owners for that power, and limit how often they can do it. And owners can opt out at any time.
I recall that there’s a trial run of that from 1 power company and it’s not been rolling out very long now.
They’re in wide use in a number of states. The 4 biggest leaders of VPP’s are California, Texas, New York, and Massachusetts:
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/03/29/california-tops-the-virtual-power-plant-market/
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Don’t worry, we do get to sell our excess energy back to the grid. I can earn a very generous fixed 2.8 cents per kWh that I generate, but have the privilege of paying no less than 7 cents, but up to 25c at peak, per kWh.
Oh and somehow my peak hours are different than they were before I had solar. Because the grid struggles to produce power at different times for different people.
It’s super frustrating.
Time to add some whole-home batteries and maybe a few more panels to their systems and cut off from the grid completely. Get an EV with V2L capabilities and you can boost the system from time to time if you need to.
I’ve always wondered about having a big system that’s just not part of the the house wiring and never telling the electric company you’re using solar.
A lot of places require a house to have electric service. Not just electricity available on site, but service from the utility. Otherwise it’s not livable.
So bring electric into a circuit panel that powers nothing but a house plug and pay a tiny amt for the electricity used. Get your solar and batteries connected to a separate panel that powers everything else.
This exactly. And if you’re close to running out of batteries, you have mains you can draw from.
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