State approves Duke Power rates hike

[Niner National]

If I had a car since 1930 that I knew I was going to have to replace at some point, I have to make financial decisions to prepare for the replacement.

 

 

Hard to do when you're a regulated utility being told how much you can charge.

 

Regulated markets have kept energy prices artificially low for years, preventing utilities from being able to set aside enough money to build new generation facilities. Instead they dump the money into extending the lifespan of old and inefficient plants until they can no longer. 

 

That's what we're facing now.

 

Coal is far more expensive than it used to be. Energy companies simply could not afford to keep running 30% efficiency plants. Combine that with environmental regulations and plummeting gas costs and it became time to convert coal plants to gas or replace them entirely.

 

This costs billions of dollars.

 

The reality is we should have been paying more for energy for quite some time.

 

I'm not saying Duke is blameless though, just that there are a number of factors that impact energy rates.

[cookinwithgas]

That's a more reasonable assessment. No one was complaining when Duke had about the lowest prices in the nation for power (and still does). We held out as long as possible.

 

New plants are insanely expensive to build, nuclear is stalled, governments are demanding that certain percentages of power come from alternative sources, industrial demand is still weak....but the lights have to stay on.

 

Public Utilities are good solid low yield, long term investments. They are not "incredible investments".

[Lloyd Christmas]

FOOK DUCK and McCrory

[thefuzz]

The "liberals" need to be a little careful in this thread.

 

Anyone know how much a "scrubber" cost for coal plants?

 

How about how expensive to build a new nuclear plant is?

 

A lot more goes into the energy business than just flipping a switch and 90 megawatts starts spreading itself out.

[natty]

Where's my motherfuging smart grid.

[Guest]

but flourescent light bulbz!!

[dos poptarts]

http://www.powertochoose.org/en-us/

 

oh sorry, that's for Texas. I've switched my provider 3 times since moving here from Charlotte.

this reminds me I should shop rates again.....

 

what is the kWh rate from Dookie for Charlotte now?

[Niner National]

The "liberals" need to be a little careful in this thread.

 

Anyone know how much a "scrubber" cost for coal plants?

 

How about how expensive to build a new nuclear plant is?

 

A lot more goes into the energy business than just flipping a switch and 90 megawatts starts spreading itself out.

hmm, well the only two people that have posted so far that anyone could conceivably put on the liberal list would be cwg and I.

 

I think we've both given well reasoned and accurate arguments for why power costs are going up, including environmental reasons.

 

Power is expensive, no matter how you generate it.

 

I personally don't really care. My energy bill is one thing I have a great deal of control over. It's pretty easy to shave a good bit off your energy bill just by changing your habits and making easy and inexpensive upgrades (programmable thermostats, hot water heater wraps, bulbs, weather stripping, etc). 

 

Yes I know higher energy costs increases the prices of everything else, but they also force companies to be less wasteful, which brings their costs back down to a reasonable level.

 

The last building I worked in simply replaced their old black roof with a new energy efficient white roof. Their cooling costs (their biggest expense) dropped by more than half. The roof will pay for itself in only a couple years. Not only did it save them money, but it made the place a lot more comfortable. Before that, the AC ran almost 24/7 and it was still hot in there. This summer it was very comfortable.

[thefuzz]

hmm, well the only two people that have posted so far that anyone could conceivably put on the liberal list would be cwg and I.

 

I think we've both given well reasoned and accurate arguments for why power costs are going up, including environmental reasons.

 

Power is expensive, no matter how you generate it.

 

I personally don't really care. My energy bill is one thing I have a great deal of control over. It's pretty easy to shave a good bit off your energy bill just by changing your habits and making easy and inexpensive upgrades (programmable thermostats, hot water heater wraps, bulbs, weather stripping, etc). 

 

Yes I know higher energy costs increases the prices of everything else, but they also force companies to be less wasteful, which brings their costs back down to a reasonable level.

 

The last building I worked in simply replaced their old black roof with a new energy efficient white roof. Their cooling costs (their biggest expense) dropped by more than half. The roof will pay for itself in only a couple years. Not only did it save them money, but it made the place a lot more comfortable. Before that, the AC ran almost 24/7 and it was still hot in there. This summer it was very comfortable.

 

 

There are a few, was not directing at anyone, but "environmental" types, and the anti nuclear types are causing higher kph costs.

 

Not the only reasons, but a big one.

 

I am not upset about it as I think that power is very inexpensive for what we are able to do, and what we expect.

[Niner National]

http://www.powertochoose.org/en-us/

 

oh sorry, that's for Texas. I've switched my provider 3 times since moving here from Charlotte.

this reminds me I should shop rates again.....

 

what is the kWh rate from Dookie for Charlotte now?

Around 10 cents kWh, but that is for generation, transmission, and all other fees.

 

The costs on the site you gave are only the generation costs. Someone still has to transmit it to your house. While you have SOME choice, you don't have total choice because one entity still owns the lines to your house and they're charging a transmission rate that is non-negotiable.

 

Deregulation has been a failure across the U.S. so far in the sense that it was supposed to save consumers money.

 

In Texas for example:

 

 

 

 

The last chart shows that 9 years into deregulation, Texas is finally starting to see some savings compared to the national average, but overall, deregulation has cost Texas consumers billions of dollars.

[dos poptarts]

Around 10 cents kWh, but that is for generation, transmission, and all other fees.

 

The costs on the site you gave are only the generation costs. Someone still has to transmit it to your house. While you have SOME choice, you don't have total choice because one entity still owns the lines to your house and they're charging a transmission rate that is non-negotiable.

 

Deregulation has been a failure across the U.S. so far in the sense that it was supposed to save consumers money.

 

In Texas for example:

..........

 

The last chart shows that 9 years into deregulation, Texas is finally starting to see some savings compared to the national average, but overall, deregulation has cost Texas consumers billions of dollars.

 

Cool info, link?

 

All or almost the power is generated/sold by Reliant Energy anyway.....So I get to choose the middleman. Yippee. There is the choice to go 100% renewable (wind/solar) but you still get power generated from traditional sources, but your payment goes to support renewable sources elsewhere in the State. (west texas has lot of windmills)

 

I don't have my bill in front of me, but I think 10.6kWh is what I paid last month after all taxes/fees.

 

[Niner National]

Cool info, link?

 

All or almost the power is generated/sold by Reliant Energy anyway.....So I get to choose the middleman. Yippee. There is the choice to go 100% renewable (wind/solar) but you still get power generated from traditional sources, but your payment goes to support renewable sources elsewhere in the State. (west texas has lot of windmills)

 

I don't have my bill in front of me, but I think 10.6kWh is what I paid last month after all taxes/fees.

 

http://www.texasobserver.org/report-electricity-deregulation-cost-texans-billions/

 

the last price I saw in NC was 9.9 cents per kWh, but that was over a year ago. Not sure if any new rate increases have actually gone into effect yet.

 

Duke customers in SC pay a little more than in NC.

[cookinwithgas]

AS far as stewards of your money goes, Duke is actually pretty good. When I go into coal plants, the generators that are running are usually 1950s vintage. The real costs are involved in pollution controls these days, to get 10 percent more crap out of the air you have to almost double the costs of the controls.

 

Vultures love the rapping and the heat the cleaning equipment makes and nest in the rafters and crap everywhere, but we can't get rid of them because they are endangered. For years we've tried all kinds of things to get rid of them but they like the plants more than they hate loud horns and other attempts made. The power world is full of things like this, it's pretty crazy at times.