Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

"It does not raise rates by 50 percent," Nelson said. "If they don't say it, they imply it. I don't appreciate it." - PUC member

Laylan Copelin - STATESMAN - June 28, 2012

Crony Capitalism. How else can a state with among the highest rates in the 48-states (#16 of the 50 states + DC) heavily powered by cheap coal fail to keep up? Summer months might affect the usage, but NOT the rates. Ref: http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/big...ric_slide.html --Ed.

Hoping to encourage construction of new power plants by increasing revenue for generators, the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Thursday voted to raise the wholesale price cap for electricity prices.

The action — which takes effect Aug. 1 — raised the cap to $4,500 per megawatt hour, a 50 percent increase, but its proponents, commission Chairman Donna Nelson and Commissioner Rolando Pablos, tried to answer criticism the action will raise customers' bills dramatically.... [Read More]

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

Hey
Everything in Texas is Big!
Sure they have LOTS of cheap coal
And Lots of oil
And Lots of NG
And Lots of wind
So it is just natural that the have BIG electricity bills.
I pay 9 cents next door in LA
My buddy N of Houston in Magnolia pays 15 cents-and has to commit to some kind of yearly contract?? In River Ridge(burb of NOLA) we have no choice-our electricity is NG and Nuke.
Yeah everything is Big in Texas!!
Hard to believe TX needs to rely on cheap coal(soft dirty coal right??)
Guess I shouldn't take such pleasure in TX problems, but Texans look down at Louisiana because of our 3rd world style pols and laughable education system.
It is kinda a sneaky pleasure to see Texans get screwed.
I should be ashamed of myself!!
Charlie

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

... I'm betting you'll soon see this move from all the other states as well.

Why?? Your Federal Reserve and inept government at work.

The real inflation rate is about 6% (and likely will go higher), ... not the BS CPI number they try to fool you with. At 6% inflation, a 50% rate hike will only keep the power companies up with inflation for the next 6 or 7 years. After that, they're going to need another 50% + rate hike.

/a few rolling blackouts just makes the rate hikes seem more justified

Argentina here we come...

Frozen Rates, Inflation Threaten Argentina's Power Companies
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...18-708963.html

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

If you watch the demand on the grid, it will make sense. Wildly swinging the loads on steam fired plants to keep up with erratic wind generation swings is causing a huge increase in maintenance costs. Our reliability is going way down. When you swing pressures from 2100psi to 1200 psi 1 or more times per day, it is devastating to boiler tubes. Notices were given to 45 employees at our plant for layoff in August. Thankfully I wasn't on the list. (this time)

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

^ Mike, glad you dodged that bullet.

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

Cronyism at its worst. Company bosses and politicians get together nto raise rates again and screw the consumer deeper in the wallet and the ass. Shoot them all.

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

Thankfully in my town, which is a suburb of DFW, we have a city electric co-op. We purchased all Natural Gas energy, and usually make the contracts whenever gas prices are low, or the latest contract is out. We hold steady around 9.8 cents per MW. I never realized how good we had it.

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

In the Houston area energy is deregulated (not all of Tx is) I'm on a 100 % wind plan, it's 12.2 cents per (had to agree to a 12 month contract) pretty good deal, I don't use much that helps even more https://docs.google.com/open?id=1lUm...w9HPTt3jrLg4li

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

its $0.045 per kWh, does not sound too bad. Better than rolling blackouts..

So they just abruptly dump steam to quickly lower the produced electricity?.. sounds like they need fast acting NG turbines.

Re: Texas - with highest utility rates outside NE, NY, NJ, CA going for another hike
 

And I thought our grid could just seamlessly absorb the electricity generated by windpower. Guess I was wrong, and this looks like a huge potential problem. I wonder what it woud take to store the "surplus" electricity so we could use it when the wind dies down. And what would that cost ?