Average yearly homeowner electric bill increase is $1219
Above: Dale Ross in 2017 when the green dream hadn’t yet turned to a nightmare. From Georgetown View. The following opinion piece is from Chuck DeVore, a friend of WUWT:
Texas town’s environmental narcissism makes Al Gore happy while sticking its citizens with the bill
By Chuck DeVore
Political leaders in a college town in central Texas won wide praise from former Vice President Al Gore and the larger Green Movement when they decided to go “100 percent renewable” seven years ago. Now, however, they are on the defensive over electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years.
That’s right – $1,219 per household in higher electricity costs for the 71,000 residents of Georgetown, Texas, all thanks to the decision of its Republican mayor, Dale Ross, to launch a bold plan to shift the city’s municipal utility to 100 percent renewable power in 2012.
In short order, Ross was elevated to celebrity status, appearing in scores of articles and videos, both at home and abroad. Al Gore made it a point to feature the Texas Republican mayor at renewable energy conferences as well. Ross was even featured in one of Gore’s documentaries.
But while Ross was being lauded far and wide, the residents of his town were paying a steep price. His decision to bet on renewables resulted in the city budget getting dinged by a total of $29.8 million in the four years from 2015 to 2018. Georgetown’s electric costs were $3.5 million over budget in 2015, ballooning to $6.3 million in 2016, the same year the mayor locked his municipal utility into 20- and 25-year wind and solar energy contracts to make good on his 100 percent renewable pledge.
By 2017, the mayor’s green gamble was undercut by the cheap natural gas prices brought about by the revolution in high-tech fracking. Power that year cost the city’s budget $9.5 million more than expected, rising to $10.5 million last year, according to budget documents reported by The Williamson County Sun.
Whether Mayor Ross and his colleagues on the Georgetown City Council were motivated by good intentions, political machinations, or mere vanity is unknown. What is known is that Georgetown’s municipal utility, an integral part of the city budget, is hemorrhaging red ink thanks to those long term renewable energy contracts.
Here is the best part from the article:
The mayor, who not long ago was approaching ubiquitous status with the media, could not be found by the local press to comment on his city’s budget-busting power deficit, declining to comment by both phone and email.
Full story, much more here.
UPDATE: My headline originally erroneously stated $1200 per month when it should have been per year. Fixed within 10 minutes of publication.
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Yellow jackets !
We published with confidence in 2002 in a written debate with the Pembina Institute:
“Climate science does not support the theory of catastrophic human-made global warming – the alleged warming crisis does not exist.”
We also published with confidence in the same 2002 debate:
“The ultimate agenda of pro-Kyoto advocates is to eliminate fossil fuels, but this would result in a catastrophic shortfall in global energy supply – the wasteful, inefficient energy solutions proposed by Kyoto advocates simply cannot replace fossil fuels.”
We told you so, 17 years ago. But did you listen? Nooooo!
So now you are stuck with high electricity bills. Tell you what – send me money – lots and lots of money – and I’ll tell you how to get rid of this onerous wind power contract. No guarantees though – you’ll probably take my advice and then screw it up. Based on past experience, y’all don’t listen so good. 🙂
Another example of how Socialism always fails. Incompetent government officials will inevitably make poor decisions – the burden falls on the citizenry – and the controlling hand of a market economy has been manacled. Friedrich Hayek was quite correct and the burgeoning power of governments all over the world seems to get stronger everyday – especially since the press is so weak, co-opted and misinformed.
Socialism from a Republican mayor in Texas no less. Sure thing. This was a capitalism fail. Own it.
I’m guessing that you are actually dumb enough to believe that all Republicans are conservative.
and that all Texans are also conservative.
This fella how researched the trending change to blue in Texas for to generations of immigration.
Hispanics vote 70% Democrat, which today means 70% socialist as that is into what the modern Democrats have devolved.
It is only a matter of time before Texas too is lost. Yet another reason to build the wall. Just like Californians and New Yorkers who flee their states yet bring the same failed collectivists policies, so too will this nation fail by bringing in South and Central Americans who also share collectivist ideologies. The white West is doomed because of plans like the UN migration pact.
You don’t see non white countries being inundated do you?
Interesting that.
For those who get tired of the politics angle, it should be well understood by now this is a socialist end game all the way. If you fail to recognize that then you don’t understand the true scope of this issue. And in order to build a socialist regime you must amass support. Well the numbers aren’t promising for America, especially if that wall isn’t built.
Additionally, there are quite a few RINO’s, most notably the late Arizona liar named John McCain.
Trump isn’t really a republican either, more like an 80s Democrat, but that doesn’t stop the mindless automatons from raging against him.
?It’s $1200/yr, right? Still not chump change…
If it’s $1200/yr, we in Australia can only dream of such low prices.
$1200 MORE per year.
Interesting question. $1,200 extra on what base? Ie, what do they now pay for power? Australians are paying a considerable amount PA, possibly even higher than this town in Texas.
They now pay $100 per month more than they did prior to unreliables
Hivemind, $1,200 extra on what base I would assume that if you used 800kW in a month outside of Georgetown and paid $150 for it, in Georgetown you’d pay $250 for the same 800kW. Because they are buying it from the grid and paying down the contract the naive mayor committed them to.
I have solar PV and water and assisted cooling, I’m on the receiving end of things as I pay about $150 to $250 less than my neighbors but we’re all on the grid. So when my system fails to provide for me the grid is there for supply. For now the cost is likely negligible but if more of my neighbors did this the cost of generating power for when we need it would have to be reflected in our bills. The power company would have to do something or they’d go bankrupt.
$1200/yr EXTRA….
thats $1200 a year increase, not total
about A$1600 which is roughly my annual power bill in Australia, if I chuck in firewood
For me in Southern California it’s more like $3,000 per year.
SA and Victoria had to pay an extra $500 per person for two days last week.
$100/mo is a big increase to the average citizen.
The average home in George town TX goes for about $300,000.
https://www.zillow.com/georgetown-tx/home-values
I suspect the values will be dropping soon.
I seriously doubt that prices will decrease. But it will suppress growth until it is corrected. The reason is Georgetown is a bedroom community for Austin liberals fleeing Austin’s over-heated housing prices.
Like everything good created by a traditionally conservative public policy of maintaining low taxes via small government, it creates a great environment for job creation and tech industry moving in/fleeing from California. Then the Liberals arrive in ever larger numbers and begin to dominate the political structures. They don’t leave their politics behind though. They end up destroying the very thing that brought them there in the first place.
It’s a big state though with lots of choices.
Yes Joel: I always think of the Matrix… “Like a Virus”
Got to make “flipping” houses for quick profit harder.
” ?It’s $1200/yr, right?”
But is it even per year? What it says is
“electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years”
The article is very short on absolute numbers. It’s all about costs being $x higher than some reference, which can be pretty hard to pin down.
It’s all about costs being $x higher than some reference . . .
It would appear the reference is the previous 4 years:
” . . . paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years . . . ”
In which case, a $250 / year increase does seem a bit much don’t you agree?
And then what difference would it make if the reference point is instead the next town over, where those residents are paying $1000 / year less than Georgetown is now?
“And then what difference would it make if the reference point is instead the next town over”
So why to the figures matter at all?
But it seems to be relative to budget. So what does that mean? Suppose they budgetted for big savings, and ended up just paying the same as the next town over? To make sense of the article, you really need to know.
So why to the figures matter at all?
Well because the residents of the next town over that isn’t subject to the (apparent) Georgetown renewables contract debacle is paying +/- $1000 less than those residents in Georgetown . . .
Nick, there is such a thing as energy poverty, people unable to keep the lights on due to the high price of electricity. The higher the prices go, the more energy poverty.
Name just one place where the green energy has led to lower prices.
It amazes me that people can be concerned about the climate in 100 years and ignore the retirees freezing in the dark today.
“Well because the residents of the next town over that isn’t subject “
But the figures aren’t relative to next town over. They are relative to Georgetown’s budget expectation. So we don’t know whether that is due to actual extra costs (re next town), or optimistic budget savings that didn’t eventuate. There’s a big difference between actual cost and someone’s faulty budgetting.
So we don’t know whether that is due to actual extra costs (re next town), or optimistic budget savings that didn’t eventuate.
At the very least you’re right that the article is lacking specifics.
Nick, the reference period is “4 years ago”. So whatever they were paying 4 years ago, say x per annum, they’ve now spent 4x + $1,219. Now, Texas is pretty cheap overall for electricity. My home is pretty modest in size, and we spend plus or minus $1500 per year on electricity here in NJ, which is about +25% for electricity costs per k-Wh. An extra $300 per year would definitely sting.
Hi Nick. It may be a double whammy. First the city budge is hit by the increased costs. This is managed by cuts else where or “mill” rate increases to property taxes. Then there is increases to individual house holds and business
From article
“Most Texas residents have the ability to choose their electricity provider in a competitive statewide market, leading to electricity prices that are among the lowest in the nation: 18 percent below the national average in 2018, and 48 percent below prices in green energy pacesetter California.
But Texas’ electricity market excludes municipal utilities like Georgetown’s from competition, leaving consumers without choice and allowing political decisions – rather than market forces – to determine the mix of electricity suppliers. ”
Quit the mess
michael
It’s pretty clear, Nick. Stop being such a weasel.
“…The deficits were triggered by the drop in natural gas prices—now the mainstay of the U.S. electric grid, having displaced coal—which caused the city to sell its surplus wind and solar power at a steep discount into Texas’ wholesale energy market…
…Most Texas residents have the ability to choose their electricity provider in a competitive statewide market, leading to electricity prices that are among the lowest in the nation: 18 percent below the national average in 2018..”
Once again, it’s hard to tell if you’re just being obtuse or really are that thick.
FYI, the “average customer” bill in Georgetown is set to go up another $13/month starting Feb 1. That’s 10% of the average residential bill in TX.
“Nick, the reference period is “4 years ago”. So whatever they were paying 4 years ago, say x per annum, they’ve now spent 4x + $1,219.”
That’s the period. But it doesn’t say they are spending that much more than they did. It says that they are spending more each year than was budgetted for that year. So you have to ask whether the spending was higher or the budgetting lower? Was someone too optimistic?
“In which case, a $250 / year increase does seem a bit much don’t you agree?”
Less than $21/month extra? No, doesn’t seem like the mountain it’s being made out to be. Looks like a non-story as far as the cost to the end-user, so far.
Looks like it’s going up to around $33.82 / month, or +/- $406.00 / year extra starting February 1st, plus additional base cost increases:
“The City of Georgetown will increase the power cost adjustment or PCA on customer’s electric bills starting Feb. 1. The PCA allows the City to recover costs associated with purchasing energy.
Customers will incur an increase of $0.0135 per kilowatt hour, resulting in a new PCA of $0.0175 per kilowatt hour through September. The average customer uses 949 kilowatt hours per month and will experience a $12.82 increase on their monthly bill.”
What say you, Jeff, still a “non-story,” even for fixed-income households?
“Looks like it’s going up to around $33.82 / month”
I don’t know where you get that from. The Municipal notice that you quote from is here. It quotes a rise of $12.82 per month. But what it also makes clear is that the increase comes only after they have tried other internal rearrangements::
“In 2016, 2017, and 2018, the City addressed these ongoing challenges with one-time solutions, including adjusting how the City financed electric infrastructure projects, such as cash versus debt financing, adjusting the timing of projects, increasing the PCA on electric bills, and completing a rate study. All these efforts were intended to resolve what was previously perceived as one-time problems.”
And, it says:
“The current challenge is not related to renewable energy sources.”
It quotes a rise of $12.82 per month.
$21 (per Jeff) + $12.82 = $33.82
“The current challenge is not related to renewable energy sources.”
I’ve made no claim regarding sources.
“$21 (per Jeff) + $12.82 = $33.82”
So you’ve taken someone’s (high) estimate of the amount and added the real figure. What does that achieve?
So you’ve taken someone’s (high) estimate of the amount and added the real figure. What does that achieve?
Well if you must know, and I’m not sure you really must, it was Jeff’s argument, hence I was interested in his thoughts regarding how much of a “non-story” an additional $400/year increase in consumer electricity costs to the average consumer ought perhaps to be considered a real story. E.g., in the case of those consumers on fixed income.
Really Nick with all due respect why am I explaining this to you when you can read the comment thread yourself? Obviously you can, you chose to interject?
I am with you on this Nick.
The article states that electricity costs have exceeded their budget by a total of almost $30 million in the last 4 years. The city population is 71,000, so about 25,000 households is a reasonable estimate of the number of electricity accounts there, which equates to $1,200 IN TOTAL per account to pay for the over-budget electricity over the 4 year period.
Sometimes I get my maths wrong, but why such a popular blog as WUWT hasn’t got it right by the time I have seen this at 09:30 on Thursday in Australia beats me.
” . . . which equates to $1,200 IN TOTAL per account . . . “
I’m no mathematician either, but $1200 per account over 4 years seems to equal $300 per year per account – not a small sum by any means?
I can’t recall any time in decades of paying for both residential and/or commercial electric service having a rate increase of $300 / year in Texas.
$300 per year (£250) is at least what us Brits pay extra because of thr Renewables Obligation)
It’s poor writing. Is it per year or in total? Poor writing.
Yep, I agree. I thought it was per year $1200 per household on average
Spoken like a true blood communist. It really does not matter how much you take from the people because they did not earn it anyway. We of the intelligentsia know best. You earn it, we take it, and we may give it back if you are one of the selected.
Sounds like crony capitalism to me. The banks cause a near depression and we bail out the banks and not the people. Made in the good old USA.
Blind ideology always baffles me.
That’s funny, coming from the guy who defines blind ideology.
Up above he declares that since the mayor is Republican, this is capitalism not socialism.
Or how failures of government are failures of capitalism, not socialism.
The banks didn’t cause anything. They were following the law as written by the socialists in congress.
Here in the PG&E rate zone … +$1,200/yr has been occurring for years now … as the interlocking directorates of The CA Legislature, Givernors office, CA PUC, and PG&E all conspire to RAPE the ratepayers … in the name of “saving the planet”. We PAY for a constant barrage of PR “virtue-signaling” advertising which includes lessons about; Energy efficiency, Energy “Waste”, Employees ovvvvv culler, Global Warming, “sinful” use of energy … etc. anything and everything completely irrelevant to what SHOULD BE PG&E’s prime mission … deliver cheap, abundant, energy to the people of N.CA.
Didn’t PG&E just declare bankruptcy?
NOT per year; over the past 4 years, so $300 per annum.
“Now, however, they are on the defensive over electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years.”
From the original article:
“That’s right – $1,219 per household in higher electricity costs for the 71,000 residents of Georgetown, Texas.” Per household! How many houses? And what about the commercial costs, presuming they have a commercial sector now?
Wow. $1200/Year would double my Electric Bill.
I can’t believe the residents aren’t converging on City Hall pitch forks in hand.
Technically the article does not say per year. The only time frame provided states, “…paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years.” Per year is inferred but it could be $1000 over 4 years or $250 per year. Other specifics provided are for annul budgets but without a number of rate payers or how overruns are financed that annual increase can’t be calculated.
I’d prefer to see something like average monthly or yearly bill increased from X to Y. That would also provide the percent increase.
If only there were some clue that this wouldn’t work….
🙂 Good one.
hmmm…I recall some proverb against placing all your eggs into one basket.
Alas, common sense isn’t all that common.
He seems to have not been listening when his grannie read all those childhood wisdom fables that taught such good general lessons.
Well, he will be parading around in his “new clothes” just as the temperatures drop across the country.
I’m pretty sure that Grimm’s Fairy Tails have been banned in most counties. Too violent or something (which they were , which made them memorable).
I’m sad for the ratepayers. They will not escape this situation any time soon. Even trying to sell out and leave will be problematic.
When does this story end up on 60 Minutes? LOL
It won’t end up on 60 minutes because it doesn’t fit the narrative.
If the bill mentioned in the connected story goes through, will the municipal utility be able to go bankrupt? It does seem if most of the customers are able to choose another power supplier, Georgetown will lose enough customers that will be the only out.
It does seem if most of the customers are able to choose another power supplier . . .
According to the article they can’t but that isn’t exactly true:
Municipals have the option:
As of January 1, 2002, municipally-owned electric utilities (“munis”) and electric cooperatives (“co-ops”) have the right to choose whether to participate in Texas’ retail electric market.
https://www.puc.texas.gov/consumer/facts/faq/Muni.aspx
Whether Georgetown has elected to invoke their right to monopoly, I don’t know for sure, but it doesn’t seem rational to believe they wouldn’t.
In the linked article, it mentioned there was a proposed Texas bill to allow customers of municipal utilities to opt out, and choose another supplier.
Hopefully a consistent approach to competition will prevail and become law. Now if only I could drill a water well in the city limits . . . at least dreamin’ is free.
“Mayor Ross had previously reveled in trolling President Trump, boasting to a German TV show that, “I make decisions based on facts… unlike the president,” then opining that “It was a huge mistake to withdraw from the Paris climate accords…””
….LOL
““Mayor Ross had previously reveled in trolling President Trump”
It’s nice to see people like this get their comeuppance.
America is great for this example of thousands of various experiments in public policy. Public policy failures like Georgetown (or Puerto Rico) become learning case studies. People can see stupidity and free-market natural selection can select winners and losers. And if government gets in the way as they have in California’s energy market, people can easily vote with their feet and move across the state line or to nearby town/city or out to an unincorporated rural setting in Georgetown’s case.
Dale Ross – a RINO trying to ingratiate himself to the ignorant Liberal social circles in Austin. Sadly his virtue signaling is costing people the lowest economic segment of Georgetown dearly.
Not much different than former Gov. Arny Schwarzenegger when he signed the California Carbon cap and trade boondoggle that is slowly squeezing the economic life out of California.
Dale Ross and, Schwarzenegger are examples of RINOs that must be driven from political office or at least force them to change party affiliations to stay in politics. There are several of these types today in Congress who call themselves Republicans. They clearly need to be “primary-ed out” by primary challengers. Cahllengers with the common sense of what being a conservative means and willing to challenge the stupidity of renewable energy that sell-outs working class America to the green billionaires like Tom Steyer and “Green” hedge funds.
RINOs and DINOs everywhere. Depends on the point of view.
But he is not the first guy to sign a long term energy contract and get burned. Happens with oil and gas and coal as well.
And to think, the cost of fossil fuels in Texas is even lower than the US average. The motivation was obviously not for the public good.
I know Dale Ross from political meetings. He used to pretend to be a Republican to get elected. Recently, he told a Republican activist words to the effect that the Democrats love me and I don’t need you (Republicans) any more. Cynical and without principles. The Democrats are welcome to him.
Some time ago, I tried to tell him the folly of renewable energy. What happens when the wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine? At any rate, he and Al Gore knew better. So, I confess to a feeling of schadenfreude. May the Lord forgive me but he is an arrogant “Little Napoleon” and he had it coming. Too bad about the people of Georgetown, especially in Sun City since they are on a fixed income. They voted for him so I do sympathize, but not too much.
I wonder what he thinks of his political career or his credibility? Although politician’s are on the whole a rather shameless lot.
Well he’s finished as a Republican or anything remotely related to conservatism. And as Republican-reject he’ll never be welcomed in the Democratic Party, which itself only exists as a political force in Texas in the bigger cities like Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso.
all thanks to the decision of its Republican mayor, Dale Ross,
more like
all thanks to the decision of its RINO mayor, Dale Ross,
But on the good side, the greenies that forced this on the public feel just so darn good about themselves.
Now they need to do something for their warm-fuzzy fix tomorrow.
The poor and fixed income households suffer the most between high property taxes in TX and higher green utilities. What’s left water, sanitation, and local Sales Taxes to cover the budget fiasco?
I’ve got news for you, no matter what, the poor and fixed income people “suffer the most.” That’s kind of what poor means.
It’s a question of targeting with the public policy impact.
Who’s SUV is that headed out of town?
Meanwhile other U.S. cities are going bust…..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mayrarodriguezvalladares/2019/01/29/americas-largest-cities-are-practically-broke/#1053ca22ebb9
Results don’t matter; good intentions do.
$1200 per year is nothing! Jo Nova reports that the Australian authorities had to spend $500 per household (almost $1 billion total) just to keep the lights on (to most, but not all users) in a SINGLE DAY during a heat wave.
http://joannenova.com.au/2019/01/nearly-a-billion-dollars-for-electricity-for-just-one-day-500-per-family/
Scale of the two issues is somehwat different
Nobody is sending bills to individuals for $500, althought it will probably ripple through in higher long term tarrifs.
What is never discussed when looking at these peaks is how much of it is budgetted for or hedged against anyway.
How are they different? That $500 must be payed by the ratepayers (or backed up by the taxpayers, who are the same people).
These peak prices are vastly higher than they used to be. They got to over $14,000 per MWh, which corresponds to $14 per kWh — 500 to 1000 times the typical retail price.
Do you really think there is $1000 of a typical household’s electric bill per year budgeted for two of these days?
No but I do beleive (in the Oz case)such days are so common and predictable the overall annualized costs is included in the tariff that is struck with customers and adjusted and end of supply contracts. Nobody gets a $500 bill.
You really belive that when a flight only has 10 seats filled , that those 10 people pay the real cost of that flight? Flights like that (days like that) are known occurences and are pat of everyones ticket. Its real money for sure, but spread very widely.
I lived in Southern California for 28 years, the last 11 of them in Redlands (we left in 2008). Our electric utility was Southern California Edison. Our house was a 4,400 square foot single-story residence on 1/2 acre, and we had a swimming pool. The pumps in the pool ran continuously, but didn’t consume much power. The roof of our home had a 1 foot thick layer of polyurethane foam insulation, so heat penetration from the sun was zero. Toward the end of our residence there, the highest electric bill we had was $1,200 per month. I knew that was impossible on a flat-rate basis. So I went on an exhaustive chase for the truth.
The main problem was that SoCalEdison’s rate structure was sort of like the progressive income tax. They (allegedly) measured “average” usage, and set that as the “baseline.” Anything up to the baseline was billed at the basic rate. Above the baseline, the rate jumped to a breathtaking level. Our baseline was set at an absurdly low level. But beyond that, I found that their “meter readings” were, in fact, “estimated” – the meter readers couldn’t be bothered to actually read them. The biggest bill we got as a result of that was $2.400 – as a result of a supposed “correction” for previous “underestimates.” We managed to fight that one, and win.
The one thing that really bugged me, though, was the meter. I once did a sequential power down of everything in the house, reading the power rate each time. Finally, I threw the main breaker, shutting off all power from the panel. The meter still rotated, slowly but surely. We repeatedly requested that SoCalEd come out and install a new meter. They demurred, saying that “If the meter is defective, it would read high.”
When we moved out in 2008, we shut off all electric power to the house. Because of the real estate implosion of that year, it sat unoccupied until 2010. During that time, we received a minimum bill of $110 per month for electric power.
Now I live in Virginia, with power supplied by the collective Novec (an excellent outfit). Our house here is actually bigger than the California house, though without a pool. Our average monthly bill is about $125 a month, with a peak of about $200 in summer.
Go figure.
Long time readers will recall Anthony Watts’ articles regarding his foray into solar electric panels. As I recall, he did it as all-in, with no financing from the various solar “farmers” out there, so he paid all the costs and got all the revenues. The biggest incentive was this demand charge you encountered. In his case, shaving kW demand off his peak pretty much paid for the system, not including the additional electricity offsets.
Rereading the article, it seems to be unclear whether the $1200 was per year or was spread over 4 years.
You’re right, it isn’t clear from the article.
It reports “over budget” numbers totally $30 million over 4 years. If you take the town’s population of 71,000 and put it into 25,000 households, that’s $1200 spread over the 4 years.
However, they may very well have budgeted for higher costs in the first place, just not high enough. But for it to be $1200 per household per year, they would have had to have budgeted for $900 per year.
Gee, just because somebody tells you something, don’t you think you should check this out thoroughly when you are betting on something a whole city has to pay for? Wouldnt you wonder why you were the first city to do this. Wouldnt you know what your constituents would have to pay before you signed a contract… for 25yrs!!
Since we have all these junk lawsuits against oil companies by the left, wouldnt this be a natural for suing the green goons back for false advertising on the competitiveness of renewables? Since the deal was signed, we discover that windmills fail after 12 yrs and their capacities decline to about half in that time. Hey, this means they will triple in the cost for their power and taxpayers have already paid them huge subsidies from the outset. I’d say the folks of Georgetown are therefore actually paying 1200 they dont know about plus 1200 that they do.
Is it $1,219 extra per year, of over 4 years, i.e. $305 per year? The article says “Now, however, they are on the defensive over electricity costs that have their residents paying more than $1,000 per household in higher electricity charges over the last four years.”
Sadly idiots like this get to grandstand and strut the stage for a while, and then get voted out leaving their “legacy” of dumb decision and long term debt or payment contracts for others to deal with. It has been the same in Australia , particularly South Australia but now in the much larger State of Victoria , where instead of learning from those mistakes they are repeating them.
Blackouts and stratospheric peak costs are just the prelude, if they stay on the current path.
So a ~70% increase in cost since 2015. That’s ~23% per year. Was there an associated ~70% increase in consumption?
And can the Germans expect the same increase when they go 100% “renewable”?
I forgot this…
That’s the problem Californians transplanting themselves.
They cannot run from themselves…
But hopefully the axiom: “the solution to pollution is dilution” when the next 10 million or so leave California. Right now they are screwing up CDL/Post Falls/Sand Point, Boise, Arizona, and Texas.
Well, they should be thankful that renewables provide ‘free’ energy. Otherwise…
Have you ever noticed that almost every con includes the victim being told he is getting something ‘free’?
TANSTAFL – it’s worth remembering
(There Are No Such Things As Free Lunches)
It’s been around since the 30’s.
Modern day equivalent: “When the computer app is free, it’s your data that’s being sold.” TANSTAFL
“You are not the customer. You are the product.”
“… they decided to go “100 percent renewable” seven years ago …”.
===========================================
“100% renewable” implies that the town’s electricity supply is totally self-sufficient but it’s not while it remains connected to the state grid:
” Georgetown has contracted with NRG Energy Inc. for solar and EDF Renewable Energy for wind. Energy generated by both the solar and wind farms is put into a statewide electrical grid, which is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. GUS then pulls energy off of the state electrical grid to meet customers’ needs …”.
https://communityimpact.com/austin/georgetown/city-county/2018/08/14/bottom-line-drives-georgetowns-switch-to-solar-wind-power/
Texas electricity generation by source is overwhelmingly gas-fired and coal-fired.
Reliable 24 hour 7 day electricity supply to meet demand from weather-dependent sources is impossible and in a rational system the suppliers of the base-load backup would be charging appropriately for the costs associated with being suppliers of last resort.
Do I hear the clucking of green chickens coming home to roost?
Why are the costs going up when the prices were locked in for 20 years? May look like a smarter decision in the later years of the contract. Assuming the wind mill companies are still in business.
The problem isn’t that their prices are going up, it is that the cost for the rest of the Texas grid went down and they are locked into a long term fixed price contract with the solar and wind providers and so can’t take advantage of the fossil fuel driven price decline their neighbors are enjoying.
Guess the Georgetown residents can at least be thankful their local Government didn’t actually sever themselves from a reliable grid.
If they had actually gone “100% Renewable”, they’d be in the dark. (And a bit chilly at times.)
As I understand it, it is worse than that. They contracted to buy all the electricity the wind and solar plants generated, even if they did not need it. So when the sun is shining and the wind blowing they are selling surplus electricity to the rest of the grid, generally at a loss.
The fact that they are still attached to the Texas grid, to buy or sell, means that they never did go “100% Renewable”.
The “100% Renewable” energy was just a political Head-LIE-n from the start.
PS Does Germany import energy? How about Spain?
Indeed. BillP. Basically they are selling their excess to the grid (cheaply at a loss, possibly even paying the grid to take it) at times when the grid energy is most abundant/cheap (the sun is shining so all the solar providers are feeding the grid, the wind is blowing so all the wind providers are feeding the grid) and buying from the grid at the times that the grid energy is most scarce/expensive (sun isn’t shining so everyone that depends on solar is tapping the grid, the wind isn’t blowing so everyone that depends on wind is tapping the grid).
There’s alternatives: https://www.drachengas.at/private-anwendungen/produkte/