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PG&E files for bankruptcy. Here's why that could mean bigger electricity bills
PG&E Corp., which owns California's largest electric utility, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in anticipation of huge legal claims, starting an unpredictable process that could take years to resolve and is likely to result in higher energy bills for the millions of Californians who depend on Pacific Gas & Electric for power.
PG&E said a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which allows the company to continue operating while it comes up with a plan to pay its debts, was the only way to deal with billions of dollars in potential liabilities from a series of deadly wildfires, many of which were sparked by the company's power grid infrastructure.
"Through this process, we will prioritize what matters most to our customers and the communities we serve — safety and reliability," interim Chief Executive John R. Simon said in a statement. "We believe that this process will make sure that we have sufficient liquidity to serve our customers and support our operations and obligations."
Energy experts say PG&E's rates probably will increase when the utility emerges from Chapter 11 protection because bankruptcy inevitably makes it more expensive for a company to borrow money and creates large legal and other bankruptcy-related costs. The utility passes such expenses along to its customers.
"It's almost impossible to see a way out of this that doesn't have some short-term cost increases," Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a recent interview.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 30 2019, @08:21PM (4 children)
pricing of electrical energy must change.
Metering electricity is dumb. We generate way more than we use. The connection costs should be fixed, based on the wire gauge going into your house/office/factory...
And we need a global grid [geni.org] too.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Gault.Drakkor on Wednesday January 30 2019, @09:33PM (3 children)
To say that we generate more then we use, if didn't, the costs would be enormous. Some industrial plants can take days to weeks to get back to full production after a unplanned power outage. Electricity is produced on demand. There is practically ZERO electrical energy storage. Sure there is storage in hydro, unspent fuel but that is not electrical energy storage. So if you generate somewhat more you dump excess as heat. If somewhat less is produced you get brownouts, less still you get blackouts.
As to metering, it is not silent, it is critical as signals to the free market to allow efficient operation. My point was that the price function is out dated. It needs to be updated for the new forms of energy production. And at the very least it costs energy to make the equipment to produce/extract energy. That has a price. We are not post scarcity.
Fixed connection costs per energy capacity? That ignores: power factor(you want good quality sin waves on the grid), the current demand and supply curves, median distance from source to sink(longer it has to go the more it costs).
Global grid: If electricity is not metered, who pays for the grid?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 30 2019, @10:30PM (2 children)
who pays for the grid?
I already said, it's paid for with hook up and fixed monthly maintenance fees. Generation, as it becomes more decentralized, is becoming less of an issue.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by Gault.Drakkor on Thursday January 31 2019, @12:48AM (1 child)
Sorry, I was meaning who pays for the global grid. Because that should be separate project(s), since it is large and non trivial capital project.
General grid maintenance, yes of course it would come out of general connection fees.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 31 2019, @01:33AM
I was meaning who pays for the global grid.
"Global grid" is just a bunch of local/national grids all connected together. Money isn't the real issue. Petty politics is. I suppose expecting that kind of cooperation is a difficult prospect. We'd rather build walls instead of bridges.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..