bobcook39...@hotmail.com <bobcook39...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> My rooftop inverters do not work unless there is a signal from the grid of > the appropriate frequency and voltage. That technical feature and expense > was mine not the Utilities. > The utilities claim they also have to install extra equipment to deal with rooftop PV systems adding electricity to the grid. > The utility makes a good deal of money off me, since I produce most of my > energy during the May thru September time frame when the wholesale > electricity costs are greater because hydro power is less available. > Just because their wholesale costs are higher, that does not mean they make more profit selling the electricity to you. They may not have a fixed markup. Nowadays there is a free market for electricity in many places. > I use very little electricity during that time. The utility gets from > me about 3000 kw hrs net input to their grid during that time frame. That > amounts to about $300 clear profit to the utility. The utility loves that > kind of margin. > Not really. If everyone used such small amounts of electricity the power companies would go bankrupt. Their equipment, grid, trucks and so on is only profitable if they sell in large volumes. Many of their costs are fixed. Such as the cost of a nuclear or coal plant, or the cost of repairing the grid after a storm. If everyone in Atlanta starting consuming 10 times less electricity, the cost of maintaining the grid would not fall, and the cost of repairing it after a snowstorm or in day-to-day outages would not fall. As you see from the outages listed here, outages are caused by things like cars whacking into electric power poles, or trees falling on wires. There would not be fewer cars whacking into polls just because people use less electricity: http://outagemap.georgiapower.com/external/default.html The same applies to other large-scale industries such as oil, or printing newspapers and distributing them by houses: If half of cars were powered by electricity instead of gasoline, the oil companies could never make a profit with their distant oil wells, offshore oil wells, gigantic tankers and so on. They cannot scale down their equipment to meet a much lower demand. When nearly everyone stops getting newspapers delivered, it will not be economical for the *Atlanta Journal* to print thousands of copies and deliver them to one or two houses on a city block. That is already happening. I am the only one on my neighborhood who still gets a printed paper. That cannot last much longer. Long ago, I was probably the last person in Atlanta to have milk delivered to my house by an ancient truck from the dairy company. There are modern versions of such services that can be scaled down, such as electronic newspapers or Instacart for groceries. - Jed
