Originally Posted by
Doug Garson
Don't know if the other states can or would decide to lower electrical sales to California. My understanding is electricity is a commodity sold on the open market mainly by private for profit companies. What would their incentive be to reduce sales to California? How is California making it hard for electrical producers to deal with them?
Yes, other utilities, in other states, have decided to lower generation output to California specifically.They specifically accomplished it by buying up instate generation stations, then idling them.
No, electricity is not a commodity across the board. It is regulated in most states. Believe me, you want it this way.
The incentive to reduce sales to California was to drive up the price. They didn't actually reduce the sale, what they did was created a false demand.
California is a very backwards business state. They set themselves up big time to be bent over a barrel in the late 90's ,early 2000's, and one of the largest utilities in the country stuck it to them . California later sued and won some of it back in in court, but the utility came out on top.
Just because you can make power cheaper, doesn't mean you're going to sell it cheap.
California made/makes it hard, because they want to control the source of generation. They want "green power", which basically does not exist. It's a made up term, just like "renewable" energy. These are feel good terms that garner votes, and sell a product.
For some reason the politicians that run the state are convinced that non fossil, non nuclear, is somehow environmentally friendly, or better. Whatever makes them feel better, or get re-elected I guess.
Take away all of the tax breaks, incentives, and deals, being thrown at solar and wind in our current climate, and let the actual cost per megawatt be known ,and they're not that attractive.
Solar power, in it's current form, if it doesn't evolve, is an environmental disaster in the making. There is very negative side to solar, that people just don't want to look at.. That panel, in even it's simplest form, is a hazardous waste product, and there is no technology, or industry currently ongoing, that can recycle them.
Hydro power is another environmental disaster. We, as a country, made a decision in the 70's to not only not build any more hydro production, but to also remove many of the dilapidated dams across the country.
Hydro make nice lakes for fishing and boating, and lots of expensive homes are built on their shores, but what will be the net environmental impact in a thousand years? Hydro is not "renewable. We destroyed entire eco-systems, that may never recover. That doesn't meet my definition of "renewable".
There is no free ride with electrical generation. Every technology and source of motive force has it's good and bad points.
I would be very impressed to see a dead stop hydro turbine,of any significant size, go from cold steel to hitting the grid in 2 minutes. That would be impressive. They're fast, but not that fast. A combined cycle gas turbine can go from cold steel to the grid really fast. That's how they make their money. They have to hit the grid quick to take advantage of energy price spikes. They are sometimes put online and taken off in just a few minutes. When the sale priice per megawatt goes from $30.00 to $1800.00, you have to be ready. Yes, the electric market can be that volatile.
Last edited by Mike Cutler; 08-30-2019 at 9:37 PM.
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