High Electricity Bills Preparing for Another Energy Price Rise: High


In Oregon, for example, electricity prices fell almost 1.5 percent in January and less than 1 percent in February, although some companies, such as Portland General Electric, raised rates modestly. Even so, rates in this service remain well below the national average. The largest utility in the state gets about 20 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric dams, 13 percent from wind turbines and 2 percent from solar panels.

The utility also recently installed software to enhance the ability to combine energy from sources such as rooftop solar panels and batteries on a neighborhood and business basis. This gives the company more control and flexibility.

Many utility operators and utilities have not invested in such tools and cannot monitor and control small energy systems to select the lowest cost renewable energy systems throughout the day, taking into account whether the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.

“We have focused on renewable energy for more than a decade and leverage technologies that allow us to integrate ever-increasing amounts of renewable energy at the lowest cost for customers,” said Portland General CEO Maria M. Pope in an interview. .

In most of the United States, utilities are struggling with the growth of rooftop solar. regulators in california proposes drastically reducing incentives for residential solar systems, but the measure stalled due to opposition from the solar industry and homeowners. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis recently vetoed a bill backed by utilities that would effectively remove incentives for roof panels.

Still, utility managers said they were aware they couldn’t continue to increase rates, especially as more people use the grid to power electric cars and heat pumps.

Overall, greater reliance on the power grid will reduce costs, said Richard McMahon, senior vice president of energy supply and finance for the Edison Electrics Institute, a utility industry group. Electric cars and heat pumps, for example, will require less maintenance, eliminate filling up in petrol pumps, and reduce heating bills.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *