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Law & Lawyers

How Low Can Electric Bills Go? 1.38%

In just 1 year out of last 58 has electricity been more economical.

There have been 58 months of March since March 1959. Of all those months of March, only one had a smaller percent of consumer expenditures spent on electric bills than March 2016.

In March 2016, just 1.38 percent of consumer expenditures paid electric bills. That's what the Commerce Department reported on Friday, in its gross domestic product release.

Only March 2000 had a smaller percent, 1.34 percent. March 2016 and March 2004 tied for second place, with 1.38 percent paying for electricity. 

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Rooftop Solar Generated Half Percent in Q1

Last week’s Energy Dept. report: rooftop solar generated less than a half percent of residential consumption in Q1 2016.

Before the Memorial Day weekend, the Energy Department reported on the first quarter, January through March 2016. 

Residential rooftop solar across the nation generated 1.6 million megawatt-hours in Q1. Residential customers consumed 346.8 million megawatt-hours of grid electricity. 

So solar on the roofs of homes covered a half percent of homes' consumption of electricity.

Homes' consumption was down by 31.4 million megawatt-hours, compared with the prior year, Q1 2015. But this eight percent drop had little to do with solar trends. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Powerless Old Men

A chessboard, a park, two old men, memories of when power freed people

The old man, Ernest, craned and stared at a chessboard. Minutes passed. A soft breeze blew through the park. The bird above them heralded the development. 

Rook move? Or the pawn? Like looking through googles underwater, the board, the best move, felt fuzzy. Decisions once felt clear, decisive, he recalls. But that was long ago. 

"Move something, damn it." Patrick, perched across, was growing crankier by the day. "Hard to believe you ran a power outfit. Your electrons must have been the slowest in the industry."

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Gas by Region

Midwest: higher average gas bills, higher percent of gas heat. South: lower average gas bills, lower percent of gas heat

Nationally, American households’ natural gas bills averaged $439 in 2014. This is the latest estimate of the Labor Department’s Consumer Expenditure Survey.

This amount is actually lower than the average gas bills in six prior years. 

In 2008, when the average was at an all-time high of $531. In 2006, when the average was $509. 

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George Bernard Shaw Got His Start with Edison and Insull

Samuel Insull interviewed George Bernard Shaw, then put him to work at Edison Telephone Company in the battery room, in the basement.

Was reading, for fun, “The Memoirs of Samuel Insull.” 

Insull wrote the autobiography in the summer of 1934.

As the Depression deepened in 1932, Insull’s extensive utility holding company had collapsed. The press, public and politicians found a scapegoat. After several attempts to extradite him from Europe, U.S. authorities took him off a ship to stand trial in three high-profile cases.

Insull, the man who went from Thomas Edison’s secretary to the inventor of utility regulation, was acquitted on all charges. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Residential and Commercial Customers Set Records

The residential and commercial classes bought record volumes of electricity this summer

On Tuesday afternoon, the Energy Department published electricity industry data for August. Among the thousands of values was this number: 155,863.

As in 155,863 thousand megawatt-hours. That was the nation’s residential consumption of electricity in August.

Residential consumption has never been that high in any month in history. 

August 2016 consumption is now number one. It beat number two, July 2011, by seven tenths of a percent.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Someone Must Be Doing Something Right

Residential customers are paying 2.1% less for every kilowatt-hour than two years ago, and commercial customers are paying 5.5% less.

On Tuesday, the Energy Department released electricity industry data for September. The average price for residential electric service was 12.87 cents per kilowatt-hour. For commercial service, it was 10.70 cents.

Let’s see how the price of electric service has come down, first ignoring general inflation, and then appropriately including it.

Ignoring general inflation, September electric service for residential customers was 1.2 percent lower than in September 2015 and 0.6 percent lower than in September 2014. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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New Stats on Electric and Gas Prices

January 2017’s stats from the Labor, Energy and Commerce Departments show real electric prices continuing its downward trend

December 2016's Producer Price Index, and its components, was published by the Labor Department on January 13. 

In the list of final demand, residential electricity was up just 0.6 percent in December, as compared to the prior December. While residential natural gas was up 8.2 percent. 

Overall, final demand goods - from pork to pet foods to pumps - were up 1.9 percent. Final demand services - from lawn equipment retailing to life insurance to legal services - were up 1.5 percent. 

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Got Green? Then Get Smart.

Why it’s the growth of renewable resources that makes the most compelling case for a smarter grid.

To manage the new instability, inherent in many renewable resources, it becomes necessary to introduce more intelligence and automation. That’s what makes the smart grid so compelling.
Byline: 

Mark Madden

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Solar Through the Roof

Home solar remains at one tenth of one percent

The latest Energy Department data reports that home solar roofs generated 5,111 thousand megawatt-hours during the first ten months of last year.  This represents a 42% increase over the first ten months of the prior year, a hefty gain.

Yet, home solar roofs still contribute less than half of all the megawatt-hours produced by distributed solar.  And the power made by home solar is dwarfed by that made by utility scale solar that is four times greater (by more if solar thermal is included) and by utility scale wind that is thirty times greater.  

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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