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US Energy Dept. Reports Germany is Still Coal Country

Germany is clearly embracing renewables, but reduction of climate change gases seems secondary.

The US Energy Department reported last week that Germany, notwithstanding its renewables rep, is still a coal country.

What was coal's share in Germany in 2015? It was 44 percent.

What was coal's share in the US in 2015? It was 33 percent. 

How about the trend for coal in Germany? In 2013, coal's share was 45 percent. In 2014, coal's share was 43 percent. 

So coal actually increased its share in Germany from 2014 to 2015 by a small amount.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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April's Electric Bills Lowest Month in Four Years

April’s electric bills averaged around $86.50, $2.88 per day

U.S. households paid utilities $10.9 billion for electric service in April. That's what the Energy Department told us Friday in its latest data release.

It was the least that households have spent on electricity in a while. The last time a month's electric bills were this low? April 2012, four years earlier.

Over these four years, April 2012 to April 2016, the number of households increased by about four percent. And the overall consumer price index increased by about four and a half percent. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Date in Infamy and PUF

PUF after the Pearl Harbor attack and entry into WWII

Look at the December 18, 1941 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly. Our first issue after the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II. 

Not a word about the dramatic developments. The issue must have gone to the printer by December 7.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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We're Free for 8,283 State Commission Staff

All 8,283 state commission staff can receive PUF for free when their commissions set up free site licenses 

Using the cool state map on the NARUC web site, I calculated that there are 8,283 state commission staff.

Only the screen for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission didn’t show the number of staff.  But I counted using that Commission’s staff directory. 

There’s an average of 162 staff at each state commission.  

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Tracking the Bugs with Smart Meter Data

A few years ago, a medical researcher asked to add an agenda item to a meeting I was chairing in Geneva, Switzerland. Combining geographic and consumption data from real-time electric meter readings would allow public health officials to track the origin, path, and intensity of many contagious diseases.
Byline: 

Branko Terzic

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Smaller Percent for Electric Bills Means More Money for Gambling?

Commerce Department reports electric service was only 1.41 percent of personal consumption expenditures in September.

More good news yesterday for electric service customers.

The Commerce Department published the numbers it uses to estimate the gross domestic product. Including personal consumption expenditures, which is seventy percent of the GDP. 

Including the expenditures for cars, clocks, carpet, computers, cereal, clothing, cosmetics, child care, cabs, clubs, cable, cell phones and casinos. That’s just the c’s. 

And including the expenditures for electric service. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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What Edison Would and Wouldn't Recognize

Guest column

Sometimes we get a little carried away with notions about our electric industry infrastructure being out of date. Some commentators have used the statement: 

"Thomas Edison would likely recognize much of today's infrastructure"

as some sort of proof of technological deficiency. Well, I do not believe it is correct, much less proof of obsolescence. 

Byline: 

Branko Terzic

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FDR's Article in Public Utilities Fortnightly

Soon-to-be-president a PUF Author

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote an article for Public Utilities Fortnightly, in June 1931, he was governor of the state of New York and a strong contender for the Democratic nomination for the 1932 presidential election.  What drove FDR to write the two-page article?  

The PUF editors asked the soon-to-be-president: 

"... whether or not it will be possible for a privately owned public utility company to earn a reasonable return on its investment in New York, notwithstanding the enactment of all of the so-called progressive proposals?"  

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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