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A Practical, Affordable (and Safe) Clean Electric Energy Plan by Craig Severance
This article provides a great deal of food for thought. Severance is a CPA and this piece is written from the view of how utilities must adapt and change in order to provide maximum consumer benefit going into the future. It is a quite bit different than most "plans" that are out there. It has the added advantage of being very readable - it is a blog post, not a research paper.
Content summary:
A Practical, Affordable (and Safe) Clean Electric Energy Plan
by Craig Severance March 14, 2011
http://energyeconomyonline.com/Clean_Energy_Plan.html
Investment, or Runaway Spending?
The Way to a Fail.
Little or No Need for Government Subsidies.
What Electric Customers Need.
Need #1: Affordable...
Need #2: Always Available....
Need #3: Clean Power...
Reducing Unemployment.
Challenges Facing Electric Utilities.
Utility Challenge #1: Demand is Soft and Unpredictable.
Utility Challenge #2: Consumers Can Now Walk Away.
Utility Challenge #3: Unused Capacity.
Utility Challenge #4: Need to Replace Aging Power Plants
Utility Challenge #5: New Power Plants Are Much More Expensive.
How Much Money Will Need to Be Invested?
Gas and Small Hydro.
Wind and Geothermal.
Concentrating Solar Power.
New Coal.
New Nuclear.
This Project is no Moon Shot -- It's Much More Costly.
Innovative Strategies To Make Clean Energy Goal Affordable.
Innovative Strategy #1: Do Customer Level Projects First.
Innovative Strategy #2: Storage to Allow Full Use of Idle Capacity, and Full Use of Wind and Solar.
Innovative Strategy #3: Create a "Legacy" Electric System.
by Craig Severance March 14, 2011
http://energyeconomyonline.com/Clean_Energy_Plan.html
Investment, or Runaway Spending?
The Way to a Fail.
Little or No Need for Government Subsidies.
What Electric Customers Need.
Need #1: Affordable...
Need #2: Always Available....
Need #3: Clean Power...
Reducing Unemployment.
Challenges Facing Electric Utilities.
Utility Challenge #1: Demand is Soft and Unpredictable.
Utility Challenge #2: Consumers Can Now Walk Away.
Utility Challenge #3: Unused Capacity.
Utility Challenge #4: Need to Replace Aging Power Plants
Utility Challenge #5: New Power Plants Are Much More Expensive.
How Much Money Will Need to Be Invested?
Gas and Small Hydro.
Wind and Geothermal.
Concentrating Solar Power.
New Coal.
New Nuclear.
This Project is no Moon Shot -- It's Much More Costly.
Innovative Strategies To Make Clean Energy Goal Affordable.
Innovative Strategy #1: Do Customer Level Projects First.
Innovative Strategy #2: Storage to Allow Full Use of Idle Capacity, and Full Use of Wind and Solar.
Innovative Strategy #3: Create a "Legacy" Electric System.
A sampling of the text:
Utility Challenge #2: Consumers Can Now Walk Away.
...Electric customers can now "walk away" from their central utility not only through efficiency, but also by generating their own power. As recently noted by Yahoo Finance, on-site electricity generation with solar panels is now reaching parity with retail electric rates. Combined Heat and Power offers customers yet another cost-effective distributed power solution. The days of a captive customer base for central utilities are over.
The unspoken fear of all utility managers is the Death Spiral Scenario. In this nightmare, a utility commits to build a very expensive new power plant. However, when electric rates are raised to pay for the new plant, the rate shock moves customers to cut their kWh use. The utility then has no way to pay for the new power plant unless it raises rates even higher -- causing a further spiral as customers cut their use even more or "walk away".
...
Utility Challenge #5: New Power Plants Are Much More Expensive. ...We've gotten used to driving the old paid-off clunker....
...
This is personal. My two year old grandson Ashton will only be 26 years old in 2035. His generation will see the end of affordable natural gas, coal and uranium. What are we leaving them? There will be no end to the sun, the wind, the rain (hydro power), or the heat in the earth.
We can build a practical Legacy System. The time to start is now.
Utility Challenge #2: Consumers Can Now Walk Away.
...Electric customers can now "walk away" from their central utility not only through efficiency, but also by generating their own power. As recently noted by Yahoo Finance, on-site electricity generation with solar panels is now reaching parity with retail electric rates. Combined Heat and Power offers customers yet another cost-effective distributed power solution. The days of a captive customer base for central utilities are over.
The unspoken fear of all utility managers is the Death Spiral Scenario. In this nightmare, a utility commits to build a very expensive new power plant. However, when electric rates are raised to pay for the new plant, the rate shock moves customers to cut their kWh use. The utility then has no way to pay for the new power plant unless it raises rates even higher -- causing a further spiral as customers cut their use even more or "walk away".
...
Utility Challenge #5: New Power Plants Are Much More Expensive. ...We've gotten used to driving the old paid-off clunker....
...
This is personal. My two year old grandson Ashton will only be 26 years old in 2035. His generation will see the end of affordable natural gas, coal and uranium. What are we leaving them? There will be no end to the sun, the wind, the rain (hydro power), or the heat in the earth.
We can build a practical Legacy System. The time to start is now.
