Re: [Phys-l] electricity

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

Actually the stability or sudden rises in these costs is easy to understand. 
Most states regulate their utilities and thus rate changes must go through a 
review process.  Recently in some states (maybe always in others) utilities 
could pass on fuel costs.  Obviously for natural gas, you are buying the 
actual commodity and as long as the regulators allow automatic pass-throughs 
of costs, those prices will be volatile.  For electricity, the fuel costs 
are probably coal or nuclear (whose costs have been pretty stable) but more 
and more it could be natural gas.  So local users getting their electricity 
from coal or nuclear should be pretty stable--my rates staying between 7.2 
and 8 cents/kWh since 1985 (we're on nuclear from Michigan).  If your local 
electrical plant is running on natural gas, the air may be cleaner than near 
a coal plant, but your rates are going to bounce more with the price of gas.

Rick


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Edmiston" <edmiston@bluffton.edu>


> Rick has given a lot of nice links.  My reason for writing is to point out
> the average over a state lets you observe a few things, such as how prices
> in California and in the northeast are high... but be aware that within a
> state the prices can fluctuate a lot.
>
> The map is for 2003 and shows Ohio's average as 8.27 cents per kWhr.   I
> have all my records for the past 10 years or so, and in 2003 my 
> electricity
> rate was steady at 6.3 cents, about 25% lower than the state average.
> That's a pretty big difference, and implies that some in the state had 
> rates
> considerably more than 8.27 cents.
>
> It is interesting that my electricity rates were remarkably stable for 
> over
> 10 years at about 6.3 cents per kWhr until the end of 2005 when they rose 
> to
> 6.7 cents.  Then over 2006 the rates went from 6.7 to 7.0 to 7.3
> cents-per-kWhr which is where they are now.  Thus, over a very long period
> of time my rates only rose by a penny, but all that happened in the past 
> 18
> months.
>
> Another interesting thing is that natural gas (which I heat with) went
> through the roof, and it became less expensive to heat with resistance
> electric heat than with natural gas... except natural gas is now starting 
> to
> go back down.  For a while, in the winter, I told my wife there was little
> need to turn off lights or other electric appliances because the heat from
> them was cheaper than the heat from the furnace.
>
>
> Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
> Professor of Chemistry and Physics
> Bluffton University
> 1 University Drive
> Bluffton, OH 45817
> 419.358.3270
> edmiston@bluffton.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> Forum for Physics Educators
> Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
> https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l