This utility is being investigated by the FBI for trying to block rooftop solar

Tumi
Tumi Registered Users Posts: 25 ✭✭
An Arizona power company may have improperly supported candidates that would rule in their favor.

https://thinkprogress.org/arizona-investigation-solar-utilities-15bf28f10ae3

Comments

  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,002 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Poor editing is one of the reasons for so much being considered 'fake news'

    Imagine the sub title "...supported candidates that would rule in their favor" so you should only support candidates that oppose your views?

    Read a bit of it, looks like the crux is them donating to a candidates son's campaign. Doubt this is going anywhere...
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
  • jonr
    jonr Solar Expert Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭✭
    Evidently this relates to using regulated monopoly money for political purposes.  

    I'm in favor of solar, but after reviewing the economics of residential solar with net metering, it's clear that net metering is typically a subsidy for people with panels and a tax on everyone else.  Utility scale solar is significantly more cost effective and typically doesn't involve this tax.  

    I am available for custom hardware/firmware development

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    edited August 2017 #4
    I have moved this to the open discussion forum (In the Weeds).
    Rooftop panels are shrinking electric bills, reducing pollution, and making the grid more resilient.
    Just because it is typed on a website somewhere, does not make it true. And, in this case, is absolutely false.

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/sa-loses-power-in-another-wind-farm-fail/news-story/8e5db34f658a3153f7f0a8d91a077b82?nk=454f99f3853f6fe76703eb389ec5cdb7-1501689890

    South Australia's wind farms fail again, grinding out just 2 per cent power when the wind's die in a heatwave. 

    Result: blackouts to 40,000 homes as the temperature soars above 40 degrees. And lives put in danger by this green madness.

    This is how The Australian reported the incident.

    Widespread power blackouts were imposed across Adelaide and parts of South Australia with heatwave conditions forcing authorities to impose load shedding.

    About 40,000 properties were without electricity supplies for about 30 minutes because of what SA Power Networks said was a direction by the Australian Energy Market Regulator.

    The temperature was still above 40C when the rolling blackouts began at 6.30pm to conserve supplies as residents sought relief with air conditioners...

    SA Power Networks said in a tweet tonight: “AEMO has instructed us to commence 100MW rotational #load shedding via Govt agreed list due to lack of available generation supply in SA.’’

    The interconnector bringing most coal-fired backup from Victoria was working flat-out at the time. South Australia simply did not have enough electricity generation of its own.

    Once again it is important to recognise five things.

    1. South Australia has the country's most expensive and yet most unreliable electricity because it has scrapped its coal-fired power and relies instead on wind power for 40 per cent of its electricity.
    2. Expensive and unreliable power costs South Australia jobs, and risks lives as the poor and old cannot afford - or get - cooling in a heat wave or warmth in a cold snap.
    3. South Australia cannot rely for long on backup from Victoria, which has its own renewable energy targets gthat have already helped to force the announced closure of the giant Hazelwood coal-fired generator, responsible for up to 20 per cent of Victoria's power.
    4. What we're seeing in South Australia will spread to the whole country if Labor is elected federally and imposes its own renewable target of 50 per cent by 2030. This will force us to use triple the wind, solar and hydro power we do now (but without adding any more dams) at an estimated cost of $48 billion. Our electricity will become as unreliable as that of a Third World state. Or South Australia. Same difference.
    5. And none of this pain - the expense, the lost jobs, the risk to health - will make the slightest measurable difference to global warming. The whole point of switching to green power is to cut the emissions that is blamed for causing the world to warm. But the cuts we make in Australia by building wind farms are too tiny to make any difference that any scientist can measure. It is all pain, no gain.

    Madness. This global warming policy is a deliberate policy to make us poor.


    Net Metering is a subsidy to "rich people who own their own homes".

    -Bill


    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • jonr
    jonr Solar Expert Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2017 #5
    A reliable kw is much more valuable than an unreliable one.    The utilities understood this, but then politicians started to tell them how to design the grid.  And (at least in the US) other politicians told them they could be an unregulated monopoly.

    As they mess up grid reliability and pricing, I expect going off-grid to increase in popularity.  Same for backup generators.

    I am available for custom hardware/firmware development

  • bill von novak
    bill von novak Solar Expert Posts: 891 ✭✭✭✭
    jonr said:
    A reliable kw is much more valuable than an unreliable one.   
    Agreed.  But when the unreliable kwhr is half the price of the reliable one, utilities (and even consumers) have a very strong incentive to figure out ways to deal with the less-reliable form of power.
  • jonr
    jonr Solar Expert Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭✭
    I agree.  I expect that the more realistic time-of-use pricing will increase in popularity and cause people to find innovative ways to shift loads to times when kwh prices are low.

    I am available for custom hardware/firmware development

  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2017 #8
    In a way BC has a time of use levy, but it is based on the 'mystical ' average house, whatever that is....   and once your usage goes over the 'mystical' number you pay a higher rate that is almost 2 x the base rate..coincidentally it kicks in 2 x a year for us, summer when you might want some cooling.. and winter when one likes to be able to read or watch tv or blow some warm air around the house

     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • jonr
    jonr Solar Expert Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭✭
    Maybe someday residential electricity will be priced on a minute-by-minute basis, with the price always being available via the Internet.

    I am available for custom hardware/firmware development

  • Solray
    Solray Registered Users Posts: 246 ✭✭✭
    Yep, but it will cost $149.00 per minute at that point.
  • Estragon
    Estragon Registered Users Posts: 4,496 ✭✭✭✭✭
    > @jonr said:
    > Maybe someday residential electricity will be priced on a minute-by-minute basis, with the price always being available via the Internet.

    It IS priced on a minute to minute basis on an actively traded spot market, but the utilities don't generally retail it that way. IIRC, about 20 years ago there were some games being played in that market for power in CA that enabled unjustifed rate increases.

    In some places, spot pricing at the retail level might be inevitable in order to smooth loads.
    Off-grid.  
    Main daytime system ~4kw panels into 2xMNClassic150 370ah 48v bank 2xOutback 3548 inverter 120v + 240v autotransformer
    Night system ~1kw panels into 1xMNClassic150 700ah 12v bank morningstar 300w inverter
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    I think the name ENRON was in there somewhere .....  and BC Hydro got done by Cal. for several MILLIONS even though they just sold into that market...  in the middle of a similar heat wave as now...
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • bill von novak
    bill von novak Solar Expert Posts: 891 ✭✭✭✭
    jonr said:
    Maybe someday residential electricity will be priced on a minute-by-minute basis, with the price always being available via the Internet.
    We are on a test program out here in San Diego (Whenergy) where we are charged hour by hour.  You can get updates via a website.  It varies from 8 cents at night to $1.30 at 5pm on a hot day.  (Works great for us since we have two EV's that we charge at night.)
  • jonr
    jonr Solar Expert Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭✭
    @Bill:  great, I think most places should go that way.    Then we will see things like water and ice storage such that the AC compressor only runs at night.  Or, with enough solar PV, only while the sun is shining.

    I am available for custom hardware/firmware development