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National Electric Rate Comparisons

By Scott Sklar
June 17, 2008   |   17 Comments

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17 Reader Comments
Comment
1 of 17
June 17, 2008
More historical national average retail electricity rates going as far back as 1973 at
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/mer/pdf/pages/sec9_14.pdf

It's interesting to note that the last time we had an oil crisis, electricity rates roughly tripled from 1973 to 1985. Will it happen again this time? We're not dependent on oil for our electricity now, but we are dependent on natural gas, and the price of natural gas rises when oil prices do.
Comment
2 of 17
June 17, 2008
THE GREAT RATE CHART IS A "GREAT" SOURCE OF INFORMATION.
IT WILL BE VERY USEFULL TO MY COMPANY. I AM WRITING A PROFORMA ON GEOTHERMAL ELECTRICAL POWER .
Comment
3 of 17
June 18, 2008
I think that we here know that as expensive as pv is, it still is a good investment over the long houl. Try as you will however, you will have a hard time selling that to someone that can't afford to put fuel in their car. The real answer is political will in DC to save the middle class instead of the invester class.
Comment
4 of 17
June 18, 2008
I love it when an issue like this gets ink... I just wish I wasn't preaching to the choir when I suggest locking in a rate of $0.09/kWh for 20 years as a pleasant alternative to the ever rising cost of energy.

Take a look at http://www.solarandthermal.com/ for more information.

The Light is Green!
Comment
5 of 17
June 18, 2008
Why this much rate difference? Something wrong here! from 5.2 to 15 cents per KWH within fifteen states, I consider Hawaii outlier(25 cents)....and where this go green will take us?
-Paresh Trivedi
NJ
Comment
6 of 17
June 18, 2008
This past month (May) on Cape Cod, I paid $54.33 for 209 kwh, or $.26/kwh. Of that $54.33, $29.27 was a "delivery charge", and $25.06" was the "generation charge".

Two observations:

1) These grid/utility costs will continue to inflate, whereas one's solar power costs are fixed at the moment one buys and installs a system. On Cape Cod, PV electricity, with the system amortized over 10 years, might be cost effective right now, if one attaches even a mild inflation rate of, let's say 7%, to the cost of competing power from the grid.

2) A vast number of the bogus analysis of comparative power costs one sees in the media compare power generation costs of various sources, but fail to note that some sources (e.g. grid power from all forms of concentrated power generation) require distribution/delivery costs, whereas PV electricity is delivered free to one's house.
Comment
7 of 17
June 18, 2008
I would like to know where Wesley lives so that I don't move there in my retirement.

The customer charge isn't for the energy but for billing and connection costs and may actually be subsidized by some of the energy billing.

Regulatory groups have been pushing natural gas to cover base generation instead of just peaking generation where it is most effective because of the low cost of gas turbines.
Comment
8 of 17
June 18, 2008
Wesley shows important details that sometimes get lost in the base rates: The extended costs. Natural Gas and Electric providers always have a list of additional service or distribution charges over-and-above the base rates. The billing detail that Wesley provided indicates that his actual electricity cost is $0.36/Kwh, which seems excessive (how excessive depends on his location). Rates in New York City, for example, are typically 20%-25% higher than right across the Hudson in Newark, New Jersey.

I perform cost analysis in support of Geothermal HVAC systems, and this particular topic is something I deal with on a daily basis. I have found that actual extended costs of electricity are typically 20%-30% higher than the base rate (i.e. A rate of $0.15Kwh is actually $0.195 delivered). Rates and service charges differ between residential, commercial, and industrial sectors--and so does the extended cost ratio. People often loose sight of that and I find myself having to explain it frequently.

Yes, base rates are regulated by the states, but that doesn't mean the utility can't pile on other charges to make up the difference or take advantage of the situation. In Wesley's case, the utility appears to be making up for the recent fuel crisis by adding "adjustments, " which to me appear excessive.
Comment
9 of 17
June 18, 2008
I have lived off grid for the better part of 30 years. Only within the last 10 years have we utilized PV for electricity. I do not have an electric bill. Sure we use propane, but our entire years use of propane is about the same as what a conventional home would use just to heat during the winter months.
It is no different than what Nancy Reagan had to say about drugs,
"Just Say No" to energy.
Hey man, I heard there is new energy man, its supposed to good for nature and the planet and stuff man, it cost about the same but you gota pay for it all up front instead of paying for it for your whole life man. So, you want some man?
For well over 7000 years mankind did not need all of the energies we utilize today and yet here we are, a living testimony to that fact. Whats more is, since we started to utilize all of these energies, human population growth has soared, no, it has exploded, while the planet Earth's health has begun to suffer.
What you want man? I got some hits of Coal man, some Oil, I got few hits of Nuclear man. That stuff will knock your socks off man. I even got some of that new chit man, Renewables, wow its psychadelic man.
"Just Say No"
Comment
10 of 17
June 18, 2008
I pay $0.39/Kw.....on 2/08,
622 Kw used

customer charge...$10.00
non-fuel energy......$71.68
base fuel energy....$47.35
interim rate adj.......$13.94
energy cost adj......$96.01
IRP cost recovery..$ 1.46
total........................$240.44

This is my bill for Feb 08. Are some of these charges for real?
Comment
11 of 17
June 19, 2008
Ron, hopefully you weren't planning to retire to Hawaii, then.
http://www.heco.com/vcmcontent/FileScan/PDF/EnergyServices/Tarrifs/HELCO/HELCORatesSchR.pdf
http://www.heco.com/vcmcontent/FileScan/PDF/EnergyServices/Tarrifs/HELCO/HELCOInterimRateIncrease.pdf
http://www.heco.com/vcmcontent/FileScan/PDF/EnergyServices/Tarrifs/HELCO/HELCORatesECAC.pdf
http://www.heco.com/vcmcontent/FileScan/PDF/EnergyServices/Tarrifs/HELCO/HELCORatesIRPDSM.pdf

That's an awful lot of surcharges and adjustments!

HECO blames the high prices on being on separate islands whose grids are not connected, so the islands can't back each other up. Each of them has to build their own backup generators.
Comment
12 of 17
June 19, 2008
Paresh, Where you get your electricity from greatly affects price. Idaho gets 70% it's electricity from cheap hydropower so their prices are on the low end. Hawaii gets 75% of its electricity from expensive oil shipped across the Pacific Ocean, so their prices are very high. In between states that use a lot of natural gas tend to be in the upper half of prices. States like West Virginia and Wyoming which have large coal mines and which don't have to transport the required thousands of tons a day of coal thousands of miles by rail to their power plants, are at the low end of the price range. Once you get farther from the coal mines, the coal electricity prices go up.
Comment
13 of 17
June 20, 2008
Ron, I live in Kealakekua, Hawaii, the 5th island away from Honolulu, Oahu. And you're right Carolyn. Each island has its own grid. Thats why I'll be placing a SunPower PV system phase 1 of 3 and a SolarHart water heating system on my home. In Hawaii, we do not use "natural" gas but rather propane and thats what I'll also be placing for cooking and clothes drying. I live up on the mountain in the rain forest so drying clothes on a line is almost impossible. I want to be off grid. Each Sunpower unit costs $20,000 and I'll need 3 of them. Maybe CIGS/Nanosolar will come to my rescue....lol
Comment
14 of 17
Hey Scott, nice to see your mug again. I'm into pontification these days in the Huffington Post (http://HuffingtonPost.com) and my blog (http://PlanetEarthAndHumanity.blogspot.com), and actually published two books this past year, one on energy and the evironment (http://SimpleSolutionsBook1.com).

Can't believe I am in my ninth year of retirement from the University of Hawaii. Anyway, thought I'd warm the hearts of ratepayers by indicating that if the $100/ton carbon dioxide tax is realized, coal-fired electricity will jump by 4 cents/kWh, making windpower and solar thermal competitive, maybe even without any government incentives. I am, actually, advocating a 10 cent/pound carbon dioxide investment opportunity, also known as a $200/ton carbon dioxide tax, which, of course, would increase coal electricity by 8 cents/kWh. Then, even solar PV can be safely commercialized.

Trust all is well with you and yours. Let's see, there was a wife, daughter and a rabbit a few decades ago.
Comment
15 of 17
July 13, 2008
Hozit Wes!

I was poking around trying to find energy costs and landed on this website. I was surprised to find you on here. When we moved from Kona we were paying $.25 per KWH for electric 6 years ago. I have been toying with the idea of moving back except for the VOG and was considering not doing appliance service again but getting back into the alt energy field. Jim Sogi and I started an alcohol motor fuel project at Nat energy lab many years ago with the idea of saving the sugar industry. It's too bad the state didn't listen. Looks like a lot of opportunity now with the incredible electric prices and I'm sure it will only get worse. Lucky you live up mauka so no AC. I know that the real estate market should be crashing soon so maybe when we sell our 10 room inn here in COLD Minnesota, we can start an off the grid company there.

Aloha,
Terry Neumann
Comment
16 of 17
July 22, 2008
I have another one for you. Considering an alternative to the typical retirement where people buy some rental properties and have them managed and take the income to live on, how about building a small wind or solar panel farm and selling the power back to the grid? I wonder how much a $500,000 investment would get you? or would a condo produce more? Just a thought.
Comment
17 of 17
July 23, 2008
I am an inventor and have this invention called a Windcrank TM, I am currently developing the technology for manufacture worldwide. I am also using an advanced direct drive no-cog generator. So far it has been a long struggle to get this technology out to the world but finally sometime soon it will be there....God willing. I am also working on a solar wind EV

I want to thank everyone at Renewable Energy World for the great work they are doing for us and the planet.

George/VWTT,LLC
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Scott Sklar

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About: Scott, founder and president of The Stella Group, Ltd., in Washington, DC, is the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition and serves... more »

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