From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2003 - 01:35:42 MDT
> In all the discussion of alternate and renewable
> energy sources, the problem of energy storage is
> brought out. A quiet assumption runs thru all
> the discussion that I have seen, the assumption
> that the price of electricity must remain nearly
> constant. Do think about this however. Energy
> supplies may be controlled by allowing the price
> of power at any given time to float to whatever
> levels necessary to reduce demand. On sunny,
> blowy days, the actual price of energy might fall
> to practically nothing, whereas it might be very
> expensive on dark still days, when the power would
> be supplied by expensive peaker plants.
>
> By insisting that power prices be nearly constant
> *we all pay more* since peaker plants are costly
> to operate and produce very pricy power part time,
> which the market mandates to be sold at the same
> price as non-peak power, and the supply must always be
> sufficient to cover the demand. Result: everyone's
> total power bill is higher than they would be if
> we would collectively tolerate wildly fluctuating
> prices and occasional shortages.
>
> If power were to be sold at the real-time price
> it costs to make it, then the proletariat would
> adjust its collective behavior, charging batteries
> when power is cheap, and turning off the air
> conditioners when power is expensive.
>
> spike
That's a sensible sounding suggestion, but we (consumers) don't have enough
information to make it work. I've watched power prices fluctuate when I was
working in a power station, and I've seen them temporarily increase by a
factor of 60 at extreme times.
For consumers to be able to weather true deregulation, we need to be able to
know the price at any moment. Maybe a website would be ok, except you need
to use power to access it :-) I'm not sure how to deliver this information,
but the alternative is that you consume a product whose price is entirely
unknown to you (and currently unknowable I think, in realtime), and which
can move so quickly and extremely that you could be severely disadvantaged
(wiped out maybe!) by normal market fluctuations.
Emlyn
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