Wednesday, May 23, 2012

something for nothing

TXU Energy in Texas now has free energy between 10 PM and 6 AM.  The first utility in the nation to go to Zero rate at night.    TXU has lots of wind generated energy, and in their location the wind blows almost all night every night, when demand is the lowest.  Some power they make at night goes unused.  During daylight hours demand often exceeds supply.  Rather than build more capacity TXU believes they can change customers habits by giving away power.

With a little adjustment, people can start the laundry and go to bed, new dishwashers have delayed start settings, run them at night for free, crock pots can run at night, charge all your toys at night, even your new electric car.  TXU believes they can move 10% of the demand to night time.  Their customers can save money, and TXU can delay building more capacity.

6 comments:

  1. Love it!
    I now have Vectern which has the highest electricity rates in Indiana - they blame that on the efforts they have made to reduce the emmissions from their cold fired plants. To breathe clean air - I will pay extra.
    Vanderburgh County isn't in a good area for the windmills but solar panel business is picking up.
    Darrel, I am running two fans and have the curtains closed - Dad has his a/c set at 73 - my temp in here is 76. My electricity bill for the first ten days was $19.09! It is going to be in the nineties next week - I will buy another circular fan.

    Oil is like $91 a barrel and the local station dropped the price per gallon one cent...


    Ron

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    1. Ron, $19 sounds pretty good. You have a pretty smart situation with your apartment for cooling; ground floor with an apartment shading you from above and 2 more protecting you on either side. I think you will get by pretty low even when it gets hotter.

      I paid 3.49 in Texas last week, 3.21 here today (3.31 before the 10cent kroger customer discount). Nobody said Obama lowered it!

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  2. Hey, that's actually a pretty good idea- using a carrot instead of a stick to change the way people use electricity. Here in progressive New Mexico (really- the state has been turning bluer through the last few election cycles), the electric company has had a "power saver" program where they credit customers $25 a year to have a power interrupter attached to refrigerated air conditioners, so that they cycle on and off between 1 and 8 pm on hot days. I've been on the program for three years, and haven't noticed any difference in the air conditioning.

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    Replies
    1. Cynthianne, at my last house I had that on the air conditioner, like you, I never noticed the difference, the house was always cool. Now some people are afraid of those things, they act like it is a first amendment issue, damn, get a grip, save some money.

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