Virginia Governor raises price of power… when Virginians can least afford it

Visitor “submit that gained’t point out ChiCom-19” by David Middleton

GOV. NORTHAM RAISES ENERGY COSTS AS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ARE OUT OF WORK
APRIL 22, 2020
By Tim Benson, Aaron D. Stover
If there ever was a time to not enact insurance policies that will price households, it could be within the midst of an economy-killing world pandemic.

With coronavirus rampaging all through Virginia, successfully closing the commonwealth’s economic system and pushing 306,000 folks out of labor in three weeks, Gov. Ralph Northam has picked a horrible time to signal into legislation a bunch of regressive “clear power” insurance policies that can hurt the roughly 870,000 Virginians who dwell in poverty by rising their power prices.

The primary of those insurance policies, the Virginia Clear Financial system Act, establishes a renewable power mandate forcing state utilities to supply 14 % of their electrical energy generated from “renewable” sources in 2021, progressively rising the mandate to 100 % by 2050.

[…]

Representatives of the State Company Fee (SCC) testified within the Home of Delegates that RGGI might price Dominion Power Virginia ratepayers $three.three to $5.9 billion over the primary decade, rising common electrical energy payments $84 to $144 per yr. The Division of Environmental High quality estimates participation in RGGI would price Virginians $65 million in 2020.

Enacting this renewable power mandate and becoming a member of RGGI goes to make every part costlier for working households in Virginia whereas considerably elevating prices for companies. The common Virginia resident at or under the poverty line already spends round 1 / 4 of their take-home pay on power prices. Furthermore, many small companies are already in determined monetary positions as a result of they’ve been ordered to shut as a consequence of COVID-19.

If there ever was a time not to enact insurance policies that will add to those prices, it could be within the midst of an economy-killing world pandemic. No one is aware of how lengthy the financial restoration will take, however it’s going to certainly take longer now that Northam has signed these impractical insurance policies into legislation.

[…]

The Heartland Institute

You possibly can’t get there from right here. https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=VA

Pure fuel and nuclear energy at present account for 91% of Virginia’s electrical energy era. It doesn’t get extra “local weather pleasant” than this in the true world.

Virginia Web Electrical energy Technology by Supply Jan. 2020 https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=VA#tabs-Four  08:37:05 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)  Supply: Power Info Administration  Electrical Energy Month-to-month Class 1,000 MWh %Petroleum-Fired                   150.2percentNatural Fuel-Fired             5,79061.9percentCoal-Fired                 2592.8percentNuclear             2,75129.4percentHydroelectric                 1541.6percentNonhydroelectric Renewables                 3904.2percentTotal             9,359    Pure Fuel + Nuclear             eight,54191%Hydro. + Nonhydro. Renewables                 5446%US EIA

At present Virginia’s common residential electrical energy fee ($zero.1169/kWh) is barely under the nationwide common ($zero.1279/kWh). Past imposing greater power prices on Virginians, that is extremely silly, as a result of Virginia’s present energy combine is nearly probably the most price efficient strategy to scale back carbon emissions…

Nuclear and fuel kick @$$, wind breaks even and photo voltaic is a loser. http://www.realclearenergy.org/charticles/2014/08/01/solar_and_wind_more_expensive_than_realized_107939.html

The dumbest factor Virginia might do could be to deploy photo voltaic panels like their neighbor to the south.

North Carolina solar energy producing stations.

Regardless of rating second within the nation in put in solar energy capability, solely trailing the Peoples Republic of California, the Tarheel State generates only a few MWh from all these photo voltaic arrays.

https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NC#tabs-4North Carolina Web Electrical energy Technology by Supply Jan. 2020https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NC#tabs-Four 10:06:33 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) Supply: Power Info Administration Electrical Energy MonthlyCategory1,000  MWhpercentPetroleum-Fired                     170.2percentNatural Fuel-Fired               three,92036.9percentCoal-Fired               1,40013.2percentNuclear               three,92937.0percentHydroelectric                   6185.8percentNonhydroelectric Renewables                   7376.9%              10,621    Fossil fuels + Nuclear               9,26687.2percentNonhydroelectric Renewables                   7376.9percenthttps://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NC#tabs-Four

Virginia’s photo voltaic useful resource isn’t even pretty much as good as North Carolina…

https://www.nrel.gov/gis/photo voltaic.html

Virginia’s onshore wind useful resource can be fairly feeble…

https://windexchange.power.gov/maps-data/127

This gorgeous effectively implies that Virginia plans to go complete hog on offshore wind…

https://www.nrel.gov/gis/property/pdfs/windsmodel4pub1-1-9base200904enh.pdf

Good transfer, Governor Northam, virtually a sensible as your faculty Halloween costume.

LCOE = Levelized costt of electrical energy.https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/18/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-renewables-crushing-natural-gas/

At the moment, I don’t know of any particular Virginia offshore wind prospects. There was a variety of discuss Vinyard Wind, offshore Massachusetts. Regardless of public bulletins of $65-75/MWh energy buy agreements (PPA), Vinyard Wind, Massachusetts’ first permitted offshore wind undertaking, has an estimated levelized income of power (LROE) of $98/MWh, greater than twice the LCOE of pure fuel.

An intensive accounting of the PPA value schedule and anticipated income sources inclusive of these which are exogenous to the reported PPA is carried out on this examine to estimate the undertaking’s levelized income of power (LROE). This enables for a extra equal comparability of the reported PPA pricing with bottom-up modeled (unsubsidized) levelized price of power (LCOE) estimates. The reader ought to notice that this evaluation solely displays the opinions of the authors and was carried out independently of the continued analysis by the Massachusetts Division of Power Assets of the PPA between Winery Wind LLC and Massachusetts electrical distribution firms as filed on July 31, 2018. The evaluation and conclusions described herein don’t mirror precise price information, that are confidential to Winery Wind and its companions.

The entire calculated LROE from the Winery LLC/EDC PPA is estimated to be $98/MWh (2018$). This LROE estimate for the primary commercial-scale offshore wind undertaking in the USA seems to be inside the vary of LROE estimated for offshore wind initiatives not too long ago tendered in Northern Europe with a begin of economic operation by the early 2020s. This implies that the anticipated price and threat premium for the preliminary set of U.S. offshore wind initiatives could be much less pronounced than anticipated by many trade observers and analysts.

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/72981.pdf

Doubling the price of electrical energy for Virginians for no obvious cause… Ron White would say…

Possibly that’s why Northam is attempting to nullify the Second Modification.

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