Jessica Simpson Nehrer, who lives in Borrego Springs, near San Diego, has seen her electricity bill for her ranch-style house soar. It hit $1,873.90 in June, far exceeding her $1,200 rent and around double what it was two summers ago. Grocery store owner Rodger Gucwa tried cutting his power bill by raising the thermostat to 85 degrees—but found that the chocolate bars melted…
California has seen some of the sharpest increases in the country—electricity prices in the state have nearly doubled during the past decade and are now higher than those of anywhere but Hawaii. The consumer advocate’s office at California’s utilities regulator has called the trajectory “untenable.”…
Legislators are trying to make the state’s utilities regulator dial back a fixed monthly charge that big utilities will levy on consumers next year. Other politicians have tried to repeal a major cut in rooftop solar subsidies that had made it more affordable for some households to generate their own power.
This is absurd. Even if they are paying 50 cents a kWh, that’s 3700 kWh that they used. And that’s in San Diego County with generally temperate weather (though they may be in the desert if they live east). I live in south Florida with constant hot and humid weather, in an ALL electric ranch house, including all electric vehicles (3 EVs), and only used 1414 kWh in June (and 1675 kWh in July, and August will probably be close to 2000).
I don’t see how on earth they used 3700 kWh. Not to mention that the average electric bill in Borrego Springs is $218.46. Oh, and electricity is 38 cents/kWh there, so they used nearly 5000 kWh of electricity. And how big a house could it be if the rent is only $1200? Maybe all that electricity was for the grow lamps?
Borrego Springs is a magnificent desert area cut off from the cooling Pacific by the high ridge of the California Coastal Range. Its close neighbor to the north is the Salton Sea.
My family went their every winter for three day weekends when it was utterly delightful. In Summer, even long ago, fuggidaboutit.
AND, it is one of those places starring cheap housing with zilch insulation built mostly from the 50s into the 90s (like most of Palm Springs and vicinity).
That’s only if you can afford to live within a 1/2 mile of the ocean. It gets hot further inland.
Electric rates are going to go way up in Texas if they have to make the capital investment required to make the electric grid reliable in the face of increasingly extreme climate change. Of course, the solution could be a tax credit for the wealthy to buy a Tesla PowerWall large enough to provide a month’s worth of electric power after a flood or hurricane, and let the poor and middle-class fend for themselves.
Local utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) sent me a heads-up email – today is a Peak Day event and to be careful of my electric usage, especially during the times of 4 - 8 PM
Halfway thru and it is 103 degrees – 5 degrees cooler than Borrego Springs currently
That’s why I said it was only an option for the wealthy. {{ LOL }}
I was talking to a former Exxon colleague a few weeks ago when Houston had the widespread power outages after Hurricane Beryl. Fortunately, her neighborhood had been spared by any power interruptions, but she said that they had ample battery backup to provide a couple of weeks of power as long as they’re not running the A/C. Of course, in Summertime Houston, the A/C is the most important household appliance.
Also interesting, that as a Mechanical Engineer, she discard the cheaper option of a gas or diesel generator because of the mainteance headache.
During the summer, electricity use between the hours of 4 pm and 9 pm costs 70 cents per kwh (Assuming they are using more than 130% of baseline usage, which seems likely here.) The lowest rate is 35 cents/kwh between midnight and 6 am. The rate is 47 cents other times of day.
Scroll down to the TOU-DR1 plan, which is the most common, and choose SDG&E Electric Generation and Delivery, and click the down arrow. From my experience, there isn’t much of a savings, if any, with the CCA plan. With a CCA, you pay a separate company for electricity generation, and SDG&E bills for delivery, which includes upkeep of the local power grid, plus other overhead costs.
To summarize…
High demand rate: 70 cents/kwh
Lower demand rate: 47 cents
Lowest demand rate: 35 cents
The US national average is 16 cents/kwh for residential.
