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We're using less electricity these days
By adamg on Thu, 05/14/2020 - 9:48pm
ISO New England, which runs the New England power grid, reports consumer electricity use is down 3-5% based on what we would normally see for the kind of temperatures we've seen of late.
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Comments
Speaking of, we were talking
Speaking of, we were talking about this earlier. Haven’t received an eversource bill in ages, like 7 weeks. Anyone else experiencing the same?
I'm using more gas, though
Must be because in the last 57 days, we've prepared all our own meals except one.
3-5% has bigger impacts
On an annual basis, roughly 50% of our electricity in New England is from burning natural gas, and the other 50% from hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, and bio-burn (biomass, landfill gas, etc).
The operation and maintenance cost plus fuel cost of generation from natural gas is more expensive than the other kinds of generation (which may or may not have higher capital costs). Therefore, nearly the entire 3-5% of reduction has been absorbed by natural gas generation.
As a result, gas consumption (and hence total fossil fuel emissions) are down ~6-10% in the New England Grid.
If you drill down a bit more, you recognize that March and April (a) have lower loads anyway because the weather is mild, and (b) have more RE because solar is OK and wind is great. This means that natural gas use for electrical generation during this time is down MORE than 6-10%. Maybe it's in a 10-15% window; I haven't run the numbers.
All of those closed offices!
When you think of all of those office lights on in the daytime and HVAC systems that are normally running to certain occupancy temperatures, it's actually kind of surprising (to me, at least) that the drop isn't bigger.
Still, it's a silver lining.
Yeah, but not in my home
The electric bills are up because of all that extra computer use :-(
Unfortunately ours will be
Unfortunately ours will be way up as soon as we need the AC, but I feel for people working from home this summer who don't even have AC.
I don't see why residential electric use would be down
With people staying at home, they are using computers, TVs, stereos, and electric lights more. If their kitchens are electric, they are also using more electricity for cooking.
Consumer demand is total use
Residential demand is but a subset of that.
What is the rest of the demand, besides consumer?
I would have thought that anything non-residential is commercial or industrial or institutional demand, not consumer.
Looking through the site, it
Looking through the site, it seems that anyone purchasing electricity is lumped together under "Consumer".
Everyone who buys electricity is a consumer
Which means where you work, where you shop, and most other places.
Understandably for businesses
Understandably for businesses, as they have been closed . But as far as my home electric bill, Eversource isn't showing me any love. And just wait until our air conditioners start buzzing.