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Tag: High Electricity Bills

Why Your AC Electric Bill is High Now & Heating Bill Will Be Too

Electricity to air-condition our homes has been expensive this summer. Unfortunately, it looks like it is not going to let up. Even turning up the heat this winter will cost more. It’s all being driven by the increase in the price of natural gas. In the U.S., we use it to generate approximately 40% of our electricity.

By now everyone knows that Russia’s disruption to the energy markets is the cause… Sure Russia’s own decision to shut off flow to Europe and the West’s sanctions/boycotts are screwing things up, but that gas is still getting to the global marketplace. So why are prices still high?

Russia has a massive geographic footprint and produces an outsized proportion (in relation to its population) of the world’s natural gas, so there seems to be less natural gas in the world lately. Is that true though?

The Reasons Why Natural Gas (And Electricity) is High

Russia’s invasion and continuing war with Ukraine has shifted the flow of supply to it’s dwindling number of “friendly” countries. Consequently, Russia is receive less money for its product while the countries are getting it cheaper for the the bulk natural gas. These “Russia-friendly” countries receiving the natural gas do not match the consumption of the west AND they know Russia is in a bind, so the marketplace is out of balance and fewer hands are on the commodity. So a new cartel of sorts is in charge of natural gas instead of just OPEC, and it seems that they are going to make the most money while they can. Plus the cost of moving it around the world will increase, so that’s why prices are are from an market perspetive.

Social / Cultural Impact on Electricity Prices

Another big reason why energy and electricity prices stay high is because our consumption has not dropped.

1) We’re facing higher temps and powerful weather. Given how hot this summer was for parts of the U.S., many had their air conditioners working overtime… this increases demand and there are more volatile spikes in demand
2) Lack of solidarity for Ukraine/Europe… we’re not decreasing our demand
3) There is a continued ambivalence to over-consumption… our demand is perpetually increasing (we waste energy and electricity producing food that goes to waste, creature comforts like cold restaurants set to 68F in Houston during the summer forcing many to bring wraps or jackets inside when it is 105F outside.

What’s Ahead for Electric Rates?

Forecasters predict these elevated gas prices to stay high through the rest of 2022 and through winter 2023. Russia has supplied Europe with cheap natural gas to power commercial and residential heat or electricity, so they know that they can continue to use its energy resources as a weapon and bargaining tool with the world.

In the U.S., half of homes use natural gas for heating or cooling. U.S. natural gas inventories have also dropped this year, which together has driven up prices around 300% from just a few years ago. What will this mean for energy and electricity prices in the U.S.?

Electricity Prices Will Keep Climbing

Even though our inventory LNG (liquid natural gas) is low, this hasn’t stopped the U.S. from exporting large amounts to Europe to help fill the void left by Russia. U.S. natural gas producers have an incentive to export since they stand to profit from the spike in global prices. It is as simple as that.

A simple reduction in demand/consumption/use would address that, but its diffusion of responsibility. Individuals don’t want to take ownership of the impact of their own choices to consume. If the price they can get in Europe is a lot more than what they can sell their natural gas for in the U.S., then some of that is going to be exported to Europe, and that is going to raise the price of things in the United States. It won’t be to the price levels seen in Europe, but we will likely continue to see more expensive energy costs in the U.S.

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How much will electricity bills go up?

Bills could go up a lot, especially in a state like Texas, which is the largest natural gas-consuming state. Forecasters estimate the average family will pay more than $1,200 to heat homes this winter, which is $175 more than last winter. That’s a 17% increase! And for the 40% of U.S. homes that use natural gas to heat/cool their homes, they could see up to a 33% increase.

What makes it even more impactful is that nearly 40% of families are already feeling financially strapped according to recent polls and reports.

How will high natural gas and electricity prices last?

Given the trends in weather patterns, the northern hemisphere could be spared the spike in natural gas prices is the winter is mild… again.

Even so, it really depends on Russia and Putin’s choices. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this month that Russia will resume gas flows only if the West lifts sanctions.

The other big factor is how quickly Europe can find alternative natural gas sources. Europe gets most of its gas through pipelines, but the EU is working build new infrastructure to receive liquefied natural gas, which can be transported by sea from other producers like Qatar & U.S.

That takes time, so price relief is not expected any time soon.

Ways to Lower Your Electricity Bill

Electricity Prices Are Going Up – Here Are Other Ways to Save

September 20, 2022
Oncor Reports $229 Million in Profits While Texans Pay Higher Electric Rates

Oncor is supposed to be Texas’ largest regulated utility, and they are milking residents for an extra $60 million in profits during the scorching heat wave this summer.

As sweltering temperatures has driven electricity usage to new highs this summer (2022), Dallas-based Oncor’s quarterly profit soared an extra $60M in just one quarter to $229 million. The quarterly profits didn’t include July, which was one of the states hottest months on record.

Oncor CEO Allen Nye thinks is has been a great quarter… for the company. For residents fighting economic slowdowns and inflation, not so much.

The second quarter brought on record heat, beginning one of the hottest summers on record. That heat has led to several new peak demand records, with ERCOT peak demand of nearly 80,000 megawatts for the first time in July. The market continues to grow and will require new generation, transmission and distribution resources. Oncor’s service area, the largest in the state, covers all of North Texas and parts of West Texas, Central Texas and East Texas. Oncor will need to be ready to make the investments necessary to support the needs of the growing state. The Texas company added 19,000 additional premises and saw a 73% increase in new transmission point-of-interconnection requests in the second quarter, which is an all-time record for new transmission interconnection requests.

There is also an increase in major manufacturing expected to arrive in Oncor’s service territory over the next several years.

A $5 billion silicon wafer manufacturing facility being built by GlobiTech has been approved, on top of another $30 billion semiconductor wafer manufacturing plant project being undertaken by Texas Instruments, both in Sherman. A Samsung chip manufacturing facility, estimated at $17 billion, is also coming to Taylor in central Texas.

Oncor does not charge customers; instead, customers buy electricity through providers, known as Retail Electric Providers, and Oncor charges the providers for delivering their electricity. The company charges REPs a fixed amount monthly for each customer, plus a charge for how much electricity is used by the customer. Yet, they continue to increase their fees, which end of forcing Retail Electricity Providers to increase the electric rate they charge customers.

Profits Over Residential Electricity Customers

Oncor is justifying the profit grab because it believes the territory has become a powerhouse for manufacturing critical to the future economic and national security of the United States. The profits were driven by increases in revenues from higher customer consumption attributable primarily to significantly warmer weather in the second quarter of 2022 and other factors, including increases in electric rates, the company said in a news release.

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Other Ways to Lower Your Electricity Bill

Electricity Prices Are Going Up – Here Are Other Ways to Save

August 4, 2022
Why Utility Bills are More Expensive Right Now

Everyone in Texas is being confronted with the reality of high and escalating energy bills (gas and electricity). Many commercial and residential customers are paying at least 50% more than they did for electric bills at this time last year.

Meanwhile, the state is exporting more natural gas than it has ever before. And since the cost of electricity in Texas is tightly tied directly to the price of natural gas, many business owner’s electricity bills are through the roof with no end to the escalation in site. The concern is that many people are going to be shocked when their bills start coming in 30-60 days from now.

So what is spushing gas and electric bills up so high? Texas power plants run on natural gas.

It’s mainly the price of natural gas… it has rocketed up more than 200% since late February when Russia, a top gas-producing country, invaded Ukraine and upended the world’s energy market. Since then, Texas, the leading natural gas-producing state in the U.S., has not been able to ramp up production enough to keep offering residents cheap electricity.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Texas has been sending most of the natural gas or LNG (liquified natural gas) to Europe as many countries boycott Russian gas, oil, and energy. Europe is fortunate that the U.S. Congress lifted the ban on oil and gas exports back in 2015. Now countries are qeueing up purchase Texas’ gas. At the same time, demand for natural gas has also been growing within the state because
business in Texas hsa been booming attracting more residents. Furthermore, a super-hot spring and early summer also have driven power-usage to record-high levels.

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How long will Texans see higher utility bills?

With the war in Ukraine dragging on and upending the world energy market, Texas electricity providers are cautioning customers that the high rates will likely linger for months. Like the rest of the country, the hike in utility bills comes during difficult financial times for people facing high prices at grocery stores and the fuel pump due to inflation.

On the other side of the coin, the high prices will benefit Texas’ gas producer, and the state benefits from high oil and gas prices in the form of jobs and state taxes on oil and gas production. Cities located in the state’s oil fields usually benefit even more.

No Growth in Energy Production

Even though demand is going up, the oil and gas industry isn’t seeing major production growth because of a backlog of equipment needed. That supply chain issue stems from the pandemic. Though companies are trying to hire, there’s also a shortage of labor across most of the oilfield services. It has been a struggle to get qualified people into the positions that big oil and gas need right now.

Is the price of natural gas the only cause of high electricity prices?

The state’s main power grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, has been managing the grid more cautiously and is no longer prioritizing providing Texans cheap power. ERCOT’s prmary focus these days is the grid’s reliability, especially during extreme weather. That means power plants that produce electcity are being asked to stay online and available just in case. Consequently, the state is paying generators a pre-set price to operate no matter what happens. This is quite wasteful… the need for “security” or continuity of power is driving up electricity rates. Before the power grid calamity in 2021, electrciity producers ramped up or went offline based on market demand.

Due to poor administration, Texans are paying for last year’s grid disaster… and will for years.

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Other Ways to Lower Your Electricity Bill

Electricity Prices Are Going Up – Here Are Other Ways to Save

July 5, 2022
Texas Needs to Do Everything to Address High Electricity/Energy Prices

Though Texas is a leading producer of electricity, it must be sold and moved to accommodate a growing state… so Texas needs to advance its transmission capabilities. Because transmission congestion, the lowest-priced electricity can’t reach customers during high-demand times or power outages. Congestion is an expensive problem and a hidden cost that consumers absorb in high electricity bills.

Congestion costs exceeded $2,000,000,000 in 2021. This year, congestion costs have already hit $800,000,000.

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We’re already mentioned that Texas surpasses every state in energy -> electricity production. In 2021, Texas produced 43% of all crude oil and 25% of all natural gas in the U.S., and produced 26% of its wind power. But unpredictable global economics, predictable population growth, and times of extreme weather can instigate sky-high electricity demand and strain the electrical grid. In some scenarios, unplanned outages can affect the entire integrated infrastructure, which depends heavily on electricity to operate: drinking water and internet or communications (i.e. medical devices) that depend on electricity.

The current situation suggests we continue to build out energy resources to respond to inflation or other global crisis. Politicians and policymakers have to embrace an “everything is on the table” approach to developing and dispersing the state’s resources. This means Texas must cut the red tape preventing the state from fully harnessing renewables like wind or extracting tried-and-true commodities like Permian Basin oil and gas. This also means embracing generation that uses less water, emphasizing the addition of battery storage to dispatch electricity on demand, and incenting businesses to choose Texas to develop new energy technologies.

Right now the state should not pit renewables against traditional fossil fuels or seek to replace one with the other. To generate electricity for residential, commercial, and industrial users, Texas should use natural resources plus renewable power generation to be successful. Some economic modeling has shown that fixing Texass power grid issues would result in massive economic, energy, and environmental benefits that include $11,000,000,000 in tax revenue and 25,300+ jobs.

Inadequate Electricity Transmission Will Make The Grid Less Reliable and Jack Up Electric Bills

The Texas economy will be in peril too. Providing affordable, lower-priced electricity and reliable power for homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals across the state must be an urgent priority. We an’t repeat this enough, it is crucial that legislators develop all energy resources synchronously while building out infrastructure (the grid!).

How to Get The Best Electricity Rates in Sugar Land, TX

June 21, 2022
The Texas Heat & Electricity Prices Go Up! ERCOT Notice
Texas expects record-high electricity demand this week, so the Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued an operating condition notice ahead of forecasted triple-digit temperatures across the state.

The spike in demand is likely to raise electricity prices.

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The notice is the first tier of ERCOT’s alerts says it has enough resources available to meet forecast demand. The Texas grid has yet to see mass blackouts this year.

ERCOT is issuing an OCN [Operating Conditions Notice] for the extreme hot weather with forecasted temperatures to be above 103°F in the North Central and South Central weather zones, from Friday, June 10 2022 until Monday, June 13, 2022. The normal high in those areas are 91 F this time of year.

Back in May, Texas experienced back-to-back weekends of record-breaking heat and corresponding electricity demand. Regulators forecasted in May that the grid will have ample generation to meet the increased level of power usage brought on by this summer’s heat. In May the regulatory body issued its first power consumption notice, asking Texas residents to meter their energy usage and avoid using large machinery such as washing machines during prime windows over the course of a particularly hot weekend. Now in June, Texas broke the record on Monday and Tuesday and will keep rising this week until it tops the all-time high as economic growth boosts usage and hot weather causes homes and businesses to crank up their air conditioners.
- Monday Demand: 72,386 MW
- Tuesady Demand 72,785 MW
- Wednesday Forecast: 75,305 MW
- Thursday Forecast: 77,166 MW
(previous record for June just last year was 70,257 MW)
(all time high is 74,820 MW set in August 2019)

One megawatt (1 MW) normally powers 1000 homes. On a summer day in Texas is only services 200 homes. ERCOT expects new wind and solar power plants added over the past year would increase resources available this summer to 91,392 MW. Even with tht extra supply, demand is spiking and will drive up electricity prices.

Electricity Prices Are Going Up – Here Are Other Ways to Save
June 8, 2022
How to Get The Best Electricity Rates in Sugar Land, TX
You’re current electricity contract is coming up and you recently checked on rates for electricity.

SHOCK!

Electricity prices are crazy high in Texas right now and are expected to trend higher. What can you do… whether you are searching for your business or home, should you use an independent broker to get the best electric rates in Sugar Land?

Answer: Absolutely… and it costs you nothing!

Wizard energy is an independent electricity/energy broker that forces big energy companies to compete for your business. To best electric rates in Sugar Land, we make the electricity providers bid with their best possible rate. When they bid for one of our clilents, they know that Wizard Energy gives them the opportunity to bid on dozens of other customers every year. Collectively, this drives your price down!

GET THE BEST ELECTRICTY RATE

We love to hustle in order to lower your electric bill and save you money…

…so you make your business better without worrying about overhead!

CONTACT US TODAY

CALL US: 713-396-0090

We get you the best possible electric rate no matter what. People are also asking:

Who has the lowest rate for electricity?
Who has the cheapest electricity rates in Texas?
What hours is electricity the cheapest?
Who has the highest electric rates in Texas?
How do I reduce my electric bill?
How many kWh per day is normal?
How can I get cheap electricity in Texas?
What is the best electric plan in Texas?
What is the average electric bill in Texas?
How do I choose a Texas electric provider?

These are things that we are more than happy to explain to you, but you don’t have to bother with.

In addition to making electricity companies compete for your business, another reason we get better pricing is because the electricity companies know we help many clients. When a single business owner goes directly to an energy company, you’re offering them one (1) contract. Compare this to Wizard Energy giving them the opportunity to bid on dozens of customers every year… who do you think is more likely to get a better price?

Do you have time to scour companies and plans for the best electricity rates in Sugar Land?

Wizard Energy has the experience and know-how to request bids from all the electricity companies, review the terms and small print (we know what to look for), and select the best rate based on the market condition and constantly changing prices.

Wizard Energy Handles The Time-Consuming Business to Get The Best Rate
- Review of your electricity usage and load profile
- Request bids from electricity providers
- Analyze electricity contracts and review fine print
- Review electric bills and rates to make sure of your rate
More Reasons Why We Get You The Best electricity Rate in Sugar Land

We offer our clients independent, personal service. We are impartial and not tied to any electricity provider, big or small. We compare more than 20 suppliers to help find the right deal for each individual business.

Electricity can be one of the greatest operating expenses a company faces, so we’ll make sure you’re getting the best energy rate possible by making big electricity companies compete for your business.

Wizard Energy does all the legwork for you. We analyze your energy usage, speak to suppliers, and gather all the options so that all you need to do is select the deal that suits you. It’s pretty obvious… LOWEST PRICE!

Electricity Prices Are Going Up – Here Are Other Ways to Save
June 2, 2022
Legal Arguments on $9,000 Electricity Rates in Texas

The Texas Public Utility Commission’s February 2021 emergency rules allowing an increase in electric rates to $9,000 per megawatt hour in response to Winter Storm were invalid and screwed up the state’s power system.

Dallas-based Luminant Energy asked a 3-judge panel in the Texas Third Court of Appeals in Austin to declare that the PUC illegally adopted two pricing rules during the historic storm that allowed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to increase the emergency price of electricity 650% for five days.

The PUC contended that the energy companies are simply upset because they lost money during Winter Storm and extreme weather conditions.

Many argue that the PUC decision to set rates at $9,000 for the five days during the winter storm forced many electric providers to pay billions to provide power to their residential and commercial customers, while other electric companies profited by selling power at high rates.

Impact on Providers & Electric Rates

The decision by the Austin Court of Appeals will dramatically impact the efforts by more than a dozen electric providers challenging their ERCOT invoices.

The winter storm that hit Texas on Feb. 14, 2021, caused the electricity to go out in large portions of the state, especially in the Houston area. Power demand surged in other metro areas, and at the same time, many electric generators went off-line because natural gas providers were unable to supply product to electric generators.

Sneaky Electricity Price Manipulation

In a six-minute meeting Feb. 15, the PUC decided to address the gap between supply and demand by issuing an emergency reset of the maximum price to $9,000 per megawatt hour, which is way up from $1,200. It also made the $9,000 price retroactive to Feb. 14. The next day, however, the PUC met again and rescinded the retroactive part of its order.

Electricity Price Competition

The high-stakes litigation pits the energy companies against each other… Houston-based Pattern Energy, Exelon Generation and Constellation NewEnergy are supporting Luminant in the litigation. All are fighting multibillion-dollar charges as a result of the $9,000 price. Lawyers argued that both emergency pricing rules were invalid for multiple reasons, including the fact that the PUC never filed the rule change with the Secretary of State’s office. This is a case where the agency disregarded legal procedures. It did not follow the law. The PUC has staked out extreme and unprecedented positions.

Houston-based Calpine Corporation, Talen Energy and TexGen Power support the PUC position. Spring, Texas-based DGP2 and Distributed Solutions argue that the first PUC rule is valid but the second-day rule rescinding retroactivity was illegal. Companies like Luminant are just using the litigation to try to shift their market losses to other parties.

Texas Assistant Solicitor General, Lisa Bennett (representing the PUC), told the judges that the PUC did not violate Texas law because the agency’s actions were a direction to ERCOT, not rulemaking. She argued that the law provides wide discretion for the PUC to make such decisions because the PUC’s actions were taken during an extreme emergency and because there was a flaw in the system – there were negative reserves, but the price was not going up.

Hindsight

When the emergency passed, market participants assessed the financial outcomes of the complex actions they and others had taken in the market during the storm, and some suffered staggering losses. In hindsight, some market participants now want to blame the PUC for their losses and argue that the orders were illegal all along.

May 3, 2022
Energy Crisis: Russia Cuts Gas Flow to Poland & Bulgaria

Oil is going up again after Russia cut natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, escalating the energy crisis.

West Texas Intermediate traded above $102 a barrel after going up another 3.2% Tuesday. Add to that, European gas prices surged as much as 24% Wednesday after Russia halted flows to Poland and Bulgaria. Putin made good on a threat to stop supply to countries that refuse his demand to pay for the fuel in rubles, not Euro or U.S. Dollars.

Adding fuel to the fire of energy and electricity energy prices going up, Germany said a full embargo on Russian oil would be manageable, potentially laying the groundwork for a continent-wide ban that may upend global crude trade. The U.S. and U.K. have already pledged to ban imports from the OPEC+ producer too.

Electricity Prices Will Go Up

The renewed geopolitical risk to electricity prices has come as the tightest corner of the oil sector flared up again. U.S. diesel futures settled at a record Tuesday, while profits from making the fuel in Europe are the highest since 2011. Russia is Europe’s largest external supplier of the middle distillate. Russia’s latest actions provide an alarming glimpse of things to come for other EU members and has put energy security concerns front and center of the political agenda.

In Asia, there are some signs emerging from China that Shanghai may ease lockdown measures as infections dropped to the lowest in three weeks while case numbers in Beijing stabilized. President Xi Jinping also made a commitment to boost infrastructure construction to bolster the economy.

The API (American Petroleum Institute) reported that U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 4.78 million barrels last week. This may help ease some of the pain on electricity prices, but it may end up being negligible in the long run if Russia continues to antagonize the world.

April 27, 2022
Batteries, Solar, Wind and Hydropower Can Lower Electric Rates & Curb Rising Temps

The need to transition to renewable energy is becoming more urgent for many reasons.

The pace in which the world needs to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy needs to urgently accelerate as the threat from rising global temperatures increases each day increasing climate disasters and driving up electricity prices.

There is a more than 50% chance that temperatures will exceed 2C unless the climate pledges made leading up to the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference are not strictly adhered to. This increase would push global temperatures past the worst-case scenario and past the point that any human civilization in history has experienced.

Renewable to The Rescue of Climate and Electricity Rates

Renewable energy will be instrumental in reducing the global reliance of fossil fuels, the leading cause of the greenhouse emissions that are accelerating the warming. Even so, fossil fuels are deeply embedded in the foundation of the world economy. Making clothes, producing crops, and electricity for homes all involve processes that utilize crude oil, natural gas and coal. Most of the energy services, including electricity generation, are derived from fossil fuels. Global energy consumption has grown tenfold since the turn of the 20th century. Industrial manufacturing is the largest consumer of electricity/energy (33%), followed by transportation, and then residential. But the current energy model is not sustainable. It will need to change quickly to mitigate the dangerous warming that could plague generations to come.

“When you turn on your lights in 30 to 40 years, if everything goes well, the energy to power your home to get your electricity on is going to be powered by renewables.”
Molly Taft, Science Reporter – Gizmodo

The key to this lofty but attainable goal will be the decisions that the private sector and government make in the near future to prevent weather-climate disasters that drive of the cost of electricity and energy.

Fossil fuels, which contain carbon, release carbon dioxide when burned and interact with the oxygen in the atmosphere. Those greenhouse gases are the culprit for the “thermal instability” that is leading to an increase of severe weather events including drought, wildfires and rising sea levels. Scientists have found that since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased nearly 49%, which is more than the increase of the previous 20,000 years.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, considered the conservative warming figure, will lead to further increases in those deadly extreme natural disasters. The world will see more intense storms, more intense wildfires, and intense rains. The renewable energy transition is about making sure it doesn’t get that much worse. And saving on electricity costs will allow the world to focus resources on other matters.

Cost competitive and renewable energy drawn from solar and wind power have the ability to become the primary energy source. The doubts that people had about whether the world could transition to another energy foundation have been disproven. Nevertheless, it will take a significant societal shift to change the course of the warming on the planet. The U.S.A. is far from reaching a net-zero carbon emissions economy, but over the last twenty years innovation has driven renewable prices down and demand is up… a factor impacting elevated electric costs. The majority of the responsibility lies on the industrial sector, but even something as simple as switching from gas-powered stoves to electric in homes will make a difference.

In addition, people who live in cities can add to the conservation effort by biking or taking public transportation. These adjustments will have additional benefits for all residents: cleaner air and less noise. Those who drive can switch to electric cars which will decrease the 337 million gallons of gasoline consumed by Americans per day.

However, the climate fight goes far beyond individual lifestyle changes. Even the shifting away from construction materials, such as steel and concrete that make up about 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions, will be necessary. There will also be an increased reliance on batteries in the future. Some will be used to store renewable energy sourced from wind and solar power. In addition, the cost of lithium ion has fallen 97% over the past three decades, making the use of batteries more affordable.

April 20, 2022
Revival Of Nuclear Energy May Help Lower Electric Rates Eventually

War in Ukraine is causing an energy reset. Western governments are rethinking dependence on Russian oil and gas, and it is a big opportunity for nuclear power to grow and help to lower electricity prices in Texas as well as the rest of the country and the world. Last week Britain announced it will begin developing small scale, modular nuclear power plants. The new energy path is a big win for uranium assets and electricity consumers.

The emergence of nuclear as a clean energy source seemed unlikely. Nuclear power has been derided for four decades. The number of plants globally peaked in 1996 when 17.5% of all electric power was generated in those facilities. Since then public has opinion soured and the political will to keep plants open waned.

Nuclear Energy Downfall

Electricity Prices Goes Up

Environmental movements gained global traction in the 1970s and nuclear energy was the perfect fall guy. Radiation poisoning was invisible and lethal. This was exploited in 1979 by The China Syndrome, a big budget Hollywood film that mirrored a partial meltdown earlier that year at Three Mile Island, a Pennsylvania nuclear facility. Although epidemiological studies later showed no increase in cancers in the area, fears of living near nuclear facilities grew exponentially.

A complete meltdown in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor led to the depopulation of 68,000 people across 1,000 square miles in northern Ukraine. And 154,400 Japanese were evacuated in 2011 when a nuclear plant in Fukushima was damaged following an earthquake and tsunami.

Nuclear power plants all over the world began to close. Today these facilities generate only 10.3% of the world’s electricity. It is a contributing factor to electricitiy rates continuing to go higher and higher. The oddity is nuclear power is clean, green, sustainable and statistically much safer than most other forms of power generation, according to research compiled by Our World in Data.

Nuclear Power Can Be Green and Cheaper for Electricity

Nuclear facilities are essentially extremely large tea kettles. The power-generation process begins when a uranium atom is split in half to create fission. This releases a tremendous amount of energy. Rods of the fissionable material are cooled in water, creating steam that spins a turbine and creates electricity.

Most coal or natural gas power plants generate electricity the same way. The difference is uranium is a far more efficient source of energy. A single set of rods the size of a fireplace log holds enough energy to power 100 homes for a year. Uranium is also cleaner. Using it to create electricity does not release carbon into the atmosphere. This is especially as the world races toward zero emissions.

The Future of Nuclear Energy

The United Kingdom had 15 nuclear facilities operating in 1997, generating 27% of the country’s electricity. By 2024 only two plants will remain. With the help of Rolls Royce, Prime Minister Johnson wants to reverse the trend. The goal is to build smaller power generation facilities based on Rolls’ nuclear-powered submarine engines.

It might be the perfect solution for an economy shying away from carbon emissions, and the perils of dependence on Russia oil and gas. The Netherlands, Czechia, Poland, Estonia, Slovenia and Serbia are now studying their nuclear options. Also, the European Union has labelled nuclear power as a climate-friendly investment.

April 11, 2022