National/International Energy News
(Excerpted from Energy Matters, the newsletter of the American Energy Society)
Climate and Sustainability
- Eighteen of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001; meanwhile, the last five "Januarys through Junes" are now the five warmest such spans on record.
- The following nine countries are getting hit hardest by the changing climate:
· India - heat; water/food scarcity
· Namibia - water/food scarcity
· Mauritania - heat; flooding
· China - water/food scarcity
· Seychelles - rising sea levels; water/food scarcity
· Marshall Islands - rising sea levels
· Maldives - rising sea levels
· Bangladesh - heat, tides and water/food scarcity
· Vietnam - rising sea levels
- From 1970 to 2018, the combined emissions of six key air-pollutants dropped by 74%, while the U.S. economy grew 275%. AES Premium Members have access to the EPA "Fact Sheet."
Electricity, Power and Efficiency
- There are five new trends for distributed energy resources (DERs); AES Premium Members have access to the study:
· Increased implementation of residential time-based rates.
· Development of rates and programs that promote midday load building.
· Increased application of residential three-part rates (i.e., demand charges).
· Development of new net-metering alternatives.
· Development of new electric vehicle-specific rates.
- Once upon a time, most utilities in the US billed their customers according to a "demand charge" system - an average cost based on each customer's highest usage in any 15-minute (or sometimes, hour) interval of the billing period. Demand charges increased a customer's bill, sometimes by 30%. Eventually, most utilities phased out this billing practice. However, demand charges are going through something of a revival. Some utilities are assigning demand-charge rates to customers who have installed solar in order to generate more revenues.
- Electricity prices in Europe (highest and lowest; includes all taxes and fees; in USD).
Note: in Germany, the taxes on electricity are 15 cents/kWh), while the cost of buying natural gas is 6 cents/kWh:
Highest
Denmark $.30 / kWh
Germany $.30 / kWh
Belgium $.28 / kWh
Lowest
Hungary $.11 / kWh
Lithuania $.11 / kWh
Bulgaria $.09 / kWh
- The Ohio legislature and its governor signed a bailout bill that will provide $150 million/year to save its two nuclear power plants. The money will come from rate-payers ($4.74/month); however, its cost will be an offset - the legislative bill also ends its "energy-efficiency and renewable-energy" mandate, eventually reducing the ratepayers' overall bill by $3.78/month.
Cyber-Security Threat Post
- The Securing Energy Infrastructure Act, if and when the president signs it into law, will support the development of low-tech solutions to combat cyber-attacks, like manual procedures controlled by human operators. (Note: the legislation was inspired by Ukraine, which was attacked in 2015 but was able to keep the grid running because it relies on "retro-" manual technology to over-ride automated operation.)
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