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Triasha ,

I thank my lucky stars to be in San Antonio where we have municipal power.

People complain about CPS (city public service) but we get a say in how the company is run and our bills are quite reasonable compared to the state average.

scytale ,

By living in an area that has a regulated utility provider. One of the primary requirements I have when choosing a place to live is to make sure the utility provider in the area is a regulated entity.

Donebrach ,
@Donebrach@lemmy.world avatar

I find it highly unlikely that a human being is deciding their living situation based on whether or not their utility provider is regulated.

scytale ,

Well I did, so shrug I guess I’m an outlier. My home search was very limited to one county so I could make sure we were covered by that city’s resources. Besides, I didn’t say it had to be the only reason. Just answering OPs question on how people live with those private unregulated utilities, which I did by avoiding them altogether.

Donebrach ,
@Donebrach@lemmy.world avatar

Donebrach deleted their comment :(

remotelove ,
@remotelove@lemmy.ca avatar

More questions here than answers, unfortunately.

It’s my understanding that there is a cap at $5000/MwH ($5/kwH). That is still hella expensive, but would only be for a day or two at maximum?

For the headlines of +$16000 power bills, that is probably a one-off for heavy power consumers, like businesses that have massive freezers and such, correct?

Kalkaline ,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

I have a friend from high school that got hit with a something like $20,000 bill because he signed up for some discount program on his electric bill. The freeze a couple years ago did similar things to demand and he got hit with a massive bill.

AlecSadler ,

I presume he couldn’t pay it? What happens after that? Do you get blacklisted from power companies?

Burn_The_Right ,

You get tossed to collections and your credit is ruined. It makes it very hard to rent, finance anything or get certain jobs.

AlternatePersonMan ,

Not correct.

I have coworkers in Texas that got hit with multi thousand dollar bills during brown outs.

Deregulating critical services never ends well for the consumer.

meco03211 ,

A properly insulated industrial freezer should consume less electricity than a house with AC, even if it’s set at a reasonable temp.

remotelove ,
@remotelove@lemmy.ca avatar

TIL. It makes sense that they can be more efficient now that you pointed that out.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

I’m curious as to how this would compare to a properly insulated home?

most the houses in texas are uninsulated to keep construction costs down. (despite the fact that even a minimal amount of insulation would pay for itself inside of a year or two.) (Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)

bitchkat ,

New houses or ones built in the 1960’s? If its new houses, how does code not specify a minimum R value? Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

texas doesn’t require a specific r-value for walls in the southern third of the state. (the rest it’s r-5). They do require some insulation in an attic.

Most (cheap) homes don’t slap up insulation if they don’t have to. and r-5 is an extremely low value.

and further, that’s only on new houses. There’s plenty of old houses still in circulation and the vast majority of the old houses are entirely uninsulated. a properly insulated house, you can keep rooms warm just by being in them. we saw that’s not true of homes in texas during the big freeze a while back.

Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.

that’s this sarcastic comment was about:

(Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)

bitchkat ,

When I was growing up the people across the street had an uninsulated houses – in NW Wisconsin.

I guess Texas is going to do Texas things but with the heat and the grid falling apart every couple of years, they really should mandate the same level of insulation that we do up north.

FuglyDuck ,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah… I’m in MN.

It’s not like we don’t get triple digits ourselves in recent years. And it really does come down to shaving down those construction costs. The insulation would pay for itself in like 2 years, though.

MelodiousFunk ,

they really should mandate

That sound you hear is Texas loudly pushing back on any sort of gubmint infetterance.

bitchkat ,

Did you mean interfetterance?

rand_alpha19 ,

there is a cap at $5000/MwH

It's MWh (megawatt hours). That's only for wholesale electricity, which is available to retail electrical providers, not consumers. So your utility company can charge you whatever they want, but their price is capped. Funny how that works.

More info about the cap specifically available here. (PDF)

remotelove ,
@remotelove@lemmy.ca avatar

Ok, that clears up my misunderstanding then. I was thinking that the cap applied across the board. (That does change things a bit, don’t it?)

Bridger ,

By eliminating nonessentials like food.

Supermariofan67 ,

Those are the wholesale prices to the utility company itself from the grid operators, not the prices to end users from the utility company. End users pay a flat amount per kWh that does not change by demand.

scoobford ,

Most of us do. A few people do sign up for variable rate plans, and they did get astronomical bills during the snowpocalypse. IIRC they didn’t get any aid or anything, it was a small enough number of people that they just got hung out to dry.

some_guy ,

They pay their savings directly into the pockets of bought politicians and corrupt energy execs.

sunzu ,

Get a hotel room like any adult man does when he is hot and bothered...

BippinThatBop ,

🤣

NegentropicBoy ,

Wholesale or Retail? I couldn’t read the article.

nothacking ,

Power companies average things out.

Now some customers specifically ask to pay the instantaneous price, and those people just turn things off. This has the advantage that you end up paying less during times if low demand.

Brokewood ,

That’s some next level owning the libs.

altima_neo ,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

I’m certainly feeling owned right now. Ouch!

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