Greetings, I've noticed that my electrical power company is constantly sending me a reports on how much electricity I am using with respect to my neighbors, kind of trying to get me to use less energy. I figured that if a company is in the business of selling something, it might as well encourage you to use more than you really need.Why is my utility encouraging me to use less electricity? Is it because they feel there's going to be a backlash against the industry once the word gets out that utilities are big drivers of global warming, and they are trying to do damage control ahead of time.Remember, we live in a capitalistic society where maximizing profit is key to keeping investors happy. I can understand the water company asking me to consume less water, as water is a scarce resource. Coalwe have lots and lots of it. Enough to burn for a few hundred years.
You may need to update your electrical equipment for more efficiency.
Correct, revenue - expenses profit Building more plants or buying from other utilities is an expense. So, pretend that you are the electric company. Let's call it Jose Electric Company, JEC. So, JEC has to provide electricity to 5 million customers. They use about 1,000 kilowatt hours each per month. That comes up to 5,000,000 customers times 1,000 kw 5 billion kw-hours. If you could get them to cut usage then you would not have to build more power plants. Power plants used to be expensive, now they are very expensive. Your friend, the govt, does not want you to build plants that use coal. They are not keen on other fossil fuels. This year they like solar and portable nuclear plants. Yes, portable nuke plants. Till the political and regulatory environment gets a little more stable, it is easier to cut demand rather than build more production. On the other hand. Notice that within the last couple of weeks that 2 new nuke plants announced their start of new reactors. Looks like 1 was in South Carolina and 1 was in Georgia. It would seem that they have foresight, experience, skills, management and money to make sure supply is there for the demand. We also have enough natural gas to burn in jet driven turbines, many years. Water scarce? Where did the water go? Did it leave the planet? Water problems are logistics and not really shortages, are they?
