[Possible OT] California, and running off of generators for extended periods

Tue Jan 16 18:07:47 UTC 2001

On Tue, Jan 16, 2001 at 09:49:00AM +0000, Matthew Kaufman put this into my mailbox:
> 
> Of course, if we had *real* deregulation, my price for power as a commercial
> user would closely reflect the utility's cost for power, and they might even
> charge me differently by time of use whether or not I wanted that... then
> the cost equation changes for item 1, and I'd have an incentive to go look
> at the true costs of item 2.

Given that, is there anyone in the San Diego Gas & Electric area (fully
deregulated, passing on the generation cost to consumers -- my residential
power bill was $215 for december, after the state-mandated 'price
reduction') who's looked at the costs of doing this, and possibly found
it cheaper to run off of the generators?

Also -- again to throw something out there -- there is at least one hosting
company that touts itself as running entirely off of solar. (see
http://www.enn.com/features/2000/07/07262000/solarhost_14768.asp;
solarhost.com is what I'm thinking of). Has any other large commercial
entity looked into the economics of installing a PV array say on the roof
of the building above and around the cooling packs, etc? At the very
least, I would think it would be a good way to supplement a battery
network. Or perhaps (going even further out there) a wind generator or two?

-dalvenjah

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