power to the internet

Fri Jan 3 09:37:04 UTC 2020

On Thursday, 2 January, 2020 21:34, "Sabri Berisha" <sabri at cluecentral.net> said:

> ----- On Jan 2, 2020, at 1:24 PM, John Levine johnl at iecc.com wrote:
> 
>> PS: You also wouldn't believe how cheap the power is.  California's
>> prices are high compared to most of the US, but it's still only about
>> €0.15 per KWh.
> 
> I don't know where you live, but I pay around 38 cents/KWh. Depending
> on your rate, that can go up to 53 cents/KWh during peak times.

Data point for comparison: I'm in the UK, paying ~0.18GBP/KWh (0.21EUR or 0.24USD) - and that's on a tariff where I'm paying extra to ensure a certain amount of the power is sourced from renewables, I could get it cheaper.  We do have a standing charge though, irrespective of usage, 0.22GBP/day in my case - I don't know if you have that on US electricity bills typically.  It's a rare event and a cause of great annoyance if the power goes out.  (Most recent events - and I'm talking 2 or 3 in the last decade or more - have been down to idiots trying to steal copper from live substations, which doesn't end well for anyone).

The last time we had planned blackouts on any kind of scale was the 70s when due to the oil crisis and striking miners we couldn't source enough fossil-fuel to keep generating.

Obviously completely different climate, geography, and (as I understand it) industry set-up - we have the national distribution infrastructure, last mile infrastructure, generation, and consumer-facing commercial / billing all as distinct entities, which brings its own set of benefits and challenges!