Electricity

The conversation will be about demand charges vs. time-of-use (TOU); don’t let the jargon fool you: they want to charge you more.

The conversation includes the following (shown on the chart)

• Usage is the energy used in a given period, the chart below shows monthly
• Average is determined by dividing the sum of the value by their number
• Peak: the highest amount used in a period

So this discussion by utility regulators is HOW you should pay for energy consumption.

Current method: you pay a customer service fee and an average energy charge based on your USAGE. Lower usage means a lower bill.

Demand method is you pay based on your PEAK. Peak energy is the most expensive to supply as many people are using near the same time. Demand charges are substantial and will be set for 1 year or more. The only way to lower this cost, is to lower your peak energy demand.

TOU method means you pay the market based charge during the time period (normally hourly, in this example monthly) you use the energy. To lower your bill under TOU you need to be able to reduce your energy USAGE when prices are high.

Energy marketers already buy TOU. Utilities do as well, they pass along costs 1-3 months after incurred. So TOU is what everyone buys now, however, it may be delayed.

Demand method is more complicated as it allows utilities to recover costs they MIGHT occur. It also shift a great deal of complexity and measurement to residential customers.

Having consumers incur demand charges recognizes the influence that residential consumption is having on utility distribution. Demand charges have always been prevalent in commercial and industrial utility rates. As industry energy usage declines and residential increases the utilities are looking to shift their rates accordingly.

Utilities commissions need to strike a balance by encouraging local energy generation (solar, wind, storage), maintaining a robust distribution network and letting energy marketers bring market based energy prices.

The discussion are coming and the balancing has begun.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM Index, Fixed and PriceAssurance^TM.

Additional Information:

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/demand-charges-vs-tou-rates-the-great-arizona-rate-design-experiment/426902/

The State of Illinois required electric utilities to offer competitive offers for electric service. The distribution of the energy (through the wires) would remain regulated, meaning the utility (COMED, Ameren, MEC) would remain. This was so effective that in April of 2014 the state issued its report citing $37,000,000,0000 ($37 billion) that residential customers in Illinois saved

http://realgyenergyservices.com/competition-work-tune-37-billion/

So why make it harder to sign up for such a service?

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) believes it’s necessary to prevent customers from being misled.

For instance, the ICC is proposing to train sales people before they would be allowed to offer such services door-door. I am sure this will be the training that Department of Transportation workers receive in issuing your driver’s license (hasn’t that worked out great).

After you sign an agreement for service you will need to have a company call to verify that you intended to sign that document…..it’s called third party verification but isn’t that why you signed it?

No automated renewal, no phone call for updates; rather it requires US Mail service for changes.

The ICC already has the authority to stop any alternative retail energy supplier or utility from misleading a customer. So these proposed changes add regulation on top of regulation. Which by the way is what a regulatory agency would want! 

Realgy opposes unnecessary regulation that serves no purpose but to obstruct a customer’s decision.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM Index, Fixed and PriceAssurance^TM.

Additional Information:

http://www.energychoicematters.com/stories/20160928b.html

http://www.energychoicematters.com/stories/20160928c.html

The Illinois Commerce Commission (the regulators overseeing consumer protection in Illinois) has issued a first notice that if enacted would offer additional regulatory safeguards to customers selecting a retail energy provider.

Sales conducted in-person such as door to door sales, multilevel marketing and any signing up at a kiosk (say at a fair or church group), would require the energy representative to complete all the following:

• Identification: wear credentials showing picture, full name and company logo
• Criminal background check: completed by a third party (doesn’t disqualify if positive)
• Third party verification of the customer’s enrollment decision (not just a signed agreement but a recording of the customer authorizing the enrollment)

Every alternative retail energy supplier (ARES) in Illinois is required to be authorized by the ICC. Further, every ARES is subject to losing their authorization if their conduct is fraudulent, misleading or abusive.

The ICC is the agency that receives and addresses complaints from consumers. Apparently, they believe there is a need for such new rules. However, it seems unclear to me whether these changes offer new protections. It’s apparent to me that if customers are being enrolled under misleading, fraudulent or abusive tactics then the ICC has the authority to end such practices today.

Realgy is in compliant with current rules and will review any final rule to ensure we stay such.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM Index, Fixed and PriceAssurance^TM.

Additional Information:

http://www.energychoicematters.com/stories/20160926a.html

Is your Utility, that regulated monopoly that delivers your energy (natural gas, electricity, even water), ready to continue to evolve.

In many states, the local Utility has adjusted to allowing customer to choose their energy provider. In these state; the Utility continues to provide the distribution of the energy while the energy marketer provides the power to the Utility.

Consider if you install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels you are generating electric power (small scale power plant). Multiply a single PV decision by thousand then millions of people installing PV. The power generated by these PV system reduces the daytime energy needed to be distributed by the Utility (reducing their revenues). However what happens if you add a storage battery to each PV site?

The answer could upend the current Utility and energy marketing model. As the storage battery allows the user to decide when to use the power and when to charge the battery. The user could allow the Utility or energy marketer to manage this choice. The result; the user or customer has a lower bill.

PV with battery storage has been around a long time. However, current and forecasted advancements in the technology has made their adoption (due to cost advantages) more likely.

The future Utility, energy marketer and customer relationships will continue to unfold. Hopefully, the regulators allow the markets to find their equilibrium.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM Index, Fixed and PriceAssurance^TM.

Additional Information:

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/how-storage-can-help-solve-the-distributed-energy-death-spiral/421160/

Utilities are monopolies that regulators review to ensure they are spending more to provide the essential service and not collecting more than is needed to do so. 

COMED, Chicago’s electric monopoly, wants more money and is proposing a new way to collect it from home owners.

Currently, you pay based on how much energy you use in any given bill period. 

However, COMED wants you to pay that PLUS what’s called demand based pricing.

Demand based rates have been a component for industry for a long time. When industry start and stops large machines it can draw a lot of power all at once. This type of load can be hard for a utility to manage across many, many industries.

However, homeowners do not start large machines. We start TVs and AC units. Nothing that a large utility cannot handle. So why charge for demand? Because they want additional revenue because we are using less electricity as lighting and homes become more efficient.

Regulators should say No. Demand rates will reduce incentive to save money on energy usage for residential users.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM Index, Fixed and PriceAssurance^TM.

Additional Information:

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/05/17/bill-would-drastically-change-way-comed-charges-customers/

Déjà vu all over again. Another manufacturer has lied about its emission and tried to conceal and it’s not Volkswagen.

A first-ever criminal charges brought by the Federal Energy Regularity Commission (FERC) against Berkshire Power.

Berkshire Power operates power plants and manufacturers electricity. In the course of their operation, they have to file with FERC emission data. They knowingly submitted information they knew to be false in order to gain more favorable dispatch (electric production).

FERC alerted the Environmental Protection Agency and state authorities to tipping them off these power plant emission’s looked wrong.

Knowingly submitting false emission data violated the Clean Act Air. Due to their reported “lower emissions” these power plants were dispatch more often which violated the

Federal Power Act (FPA). Essentially the FPA ensure fair trade which relies on accurate data.

Realgy supports the enforcement of both the Clean Air Act and the FPA as ensure a free and fair market.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM and Index, Fixed pricing.

Additional Information:

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/massachusetts-power-providers-pay-85m-in-fines-for-emissions-scheme/416728/

So what does it look like to build a high voltage transmission network (think those large metal structures and wires you see near the highways) in the US vs. China?

In China, it takes the Government declaring it to be built. The Government then acquires the land and hires the contractors.

In the US, private developers or utilities have a longer process.  First, they must gain approval by each state (sometimes each county) along with the Federal Government and each landowner.  Then raise the money necessary to design and build it. Needless to say, China can move faster in constructing such infrastructure.

Both countries are in the process of constructing transmission networks connecting the areas where high wind and solar production are possible to the cities/factories where that power is needed. This is an enormous undertaking by both countries.

The only way that either country can reduce its dependence on fossil fuel generated electricity is first to construct transmission towers to bring the solar/wind generated energy to where it is needed.

China’s approach might be quicker but it comes at a cost of fair markets, environmental consideration and public vs. private economies.

Both countries will pursue renewable energy development and the global environment should benefit by reducing greenhouse gases. The pace of the change will be interesting to watch.

Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed Savings^TM, ManagedPrice^TM, ManagedGreen^TM and Index, Fixed pricing.

Additional Information:

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/11332900/china-long-distance-transmission