A race car in the Australian outback improves solar performance in US
Engineering, sometimes forgotten but is the cause of so much of the “cool” gadgets, buildings, machines and working stuff in the world.
Ever wonder what gets engineers excited, it’s to win!
In this case, the World Solar Challenge run in Australia challenges the world’s engineering schools to develop a car to run 1,800 miles on only solar power.
….and, if you are going to compete you want to win.
Their win thou give us all benefits. Improving solar performance for automobiles will improve solar performance on your house and will ultimately be used in cars.
So, Go Blue….University of Michigan and bring home the win and the benefits to us all.
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 SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/car-racing-outback-can-boost-solar-us/
The Debate Over Michigan’s Electricity Deregulation: Should be in favor of Energy Consumers
Customer Choice programs are well established in the utility market. In fact, a recent study covering the last 20 years concludes that monopoly utilities that have no customer choice program pricing went up over 19% more than in utility markets with customer choice.
The debate is over; customer choice lowers prices for consumers, improves power plant utilization and supports local jobs.
It does so by utilizing the wholesale market (which has abundant power reserves), buying the energy at market pricing (ensuring jobs) and utilizes the existing utilities for delivering the energy (strengthening utilities by making them more competitive so companies won’t leave for less expensive energy).
The argument of subsidy, loss of state jobs or not enough power have all been proven to be false.
Michigan should fully embrace customer choice for the benefit of its residents and the strengthening of its economy and environment.
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 SavingsTM, MangedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2015/09/27/the-debate-over-michigans-electricity-deregulation-what-you-need-to-know/
and
http://www.governing.com/blogs/view/gov-local-government-electricity-competition-monopoly-challenge.html
20 Years of Customer Choice: Savings of 19%
Do you remember what you were doing 20 years ago? That’s how long ago many customer choice programs have been around.
Customer Choice is approved by a state and offered by a utility as an alternative to a utilities’ default service. By choosing a customer choice program, you are in fact, choosing only to buy direct wholesale power without ANY utility cost applied. The utility continues to provide all their traditional services such as billing, meter reading, emergency response, etc. So, the only reason to choose a customer choice offer is to provide savings compared to the utility default service. Energy marketers, those approved by the state and local utilities, contact with customer directly to serve them the wholesale power.
So after 20 years how does customer choice compare to utility default service. How does 19% sound?
That’s right. Utilities with only default service were 19% higher than utilities with customer choice over the last 20 years.
Many detractors have tried to make arguments that customer choice wouldn’t work by suggesting subsidies, not enough power is available, it would weaken the utility, loss of jobs, etc. However, this study, and others like it, have demonstrated that a customer choice program offers energy consumers a viable option other than default service by the utility. Energy marketers, in turn, purchase energy in the wholesale market (improving utilization of existing power plants), delivery it through the utility (increasing their revenues) and saving residents money (retain local jobs as business don’t move to chase lower energy costs).
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 SavingsTM, MangedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
We live in a dumb grid, but we can drink Smart Water!
Smart water right; filter it, juice it up with some vitamins and its smart. Not sure paying more for it qualifies as smart, but you don’t have to buy vitamins separate from water ….
The distribution systems, those complex networks of pipes and wires that delivery natural gas and electricity, are called grids.
Putting meters on them and connecting them to the internet; smart right?
Utilities get paid based upon measuring how much energy you use and charging you for it; in fact, energy marketers receive the same information from the utilities. However, does collecting information on your usage every 15 minutes instead of every month make anyone a better energy consumer, utility or energy marketer?
Certainly, putting measurement devices (not called meters anymore) in the grid is expensive and the utilities want you to pay for it. Is it cost effective; that is, do the measurement devices provide a benefit that is equal to or match to the investment? The answer at present is definitely no.
So why proceed? That answer lies in the realm of politics and utilities earnings based on spending money (see link for more on utility operation of metering) http://realgyenergyservices.com/chicago-homeowners-get-zapped/).
Evolving toward measuring energy consumption in near real-time will mean that consumers will be exposed to market pricing with little to no damping by the utility or energy marketer. This, of course, is what we are used to; supply and demand in an e-commerce world. However, it might be different with utilities as it is with water.
Realgy supports the investment by utilities in technology that is cost effective and provides benefits to the consumer.
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 SavingsTM, MangedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM as well as Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Documentation:
Weekly Basis Report 09/16/15
If you look at the chart below, you will see a lot of volatility in the short run and continuing all the to March and April 2016. This is more or less due to uncertainty in the market place where financial basis markets were mixed with Northeast prompt-month basis prices moving higher, while months further along the curve mostly fell. The NYMEX October natural gas futures contract fell 5.9 cents to settle at $2.651/MMBtu on expectations of a bearish weekly natural gas storage report.
DOE EIA Weekly Gas Storage Report 9/10/15
Working gas in storage was 3,261 Bcf as of Friday, September 4, 2015, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 68 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 473 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 127 Bcf above the 5-year average of 3,134 Bcf.
EIA estimated 72-76 Bcf
vs
Actual Injection 68 Bcf
A consensus of analysts surveyed by Platts expects the US Energy Information Administration on Thursday will estimate a natural gas storage injection of between 72 Bcf and 76 Bcf for the reporting week that ended September 4. A build within expectations would be less than the 90 Bcf injection reported at this time in 2014 but more than the 63 Bcf five-year average increase, according to EIA data. The wider range of analysts’ expectations for this week was for an injection of 69 Bcf to 81 Bcf. “Injection activity fell compared to the previous week within the East and Producing regions, as demand picked up on higher temperatures,” said Platts unit Bentek Energy in its Weekly Storage Report. Power demand rose by more than 1.6 Bcf/d compared with the previous week, Bentek said, mostly in the East Region. Most storage facilities reported smaller injections across the Midwest and Northeast.
DOE EIA Weekly Gas Storage Report
Working gas in storage was 3,193 Bcf as of Friday, August 28, 2015, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 94 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 495 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 122 Bcf above the 5-year average of 3,071 Bcf
EIA to estimate 83-87 Bcf
Actual 94 Bcf
An injection within that range would be more than the 79-Bcf build reported in the comparable week of 2014 and the 60-Bcf five year-average increase, EIA data showed. Discussing the possible effect of a high injection number Thursday, Santiago Diaz, broker at INTL FC Stone, said “if the large injection trend continues, it will translate towards more downward pressure on prices.” It is not unusual for natural gas storage injections to reach this size, but what is unusual is how early large injections are arriving. “With the third week of September traditionally marking the low point in the season for weather-related demand, this pattern change appears to be running close to schedule”
Weekly Basis Report
Here is the weekly basis report which is representing the future price change when trading natural gas, the quoted price is the difference between the Henry Hub price and a specific location’s price – called the basis price. A basis position is one that has exposure to two different locations: the Henry Hub and separate location’s price.
Here are some basic understanding on how to measure natural gas:
A BTU is the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a pint of water (which weighs exactly 16 ounces) by one degree Fahrenheit.
Since BTUs are measurements of energy consumption, they can be converted directly to kilowatt-hours (3412 BTUs = 1 kWh) or joules (1 BTU = 1,055.06 joules).
MBTU stands for one million BTUs, which can also be expressed as one decatherm (10 therms). MBTU is occasionally used as a standard unit of measurement for natural gas, and provides a convenient basis for comparing the energy content of various grades of natural gas and other fuels.
One cubic foot of natural gas produces approximately 1,000 BTUs, so 1,000 cu.ft. of gas are comparable to 1 MBTU.
MBTU is occasionally expressed as MMBTU, which is intended to represent a thousand thousand BTUs
Cogeneration is not Deregulation
Indiana is in the midst of trying to address its high cost of electricity. Two trade associations are facing off; the industrial trade association wants to be able to build cogeneration plants (very efficient plants that produce electricity and heat) while the utility trade association doesn’t want competition on other energy sources. Both trade associations miss the evolution of energy deregulation.
Energy deregulation started during the oil crisis (late 1970s early 80s) and initially the “deregulation” manifested as competition on constructing new power plants. That is: before a utility could build a new power plant, it had to put out to bid what it was going to build and the price and see if others could build it for less and with different fuels.
The second phase of energy deregulation occurred with energy supply to customers (natural gas and electricity). First came large energy users followed over time by residential consumers. During this phase of energy deregulation, the utility became a delivery company and the energy supply (natural gas or electricity) could be purchased from the utility or other energy suppliers.
A review of the facts of energy deregulation over the last 30+ years illustrates:
- The utility model of regulated competition has been demonstrated to cost more than direct competition.
- Power plants should be sited to allow for the efficient use of its output (both the heat and the electricity)
- Customer should be allowed to choose their energy supply. Competition for retail customers in energy supply has demonstrated lower costs, improved efficiency and greater service options.
- Utilities should continue to operate their monopoly on energy delivery
Hopefully, the Indiana legislators review the history and benefits from energy deregulation.
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 SavingsTM, MangedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report
Working gas in storage was 3,099 Bcf as of Friday, August 21, 2015, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 69 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 480 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 88 Bcf above the 5-year average of 3,011 Bcf.
EIA estimate 58-62 Bcf
Actual 69
A consensus of analysts surveyed by Platts expects the US Energy Information Administration on Thursday will estimate a natural gas storage injection of between 58 Bcf and 62 Bcf for the reporting week that ended August 21. An injection within expectations would be less than the 77-Bcf injection reported at this time in 2014 and similar to the 61-Bcf five-year average injection, according to EIA data. The wider range of analysts’ expectations for this week was for an injection of 47 Bcf to 67 Bcf. “US demand rose modestly from the previous week and averaged just above 64.5 Bcf/d during the week,” said Bentek Energy, an analytics and forecasting unit of Platts. “However, this did not translate to lower injection activity, as Bentek’s sample injections increased within both the East and Producing regions compared to the previous week.”
