We believe that electricity exists, because the electric company keeps sending us bills for it, but we cannot figure out how it travels inside wires. – David Barry
Last week everyone had something to say about the power outages, contaminated water, burst pipes, and freezing temperatures. Dozens of people have died and more than four million homes lost power and heat. It will take months to recover. Most of the blame is incorrect – complex systems are interrelated.
US Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) said, “This week, big winter storms brought snow, sleet, ice, and extremely frigid temperatures. Residents experienced curtailed energy supplies and rolling blackouts.” Big winter storms? This was climate change, pure and simple.
What went wrong?
Texas has a grid with unregulated utilities. The grid needs spinning reserve and standby power to deal with increasing demand. When no one wants to pay the cost of energy reserves, the grid goes down.
Electricity is traded as a commodity, with the price per megawatt-hours set by electricity auctions. Megawatt-hours have to be used when generated and the price changes with supply and demand.
Last Monday the spot prices of wholesale electricity in Texas spiked more than 10,000 percent. Wholesale prices were over $9,000 per megawatt-hour late Monday morning, compared with pre-storm prices of less than $50 per megawatt-hour. Some February bills increased over $10,000.
Electricity is not a product
Products are tangible items that can be stored, returned, are durable, and meet quality specifications set by customers with warranted performance. A purchase agreement for on-time and in-full quality delivery is used to buy products.
Electrodynamics shows that while copper electrons “jiggle” the conductor is not hollow. The copper atoms do not move, electrons don’t flow like water molecules inside a pipe.
Conductors are used to transport electricity, similar to the transfer of heat by conduction. Heating one end of a metal rod transfers heat to the other end.
As long as you pay a connection fee, you are paying for the grid connection and the resources used by your utility. Physics, not lobbying, should be the basis for net metering.
The climate emergency requires new thinking. Competition for profits drained the Texas electric supply due to deregulation. Ignoring the climate emergency has deadly consequences.
Arkansas net energy metering (NEM)
The Texas energy fiasco proves that additional sources of clean energy are needed. Community and distributed solar, battery storage, and additional storage provided by electric vehicles is a smart strategy, spreading the cost and creating jobs.
In most states, 1:1 means an even exchange of kilowatt-hours to promote distributed clean energy and create thousands of solar jobs. After six years of negotiation, the Arkansas Public Service Commission decided to extend the NEM 1:1 rule for a couple of years. The 2019 Solar Access Act was signed by Gov. Hutchinson.
NO WAY, said the utilities, asking for a 400 percent profit per kWh sent to the grid, trying to profit from the high-risk low-return investment made by solar customers.
The claim that solar customers get a free ride and regular customers have to pay for the maintenance of the distribution lines is false.
Arkansas needs quality jobs. There are hundreds of distributed solar generation jobs in Arkansas but there could be thousands by promoting clean energy.
A change to net metering proposed by HB 1055 would give unrestricted power to the cooperatives. Our rural co-ops should do what they say and protect their members. Paying lobbyists and lawyers to work against your customers to increase the climate emergency is an abuse of power.
The climate emergency requires new thinking
Dozens of people have died in Texas from changes to the Jet Stream and the Polar Vortex, not from Big Winter. Ted Cruz and Steve Womack have failed their constituents. Let’s build resilient electric services.
Everyone needs affordable, high-quality, reliable, and resilient electric service to deal with extreme weather. Utilities have efficiency experts and access to federal environmental programs for decarbonization. Electric service and clean water are human rights. When the power goes out people die.
Dr. Luis Contreras