Well here in Wisconsin "renewable" has helped triple my electricity bill over the last 10 years for absolutely zero measurable change in greenhouse gas emissions. I think it's a giant scam myself and the masses beg for more.
This reporting would seem to turn that thought on its head, and likely would answer the question as to why the masses are begging for more:
Report: Wisconsin electricity rates among highest, use low
Commercial rates are 15th highest in the nation, while industrial rates are 18th.
the average Wisconsin household used less than 700 kilowatts per month for an average annual electric bill of $1,153, lower than all but nine states.
So, basically, Wisconsin is paying a price that is actually low compared to the rest of the nation.
So why are Wisconsin’s rates so high?
“Built-in costs,” said Gary Radloff, director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Energy Institute. “It’s a combination of legacy infrastructure and legacy business models.”
It's not Green Energy you're paying for, you're paying for LEGACY upgrades, the poor decisions of Wisconsin and Republican Scott Walker.
Utilities have invested heavily in power plants and transmission lines — such as the CapX2020 and Badger Coulee projects through western Wisconsin — that are paid off over decades through customer rates set by the Public Service Commission.
That's "old" tech of which they say now:
While some of those projects were necessary, or seemed so at the time, Radloff said others don’t look as good in hindsight considering the way electricity use has flattened out.
Content said Wisconsin ratepayers would be better off if utilities had followed those in Minnesota and Iowa by investing sooner in lower-cost natural gas and wind generation.
Oh well! Guess you guys should have invested in Green Energy instead of investing $1.5 Billion into retrofits and new coal/gas plants.
Further:
Yet the PSC has also approved significant increases in recent years to the flat monthly fee customers pay just to have an account, something consumer advocates argue punishes those who use the least electricity.
“We’ve been investing heavily in the supply side,” Content said. “And not in helping customers manage their energy costs.”
So, that's your Republican-controlled Public Service Commission raising your rates for no reason other than to rip you off even more... beyond the simple rate increases.
Then you head over to something like
journalsentinal.com and they say this:
Wisconsin Public Service, the subsidiary of WEC Energy Group that operates in northeastern Wisconsin, and Madison Gas and Electric plan to invest a total of $390 million to buy 300 megawatts of generating capacity — enough electricity for more than 70,000 residential customers — in two solar power projects.
and,
The cost is roughly half of what it was four years ago, said Dan Krueger, senior vice president of wholesale energy and fuels for WEC Energy.
Advances in technology, economies of scale in manufacturing and installation, and federal subsidies have contributed to the lower cost, according to the most recent cost-of-energy analysis by Lazard Ltd., an investment bank.
but then,
We Energies shut down the 1,190-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Pleasant Prairie this year, and though the plant will no longer generate electricity, customers could be paying off the utility’s investment in the plant for decades.
We Energies had yet to recover $681.3 million of that so-called "stranded" investment in the plant's two units as of Dec. 31.
That means a small portion of customers’ bills could be paying for the Pleasant Prairie power plant for roughly the next 26 years.
The same scenario could play out for the Presque Isle Power Plant in Marquette, Mich. We Energies plans to shut down the plant in 2020. The plant had a book value of $191.4 million as of Dec. 31, with an estimated 86% of the investment allocated to We Energies customers.
The utility will earn a return on its remaining investment in that plant, too, until the full amount is recovered.
Those plants had a combined book value of $57.9 million as of Dec. 31.
So let me get this straight, you want to blame Renewable energy that takes on the order of $400 Million, as reasoning for your residential electricity rate hike, but somehow forget to factor in $2.5-3+ Billion dollars for old tech, most of which will be inoperable for 30 years while you make those corporation whole via your electric bill?
C'mon man! Maybe your neighbors know something that you don't about Green Energy, maybe you should entertain their argument and not simply be biased against it.
