The cost of natural gas for power generation more than doubled in 2021, accounting for much of the rise in electricity prices, according to EIA.
Retail electricity prices in 2021 rose at their fastest rate since 2008, the U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA) said Tuesday. The average nominal price increased 4.3% from 2020 to $0.1372/kWh in 2021, and is expected to reach $0.1426/kWh in this year.
That $0.1372/kWh price is the “highest on record,” EIA noted, before adding that prices have tended to slowly decline when accounting for inflation.
There are signs that the increases are weighing on consumers in the waning days of winter. On Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, directed the state’s utilities to assist consumers struggling to pay. “The extreme utility bill increases all of us are seeing are having a serious impact on our household budgets, and in response we are taking action,” Hochul said in a statement.
For general rate customers, arrears 90 days or more past due are now $336 million, up from $218 million in March 2020.
“So when you add them together, you’ve got [more than] a half a billion dollars in very serious arrears, just in Massachusetts,” said Howat.
“The numbers are going up and it’s only going to get worse,” he added, noting a 2-6 month lag between wholesale price increases and retail bill spikes.
For the next five summers, extreme heat and other climate change impacts will threaten the reliability of California’s electrical grid, state officials said Friday.
Available electricity supplies might not be able to keep up with demand if heat waves hit, droughts make hydropower less available or wildfires reduce electricity transmission, staff of the California Energy Commission (CEC) and California Public Utilities Commission advised agency leaders.
And this will effect other states across the country.
We ask WHAT are they doing to PREVENT this seeing they KNOW it's coming?
Source: Utility Drive and Scientific American