Shocker: Power demand from US homes is falling

[toddwv]

According to an AP article, electricity demand in the US has been falling sharply and is starting to get some power industry execs worried.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POWER_DEMAND?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=
From 1980 to 2000, residential power demand grew by about 2.5 percent a year. From 2000 to 2010, the growth rate slowed to 2 percent. Over the next 10 years, demand is expected to decline by about 0.5 percent a year, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit group funded by the utility industry.

Overall demand, including from factories and businesses, is still expected to grow, but at only a 0.7 percent annual rate through 2035, the government says. That's well below the average of 2.5 percent a year the past four decades.

Utility executives have been aware that the rate of demand growth is slowing, but a more dramatic shift than they expected may be under way. Executives were particularly surprised by a dip during the first three months of this year, the most recent national quarterly numbers available. Adjusted for the effects of weather, residential power demand fell 1.3 percent nationwide, an unusually sharp drop.


So a couple of things stood out at me after reading this article. First, the power execs are asking for legislation that would allow them to charge more per kW/h. Second, it kind of kicked a flag in may head after seeing several right-wingers post about how the Obama Administration was forcing several coal-fired power plants to close.

Allowing power companies to charge more per kW/h would open the door even further for renewable sources of energy which have a hard time competing in a biased environment that does everything it can to keep the traditional power sources churning out cheap electricity. This could lead to further reductions in power consumption on sheer economics alone and possible start a little "vicious cycle" of less demand/higher prices/more renewables. I would LOVE to see us at a point where we see residential energy production and storage at prices that make it not just affordable but widespread. I've been looking into some very promising tech that could make micro-gridding a possibility.

As for the second point, we got this same industry spiel about how regulations were forcing closures back in the 70s and 80s concerning fuel refineries. The major powers were blaming it on hippies and regulation but their memos revealed that the companies themselves were trying to push out the independent oil refineries allowing the major oil companies to consolidate refinery capability thereby giving them a much tighter control over supply. So I wonder if this whole "Obama shut my coal-fired power plant down!" is just them applying this relatively successful tact.

[begin_within]

1. I like your title for this thread!

[hlthe2b]

2. And my father swore my sister and I'd never learn to turn off the lights...

Sounds like lots of us have learned our lessons. ;)

Good news, I think.

[Warpy]

7. That and some of us switched to LED and CFL bulbs

and junked the CRTs for LCD sets. In addition, people are starting to pay more attention to the appliances they're using and going for the Energy Star models over the slick, high powered, high capacity, high power usage ones. The message has taken a long time to sink in, but it's finally doing so thanks to economic uncertainty.

[Lorien]

12. Yep, that's what I've been doing steadily for years

I've also been growing trees on the East and West sides of my home to keep it shaded in the Summer. So far the trees alone are saving me $60.00 a month during the hotter seasons here in Florida.

[Tesha]

20. CRT versus LCD TVs is actually a pretty-subtle question.

Modern CRT TVs were actually pretty energy-efficient. In addition,
people tend to replace a (say) 25" CRT with a much-larger LCD
TV and the energy consumption of an LCD TV rises roughly in
proportion to the area of the screen.

For example, our 42" LCD draws slightly more power than the 25"
CRT TV it replaced. It also draws a lot more standby power because
it occasionally turns itself on in low-power mode to collect the
program guide; the old CRT TV didn't have any such feature.

And then there were plasma TVs: these were energy disaster areas,
taking far more power than either CRT or LCD TVs. Unfortunately,
they're still for sale and often cost slightly-less than an equivalent
LCD TV.

Tesha

[Warpy]

28. You're correct about the size

but a lot of people already had the 30+ inch CRT screens and while solid state electronics had made them considerably more efficient than the old tube sets, they weren't all that efficient. They still had to fire and bend all those electrons at the phosphor screen.

The LCD sets the same size offered a savings (and mine have been the same size, I've lived with a projection TV and never again!) and the larger size sets didn't offer that big a hit to the power bill.

The people who saw the increase were people who bought plasma sets. Those are energy hogs, especially in summer when AC has to compensate for all the heat they pump out. You're absolutely right about that one.

The bottom line is that the 1.1% drop in average power usage might not all be due to people backing off on the appliances and AC because of the recession. Quite likely a good bit of it is because households are doing the right things.

[Safetykitten]

3. "Unexpectedly" and "surprising" power companies find peeople with no jobs cut back.

[Kolesar]

6. How much power does an empty, foreclosed house use?

Not much

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. There's the rub...

[KarenS]

17. Exactly,,,,

On our short little street 4 homes that were occupied last year are now sitting empty. I cannot imagine how that rolls up to the city level.

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. none.

[Kolesar]

27. On my street, you might need to run a sump pump

Not to take anything away from your data.

[toddwv]

19. And what about job creation in "green energy"?

Seems like a pretty decent growth industry...

http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=53254
Pew Finds Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/11/2011-outlook-for-clean-energy-jobs-in-the-u-s-beating-the-trend
2011 Outlook for Clean Energy Jobs in the U.S. – Beating the Trend

There are also companies that are creating innovative ideas that could change the way we look at power generation and distribution as a nation.

http://www.beaconpower.com/products/about-flywheels.asp

[JVS]

4. Now they'll raise the prices to make up for the lack of demand.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

11. monopolies can do that... n/t

[RKP5637]

14. Yep, that's why the BS from them about saving energy is so two-faced. Cutting

energy saves them $'s in generation of energy, but they will do their damnedest to keep the charges up ... while crowing about how they are working to save the environment.

So, one can get off the grid, maybe, with wind power/solar - maybe you can sell your excess energy back to them, but the way this country works, and its monopolies, I'll be damn if they don't pass a law at some point in the future saying you're stealing wind power/solar energy from them, no matter how ridiculous that might sound, and force people back on the grid at their rates.

I've seen so much BS crap in this place, anymore, I'm not surprised at anything,

[HillbillyBob]

18. It is our plan to go off grid. When I contacted local power co

about puttin solar the sob laughed at me. Saying " we only charge 11c kwhr for coal generated" i said that is EXACTLY why I want solar you idiot, my home community has been wiped out by mountaintop removal, since you obviosly don't care or are not conversant enough to know what I am talking about I cannot wait for the day I call you up and tell your guys to come pull the plug!

We bought the place 4 going on 5 yrs ago, 2,000sq ft,total electric..3300 to 4,000 kwhr to run the heat pump, incands old applicance. We did a lot of weather sealing, pained the roof with a kool seal, put up mesh shade structures to the east and west sides (trees are a fire danger here)..last 3 bills 908 kwhrs 132$/909 kwhrs for july, 143$/ 1059(if i recall) and August was the highest as it was 90 dg or higher for 28 straigt days with about a week over 100. 250$/ 1500kwhrs.
WE have swapped for leds in most used lights, front load washer and he dish washer when the old ones died, led screens/tvs etc, cooking in covered pots saves energy too, use a toaster oven for smaller meals.

A few weeks ago the power company sent out a guy to make sure the place was actually occupied.

[RKP5637]

21. Those are a lot of really sharp things you all did for energy efficiency. Mountaintop

removal is gross. My ancestors grew up in the mountains, the areas were absolutely stunningly beautiful. I've seen a couple of areas after mountaintop removal, the ones I saw were mud pits, absolutely gross.

It's horrible what humans are doing to earth, between much of the crap we build, green lands we destroy, the pollution and garbage, we will likely drown in our own filth.

I had some rental property once years ago and between tenants we renovated, I was questioned why more power was not being used. My immediate reaction was like WTF. It seems I read a similar post to yours, maybe it was on DU, where someone said the utility companies were always sniffing around their place because they had done so much to save on utility costs.

Even after they knew of all of the improvements, they still came around bothering them. It really gets unbelievable after awhile, especially the knuckleheads like you spoke to at your utility company.

Great Job!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:yourock:

[toddwv]

22. They'll do that anyways.

[aquart]

5. This is their excuse for raising rates to make up the difference.

[onethatcares]

25. you nailed it, what they want is guaranteed profit ratios

no matter how much power is produced or used.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. I would like to think this means that we are becoming more efficient

I know, it is likely unrealistic, but it is possible. I moved to a place some years ago with replacement windows and recently had to replace my heat pump, and my bills are 1/3 of what they were when I was renting. Unlikely the main reason, but one can hope?

[justabob]

13. that would be nice

I am sure that more energy star, light bulbs, windows, etc are helping a lot. The thing is though, as we have already seen with the success of water rationing and conservation programs, the utilities just raise their prices to cover the difference. Sigh. Yay we are using less! Boo we have to pay more for it! It is frustrating.

I have another issue with this particular story where it specifies that they are using the numbers from the first three months of this year. Since then, many areas have been experiencing their worst summer ever. I suspect those numbers are going to level off when the summer usage of AC units and fans are factored in. You know?

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. The difference between private and public sector:

Private sector's only priority is profit, which means they couldn't give a damn about health, safety or other people's welfare.

[Tesha]

15. Golly, "No one could have expected that," (NT)

[LiberalFighter]

16. I try to avoid using lights until absolutely necessary.

A few years ago I had skylight put in and it has helped.

[onethatcares]

24. here in sunny Floriduh the legislature passed a law allowing

Progress Energy/Duke Energy to not have to pay for electricity produced by homeowner projects like solar. But we are on the hook for a nuke plant that has yet to be built along with repairs to another that is currently broken.

Jeeeezzzzzzuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, if our legislature was deeper in the utilitys pocket they'd be spitting before they could speak.

[NutmegYankee]

26. For $0.18 per kW/h is that a surprise?

Damn straight I'm making things more efficient. Connecticut has the highest electrical rate in the Continental US.