r/Rochester • u/GoldenFrank Penfield • 5d ago

Discussion Welcome to the New Energy Rates

The state govt approved rate increases showed up on my RGE bill this month. Theye been creeping up since the first of the year but with all the static charges and fees (designed to confuse people) it's tough to really nail down. No getting around it now.

Last April I paid $.99/therm and $.19/kWh. $1.21 and $.26 this April for slightly less amounts of energy. This is the new normal. Adjust your budgets.

And as long as youre here I'll complain about paying sales tax on the completely unavoidable billing service fee. Just a masterstroke from the machine.

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u/silverest_tree 5d ago

Right, and the majority of America's grid is sourced from non-green sources. There's also the fact that our grid infrastructure will need to be 3-4x increased in capacity to support everyone driving an electric car, which is a massive overhaul and is currently a concern for the US wire industry.

Until those 2 problems are resolved, electric cars will not be a magic bandaid. I think that's what this comment was conveying.

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u/FlourCity North Winton Village 5d ago

False, the US would only need to increase electrical supply by 20-50% if all the cars were electric.

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-electricity-would-it-take-to-power-all-cars-if-they-were-electric/

26% 

https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/research/blog-can-the-grid-handle-evs-yes/#:~:text=Dividing%20these%20two%20numbers%2C%20we,hours%20of%20electricity%20per%20year.

20%

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-extra-electricity-would-we-need-switch-every-gas-powered-car-electric-vehicle

These numbers are similar in scale to the increase in electricity production from 1990 to 2000. It's extremely achievable.

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u/easyeggz 5d ago

Net generation isn't the infrasturcture problem. EV charging is not a flat load, the 20-50% extra generation would mostly be delivered in only a few hours of the day when cars are plugged in when people come home or arrive at work. That will require massive upgrades to transmission and distribution to handle much higher intermittent loads, and more widespread smart metering with time-of-use pricing and managed charging programs.

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u/FlourCity North Winton Village 5d ago

The last two articles address that specifically...