Price jolt: Electricity bills going up, up, up / USA Today

[DogPoundPup]

Here's a shocker: Electricity bills are heading up. Way up.

Utilities across the USA are raising power prices up to 29%, mostly to pay for soaring fuel costs, but also to build new plants and refurbish an aging power grid.

Even more dramatic rate increases are ahead. The mounting electric bills will further squeeze households struggling with spiraling gasoline prices.

"Consumers now face a tough reality on electricity," says Mark Cooper of Consumer Federation of America.

The increases come after rising fuel prices already have driven up utility bills nearly 30% in the past five years, the sharpest jump since the 1970s energy crisis. Fuel costs are again the main culprit. In Virginia, Potomac Edison, citing high coal and natural gas prices, plans to raise rates 29% on July 1, pushing an average monthly residential bill from about $70 to $90. AmerenUE, Missouri's largest utility, recently asked for its first rate increase in 20 years, a 12.1% boost, mostly to cover higher fuel costs. Customers of Public Service Co. of Oklahoma were socked with a 25% rise on June 1.
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The price of coal, which fires half of U.S. power plants, has doubled since last year, largely because of surging energy use in countries such as China and India. Natural gas prices are up nearly 50% on high U.S. demand. In California, drought has forced Pacific Gas & Electric to replace cheap hydroelectric power with natural gas, helping to prompt it to seek 13% rate increases.

The cost to build a power plant has also gone up, more than doubling since 2000. South Carolina Electric & Gas wants to boost rates 37% by 2019 to cover its share of two nuclear reactors costing $10 billion.

Read @...
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-06-15-power-prices-rising_N.htm

Yea, these power plants just figured their power plants would last into infinity, that's why when Gore and Clinton were on their asses to reduce emissions they just cried like babies saying it was impossible to meet their standards...now look where we are today. I guess we're all going to have to move into caves miles and miles away from rivers and streams so our cave stays dry.

[elocs]

1. My budget-pay electric bill went up from $96/month to $126/month.

That's a just over 30% increase. I can remember when I was a kid my local power company had a jingle that went, "Electricity is penny cheap from NSP to you". Them were the days.

[amerikat]

2. I switched my electricity supply to 50% wind and 50% small hydro

about a year ago. My rates are pretty stable.

[diane in sf]

3. This will make the payback for solar much faster.

[phantom power]

4. unless the energy cost raises the cost of the panels proportionately.

Receding horizons, etc.