Electricity Price Increases

[Larry Caldwell]

What tax breaks?

I've been asking my question for years yet most answers are actually the same expense writeoffs which every other business gets.

You have never heard of an oil depletion allowance? It allows the oil companies to deduct the value of the oil they pump from their bottom line.

 

[ponytug]

Around here, transmission lines are copper clad steel above ground, aluminum underground. I ran across an article years ago that one of my college buddies, John Stovall, was Engineer In Charge of the "first commercial superconducting power line." If anybody could do it, John was the guy. He was scary smart. That was years ago and nothing ever came of it, so that technology is still waiting in the wings. Superconducting DC transmission lines would make wind power practical.

Redesigning the grid for distributed generation will certainly be expensive. I just saw an article that Switzerland (?) is experimenting with lining the space between rails with solar panels. Uploading the power to the rail lines would be convenient, but trains don't use that much power. I doubt rail lines could handle megawatts, particularly at their low voltages.

There's been a superconducting feeder in operation at Fermi labs for forty five years or so, but I think that the trick isn't the lines, it is finding a superconducting material that doesn't need to be at -452F.

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Copper may weigh more, but that difference becomes less when you need twice or more aluminum to provide the same amount of power.

The math in the prior post was for equal amperage, so apples to apples. I think that the larger diameter of the aluminum is a little misleading due to the lower density, which means a larger diameter to get enough material to conduct the same current with the same resistance.

All the best,

Peter

 

[rontaki]

As for using your EV or house batteries to feed the grid in times of high demand/low supply, the additional charge/discharge cycles will wear them out faster. Maybe the compensation from the utility company will offset the cost of replacing the batteries, in the case of an older EV they might not be worth replacing. Win for the EV makers...

 

[California]

As for using your EV or house batteries to feed the grid in times of high demand/low supply, the additional charge/discharge cycles will wear them out faster. Maybe the compensation from the utility company will offset the cost of replacing the batteries, in the case of an older EV they might not be worth replacing. Win for the EV makers...

Aren't a lot of EV's leased? So the guy who leased it would be thinking about his net electricity cost, rather than the car's battery life.

Maybe EV's will be required to log this discharge along with odometer readings, for a subsequent owner to understand what he is buying.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I expect grid batteries to be a different chemistry than EV batteries. There are cheaper and more durable batteries not used for EVs because of weight and energy density considerations. A substation could just add an acre.

 

[Jstpssng]

You have never heard of an oil depletion allowance? It allows the oil companies to deduct the value of the oil they pump from their bottom line.

I had to think about this for a while. (I also deleted a previous reply.)
If you bought a fully stocked grocery store you wouldn't declare all revenue from sales as profit. Rather, you would deduct the estimated cost of the goods you sold. Depletions work the same way. They are extracting oil, gas or other minerals which they paid for, and can't be expected to pay taxes on the money twice. It would be like buying a car, fixing it up, then selling it and paying taxes on the full sale price.