We take electricity for granted. Until we don’t have it. According to Entergy, over 250,000 Mississippi customers in its monopoly service area were recently without electricity for days. Some, for weeks. They were unhappy.
Mississippi’s Central District Public Service Commissioner bestirred himself to excoriate Entergy and its CEO for the outages. They were caused by an Act of God – unforeseen bad weather. Entergy’s CEO understandably pled Force Majeure. And brought in lots of crews to restore service.
I have said critical things about utility executives and their boondoggles (e.g. Mississippi Power’s Kemper County Lignite Plant that never generated electricity from lignite and Entergy’s solar plants that occasionally generate electricity). And about Mississippi’s Public Service Commission which approves the boondoggles. And about the politicians who encourage the PSC to approve them. But in this case, I will cut Entergy and its CEO some slack. And credit them and their frontline workers for their all-out efforts in response to the freak thunderstorms.
However, I think the Central District Commissioner may be guilty of hypocrisy and sleeping at the switch. Actually he hasn’t been asleep. He’s just been busy promoting green energy and rubber-stamping Entergy’s solar plant schemes – instead of asking questions before the lights go out. We shouldn’t be surprised since he was promoting green energy when he was elected in 2019. In a close race. He won by 2022 votes out of 291,170 cast. He’s running for re-election. He may go back to his old job.
He is harshly critical of Entergy’s response to the storms. He wants more detailed reports about the company’s response. Sound like a bureaucrat sitting in his office waiting on the paperwork? Did the Commissioner get out to see damage and repair efforts firsthand? Talk to his constituents? Do something constructive? Well, he said he was going to monitor the situation closely. I guess that passes for constructive in government work.
He also said he would hold utilities accountable for providing affordable and reliable service. At the same time he promotes and votes for solar power that makes electricity more expensive and less reliable. Talking out of both sides of your mouth. That’s hypocrisy.
Green energy promoters want green electricity – as in dollars that its subsidies and tax breaks bring. They don’t care if it’s not on when you need it. That’s someone else’s problem. That’s most of the time. Here’s a factoid. Entergy’s Mississippi Sunflower Solar Plant generated electricity 14% of the time between September 2022 and March 2023. It generated electricity 6% of the time in December. So it didn’t generate electricity 94% of the time. Well duh! That’s the math.
So what happens when you flip the switch if the sun’s not shining? If you are lucky, your utility has a backup plant and is in a stable electric grid. Hopefully the backup is a combined cycle natural gas plant that’s cheap and reliable. It probably idles on standby most of the time (even when the sun is shining) in case an unforeseen storm comes up. So your utility needs two plants to assure reliable electricity if one of them is a solar plant. Isn’t that more expensive? Yes. Does the utility care? No. Actually it likes it. A lot. Why?
If the PSC approves the solar plant and its natural gas backup, the cost of the electricity they generate goes into the rate base and shows up in the customer’s monthly bill. The customer pays more, and the utility breaks even. But the utility gets a kicker. It gets an authorized 11% return on its investment in the plants. The customer pays for this too. The more the utility spends on plants, the more it makes. And the more customers pay. No wonder utilities and their shareholders like duplicate plants.
The customer gets double-dipped too. He pays more for electricity. And he gets less reliable service. Why is that? Solar power is intermittent. It’s not on all the time. And it’s unpredictable even on summer days when the sun usually shines. It doesn’t shine all the time even then. Perfectly clear days are rare in Mississippi. Cloudy days aren’t – especially in the winter. It’s dark every night.
Solar’s intermittency (off-again, on-again Finnegan) is a problem for the grid that connects plants that generate electricity and customers that use it. The grid doesn’t store electricity. So the customer’s demand for electricity must be in balance with the supply of electricity from the plants that generate it. Otherwise, the grid destabilizes and bad things happen (e.g., rolling brownouts, blackouts, and even grid failure). The larger the grid, the more resilience it has to deal with minor imbalances in supply and demand. The more intermittent sources of power, the less resilience the grid has.
We know about near grid failures in Texas and California and their consequences. Too many intermittent wind and solar plants triggered these close calls. Our grid in Mississippi and its regional MISO grid interconnect is not yet contaminated with too much intermittency. But over 50 pending solar projects could change that. Need Commissioners to do their jobs. And less ink for the rubber stamps.
The PSC is the gatekeeper. But it’s not assuring customers affordable reliable electricity. Maybe this coming election will see some constructive changes. It’s been reported that Mississippi has the nation’s cheapest gasoline. It could have the cheapest and most reliable electricity too with its access to pipelines crossing the state with cheap natural gas. Would be a boost for economic development and jobs.
Germany has destroyed its manufacturing base with its green energy obsession and resulting high cost unreliable power. Other companies like Steel Dynamics, which is building an aluminum plant in NE Mississippi’s TVA service area with cheap reliable electricity, might locate plants in Mississippi too. Maybe in Entergy’s service area in the PSC’s Central District.
Wouldn’t that be loverly? Loverly.
This post is sponsored and authored by Bigger Pie Forum.
26 comments:
My complaint with Entergy (as a customer) is NOT in their restoration efforts. Their restoration efforts and progress were exemplary. My complaint is with their communication to the customers. They want everyone to sign up for text messages and use their smartphone app for updates, etc., but during the entire time my electricity was out (18 hours out of 24 -not as long as some, but still enough that an update communication would have been nice!), I received NOT ONE update. I tried to get updates by calling 1800ENTERGY, but was given a generic restoration underway message. In fact, the ONLY update communication I received was by text, informing me that my electricity should now be restored - a FULL WEEK after it had been restored.
Check for those green greasy palms on the PSC Central District commissioner.
I think I missed the last sentence. What does that mean? Mean?
Has the author driven around older neighborhoods? Entergy is NOT maintaining its infrastructure. Additionally, why is the author commending Entergy on its storm response. The crew repairing my street was from Jacksonville, FL. That’s a 10 hour drive when you’re in a normal passenger car, not heavy equipment that is needed to repair damaged and downed lines, not to mention the contractor from Jacksonville had to have time to get a crew and its equipment together before it could even begin the 10 hour trip to Jackson. Is the author friends with Entergy execs or something because he sure is a shill for them?
All these solar fields are being built only because the Feds are paying local utilities and cooperatives to do it. Not one of these local power providers would have done this by investing their own funding - and the reason is simple. It is not a reliable source of power. The local providers were enticed because they desperately wanted to be able to say they were doing their part for "green energy" and they liked the idea of the federal government paying them to do it. Otherwise, it's poor business - plain and simple.
They won't talk about ROI. Solar does not produce power for much of the time, and the maintenance costs to keep all those solar cells operational is staggering. And yet, they are being pressured to build them and move significant portions of the grid to rely on these solar fields. Ask the folks out in Texas who had been on reliable, natural gas-powered generation but were moved to wind and solar. It means not just more outages, but frequent and extended power outages. Those pushing this nonsense want you to accept that as the 'new normal.' And adding to the nonsense, the same people pushing solar (and opposing gas-powered generation) are the ones pushing for gasoline powered vehicles to phase out in favor of EVs, which will raise the demand for electrical power exponentially. It's like two trains running at full speed toward one another - it's going to be a helluva mess.
We need more modern nuclear power generation and we needed to start building in in 2013. It’s the only way if they want us all in EVs by the end of the decade.
Hippie energy works like hippies: on occasion.
11:02 for the win!
Well, that all sounds good, Mr Bigpie. My experience, though, is it’s the big chunks bobbing at the top of our vibrant democratic cess pool that prevaricate and twist and propagandize to their own advantages. Every. Damn. Time. You-all didn’t spend a few hours putting this opinion piece together because you-all care about me and the people like me.
I think the 10:49 comment about maintaining the infrastructure is right on. Also, I had heard that Entergy has laid off workers and relies more so on contracting out work as cost saving measures. Probably works, until there is a big weather event.
My goodness, what a dissertation. Glad you got that off your chest.
Entergy must have stopped teaching pole climbing. During this last big outage Entergy and B&B Electric crews showed up at my 87 year old mother-in-law's place. She had been without power for 7 days. An Entergy survey team came to see what was needed to get her turned back on. Both men on the survey team were retired Entergy linemen and they called in what was needed while I was there. The team told the call center that an old abandon house trailer down the road needed to taken off the line before a line fuse was reset. The Entergy lineman that came on this call said he couldnt do what the survey team said needed doing because he couldnt get his truck to the pole to do what was on the ticket.
What happened to strapping the gaffs on and climbing the pole. Pole climbing is Lineman 101. I know that man that taught it !
I bet Monsanto loves solar. There is a lot of Round Up used to keep the weeds down around solar panels. Who cares about the excess Round Up leaching into water? It is all about Green energy baby!
Funny that Texas is building and relying on solar as a backup to its energy grid. I guess those Big Oil folks realized that when the fossil fuel dependent power grid fails, that sometimes the sun is indeed shining.
Dave Walsh energy outlines it all here
https://rumble.com/v2peb44-dave-walsh-epa-plan-to-shut-down-basic-load-continuous-duty-power-as-drasti.html
Solar power is expensive and not reliable. It will however increase Entergy’s social credit or ESG score.
@3:47
maybe you should read a little more.
How's that working out for the consumers over there in TX? And soon to be MS?
"Texas Residents Asked to Voluntarily ‘Reduce Electric Use’ as Grid Strains Against the Heat."
just in case you need the cliff note; that's from no wind, no sun and not enough continuous load capacity from taking off dependable sources like fossil fuels, you know the thing that happens when you turn the switch on?
"Funny that Texas is building and relying on solar as a backup to its energy grid. I guess those Big Oil folks realized that when the fossil fuel dependent power grid fails, that sometimes the sun is indeed shining."
"Texas problem with wind and solar generation has been growing for years. In 2022, wind farms generated 25% of the electricity used in ERCOT. Solar farms generated 5.65%. Ten years earlier, wind’s market share was 12.25% and solar’s 0.03%. This has placed a great strain on the grid because neither of these generation sources can be counted on when needed."
@ 3:47 When needed means when you turn the switch on...usually like the Kenny Chesney song, when the sun goes down....and there is no sun and little wind.
""Funny that Texas is building and relying on solar as a backup to its energy grid. I guess those Big Oil folks realized that when the fossil fuel dependent power grid fails, that sometimes the sun is indeed shining."
Coming soon to MS. Thank your PSC and Entergy...Ev'r body getting 'Paid!!!!" except the consumer of course.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/27/wind-fails-texas-again/
6:34 is correct. The interest in solar and wind is more about ESG scores and 'free' money/government subsidies, than in clean, efficient energy. Solar and wind are neither.
Ask pragmatic leaders in power generation and they will tell you that "mini nukes" are currently the best hope for efficient green energy.
https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/small-nuclear-power-reactors.aspx
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/westinghouse-unveils-small-modular-nuclear-reactor-2023-05-04/
Mississippi is letting the modern world slip away.
Our population in 2000 was 2.8 million. It's 2.9 now.
Alabama went from 4.4 to 5 over the same time period. Alabama-not necessarily the 'glamour destination' either...
The bigger pie forum has consistently soewed mistruths about solar, wind, and the reliability of the grid. Some of this is due to ignorance, but most of it is deliberately misleading. They are liars and not to be trusted. There’s not enough space to counter each of their crazy and inaccurate beliefs, yes beliefs, because it is not based in fact, science, or truth.
Pardon me 5:08, could you pass the Grey Poupon?
Not enough room here for your 'enlightened' elitism so I just went to the
"Telegraph' for you, egad! they are liars too!
Enjoy reading...you John Kerry @@@@.
PS all these are lies from 2023....
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/12/britain-fires-up-coal-plant-weather-too-hot-solar-panels/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/10/wind-solar-renewables-pointless-waste/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/11/green-energy-disaster-uk-awful-warning-america/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/16/what-we-do-when-wind-does-not-blow-and-sun-does-not-shine/
Kemper county plant did burn lignite but not efficiently, the plant kept shutting down the cost over runs and poor management, it never had a chance! One main problem was it needed a bypass- instead they just used gas.
They kept switching over to the back up natural gas / which in the end was much more effective to make power and is the fuel used there today. Although the truth is many people don’t know this coal was attempted to be used in this area in the 60s ! That ended with the same result very difficult process! Not worth it.
Just as the green energy preachers (methods)of today will never work! Most solar energy power generators take 40 years to pay back with a 20 year life cycle - my dad who is 84 said Kemper county will never work(lignite) he was right! Billions of dollars of mistakes!
Fact is fossil fuels (financially more efficient) and competent management of energy systems is the answer but politics will never allow it!
Presley and Bailey have taken thousands and thousands of dollars from solar companies that required approval from the Public Service Commission. How is this legal? I thought commissioners could not take money from people they regulate? Follow the money...............
There was an investigation opened by the Public Service Commission back in 2021. The commission jumped all over Entergy and MISO and threatened all kinds of things, and crickets. Not another word, just a bunch of nonsense.
Hey 9:04am, go to Bigger Pie and you will see the two commissioners (Presley and Bailey) standing with utility executives and smiling like a Cheshire cat as they allow our rates to increase to pay for their shenanigans! Who votes for these people????????
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