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Re:There's plenty of electrical power, it's really about cost benefit
Author: BOB2
Date: 02-25-2017 - 17:03
Per capita demand for electricity is down substantially in CA, and over nearly twenty years has barely budged upward even with population growth.
There is plenty of power to supply the marginal power requirements of HSR, electric LRT's, and even to charge about a million additional new EV's.....
This falling demand is one reason that closing San Onofre, and now Diablo Canyon is not really going to have that much impact....and lower demand is another reason coal powered plants are closing, due also to there high cost of power production, compared to natural gas fired electric generating plants.
Efficiencies in everything from LED lights, to AC's, to TV's and computers, is driving much of that lower per capita demand. The problems of power supply come from imbalances in load at periods of peak demand, which has resulted in substantial new investment in lines using tax credits in CA, and in the use of more "peaker" plants.
The power supply issue is a "red herring" in the HSR debate. It is the wisdom of the overall HSR fiaco/investment, the really poor cost benefit for the HSR carbon emissions (using carbon fees to fund HSR is probably one of the worst ways to spend those scarce resources to reduce greenhouse gases), and the waste of all of these transportation dollars that could have been spent on our existing overcrowded and congested rail passenger corridors, that are more serious issues.
There is plenty of power to supply the marginal power requirements of HSR, electric LRT's, and even to charge about a million additional new EV's.....
This falling demand is one reason that closing San Onofre, and now Diablo Canyon is not really going to have that much impact....and lower demand is another reason coal powered plants are closing, due also to there high cost of power production, compared to natural gas fired electric generating plants.
Efficiencies in everything from LED lights, to AC's, to TV's and computers, is driving much of that lower per capita demand. The problems of power supply come from imbalances in load at periods of peak demand, which has resulted in substantial new investment in lines using tax credits in CA, and in the use of more "peaker" plants.
The power supply issue is a "red herring" in the HSR debate. It is the wisdom of the overall HSR fiaco/investment, the really poor cost benefit for the HSR carbon emissions (using carbon fees to fund HSR is probably one of the worst ways to spend those scarce resources to reduce greenhouse gases), and the waste of all of these transportation dollars that could have been spent on our existing overcrowded and congested rail passenger corridors, that are more serious issues.
