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magellanNH t1_ix1brqz wrote

This is an unfortunate side effect of Russia's war on Ukraine. The lack of Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe has caused demand and prices for LNG to go through the roof as Europeans try to buy up LNG cargos to replace their lost Russian gas.

New England uses lots of natural gas to generate electricity. In the summer, most of the gas we use comes up by pipeline from the Marcellus shale area. However, because there's limited pipeline capacity in the winter, electricity generators need to source lots of LNG in winter.

This year, because of the war, New England power generators are in a bidding war with Europe for limited LNG tanker deliveries. This has sent LNG prices through the roof and is why electricity rates are going up so much here.

In New Hampshire, Eversource sounded an alarm recently that they may not even be able to set a fixed 6 month rate during the next rate period. Apparently, when they sent out their latest request for bids to power generators, they didn't receive enough responses to cover expected demand and they may be forced to buy power on the highly volatile short-term spot market instead of entering into fixed contracts with generators. That's never happened before and it's a mess really.

So, not that it's much of a consolation, but least folks in MA know what the price is going to be ahead of time... In NH, we may or may not have a fixed price ahead of time.

https://www.wmur.com/article/eversource-rate-hike-contract-111622/41985364

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Think_Positively t1_ix1d6ul wrote

This is true, but I'd much rather pay more for electricity than have Russia raping and pillaging with zero resistance.

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DialJforJasper t1_ix1wvfm wrote

Keep in mind that not everyone can afford to “pay more.” It’s a nice mentality, but this is what leads to an uptick in homelessness.

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UnthinkingMajority t1_ix25pbs wrote

Oh well then Russia, by all means, please proceed

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DialJforJasper t1_ix2942u wrote

Typical thought process of someone with deep enough pockets to simply welcome “paying more.”

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UnthinkingMajority t1_ix2blb0 wrote

I have been gifted with both the intellectual capacity to think that two things can be bad at once and the moral capacity to figure out which bad thing is worse

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No-Garlic-2664 t1_ix20drw wrote

That's nice that you think you can speak for every electricity consumer in the state. How about all the people who agree with you can split the extra cost and leave everybody else out of it?

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UnthinkingMajority t1_ix26aww wrote

Disgusting to act like you have the moral high ground by thinking Ukrainian lives are worth less than your power bill. Sometimes there are no good options.

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No-Garlic-2664 t1_ix28j6y wrote

Disgusting to act like you can browbeat people with self righteous bullshit.

Not interested in paying billions to fund a war effort, or paying 50% more for food and energy, and there is nothing wrong with that

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UnthinkingMajority t1_ix2c9lc wrote

You don’t have to be interested to realize that it’s the lesser of two evils.

You’re free to think your wallet is more important than the lives of other people, but don’t expect any sympathy from the rest of us for it.

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No-Garlic-2664 t1_ix2j4ts wrote

Then stop demanding everybody else pay for the stand you personally want to take. Not even gonna bother asking you questions to discover examples where you place your wallet over the needs of others, there undoubtedly are many.

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UnthinkingMajority t1_ix2jf0x wrote

I’m not asking anyone to do anything, I’m making my peace with a bad situation and saving my sympathy for people whose lives are at risk and not the ones complaining about paying more for electricity so they can bitch on Reddit 🙄

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Think_Positively t1_ix376w3 wrote

You must have missed the part where I said that I'd prefer paying more, huh?

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StarbeamII t1_ix1y3e2 wrote

Fuck New Hampshire and Maine for blocking the proposed transmission line from Quebec that would've let New England buy cheap Quebecois hydroelectricity for 5¢/kwh. At least NH and ME are going to suffer from significantly higher electricity rates too.

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magellanNH t1_ix34udf wrote

Fair. But at least we extended the license of our nuclear plant (Seabrook), unlike MA (Pilgrim) and VT (VT Yankee). Also, MA was the main plaintiff in the litigation that prevented new pipeline capacity from getting built.

Really, there's plenty of NIMBY blame to go around.

https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-leads-coalition-supporting-federal-court-order-shutting-down-dakota-access-pipeline

https://www.newburyportnews.com/news/local_news/renewal-of-seabrook-stations-license-expected-next-week/article_5da4ca48-ed40-5691-8f1e-e553f65d833e.html

https://apnews.com/article/6e16e68b0c85487fade45dedff3e0558

https://www.vox.com/2014/12/30/7468263/vermont-yankee-shut-down

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ladbom t1_ix1k8zb wrote

So this explains the supply cost, doss they mean transportation and distribution cost should stay fairly similar?

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mtmsm t1_ix23e3q wrote

Nope

> The company says it plans to increase electric delivery fees too, but it hasn’t filed those requests yet with the state.

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88stardestroyer t1_ix50zmh wrote

That is compounded by the out of date Jones Act. Makes shipping LNG with tanker ships much more expensive that everywhere else

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PLS-Surveyor-US t1_ix1l034 wrote

Too bad our future governor has fought expansion of those gas lines so we could burn US gas year around...

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WaitForItTheMongols t1_ix1ss6k wrote

Not a reasonable long-term investment with renewables growing as fast as they are. By the time we don't need gas at all anymore, the gas lines wouldn't have paid for themselves.

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TheSausageKing t1_ix1y18n wrote

They’re not growing quickly in MA. Our grid is still ~80% fossil fuels and will be majority gas for the next 10 years at least and likely 20 or more.

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StarbeamII t1_ix1zveg wrote

It's actually a lot lower than that. In 2021, 46% of the electricity New England used from natural gas, 0.5% from coal, and 0.2% from oil. Another 5% came from burning wood and trash (which counts as "renewable" apparently), and another 4% of electricity was imported from New York and New Brunswick (which have mostly fossil fuel generation). So about 55.7% tops.

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SynbiosVyse t1_ix5hcz1 wrote

That's new england. Look it shows 23% nuclear, this is not applicable to each new england state individually.

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StarbeamII t1_ix5li1k wrote

New England is all part of one electric grid, and shares a single grid operator and power market (ISO New England). You can look at individual states' power generation, but a lot of power gets exported between New England states so it doesn't paint an accurate picture (e.g. Vermont's in-state generation is almost 100% renewable (including biomass), but it imports 75% of its power so it ends up being very inaccurate).

Massachusetts also imports about 75% of its electricity from surrounding areas, so looking at just in-state generation doesn't paint an accurate picture either.

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WaitForItTheMongols t1_ix1z9r5 wrote

Luckily it's... a grid. And therefore power can be transported over wires from elsewhere.

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PLS-Surveyor-US t1_ix39902 wrote

you lose some in transmission. Otherwise, we could have one huge geothermal plant in wyoming to cover the whole country.

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PLS-Surveyor-US t1_ix39gn7 wrote

Your heat and electric is higher because of the lack of supply. The governor (future) fought the supply lines from being built. We have to import it to have it. Solar is weaker in the winter and wind is sporadic. You still need backups to these.

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