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madnu OP t1_ix0ou5a wrote

Many towns around have some kind of community electricity. People are supposed to be auto enrolled into it for a fixed rate for a longer term but if Eversource keeps on increasing rates like this, it will hit us someday all at once when that community electricity needs to renegotiate prices whenever its due.

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RailRoad_Candy t1_ix0r5od wrote

I was told that the cause of this was ultimately due to the growing pains of moving our society from fossil fuels to green energy.

Growing pains is a nice way to phrase Crippling Energy Prices.

But hey, as long as we're getting those Windmill Farms up and running off the coast and bulldozing forests for Solar Farms, I assume we'll get there. Well some people will, I'll be living under an overpass.

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Mumbles76 t1_ix0t9vc wrote

Nothing will push me to solar faster than shit like this... Then when people do solar, they will put in a tax to support infrastructure...

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Tall_olive t1_ix0xywh wrote

Eversource can seek my asshole and promptly eat it.

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Quirky_Butterfly_946 t1_ix11rq4 wrote

Ya, that answer is BS but the greenies love to see people suffer. It just goes to show what a bunch of incompetent jackholes they all are.

So because they cannot get their system up so that we could all have a switch over that is relatively painless, these dbags are vicious and vindictive.

Never net a greenie I liked

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crb3 t1_ix11vqr wrote

Be sure to scroll down far enough to follow the link to their "how to get help" page.

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RailRoad_Candy t1_ix180gd wrote

Im actually just concerned with not freezing to death, and not having to make choices between freezing and eating on a daily basis. But being afraid of that is worth some downvotes I guess.

I was hoping the competition would lower prices.

−12

TheTechOcogs t1_ix19qu5 wrote

Time to break out the candles. They are a source of heat and of light.

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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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Vitroswhyuask t1_ix1dav9 wrote

Never vote to sell your municple power company

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KJP1990 t1_ix1emj5 wrote

Unitil is doing the same thing. These fucks.

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NeptuneFrost t1_ix1ha3f wrote

Don’t mean to brag but am I feeling great about the rooftop solar investment i made this summer!

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nottoodrunk t1_ix1hklt wrote

Yeah eversource has to clear every rate hike with the state. Conversation probably goes like this:

“These were the quotes we got last year from LNG providers. This is what we’re getting this year now that we have to compete with Europe for LNG. We have to raise prices by X to cover it.”

“Understood, approved.”

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NeptuneFrost t1_ix1jp5a wrote

I did it through NEC Solar. Short for Newport electric company. Salesperson’s name was Artie Crocker. I knew him from a past career, so was someone I can trust… that made shopping for the system a lot easier bc it feels like such a scam-filled industry to walk into with no knowledge.

We paid for our system straight up. No lease or anything. It’s a lot of money out the door on the front end, but the payback period for us was estimated conservatively between six and seven years. that’s like a ~16% return, and it’s a great inflation hedge because energy prices will track inflation. I think we may make out even better because of the rapid jump in electric prices. That rate of return includes taking advantage of all the various tax breaks, which made sense for us.

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antraxsuicide t1_ix1mvxh wrote

I'm sure Eversource's executives will take a 43% salary cut in solidarity

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NeptuneFrost t1_ix1nvwa wrote

Yeah he’s a genuinely good guy. Very community oriented, volunteers for lots of civic organizations, now on town planning board in Needham, which he has lived in his whole life. Didn’t think we’d end up with an Artie Crocker appreciation thread on Reddit but he’s earned it!

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Quirky_Butterfly_946 t1_ix1p6zz wrote

How about no one is doing anything about all this but they get their rocks off thinking causing high prices is OK.

They live in a fantasy land but no one wants to get it up and running.

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LonelyAccountantCPA t1_ix1x3sv wrote

My elderly parents are on a budget payment plan and they saw an almost 100% increase from what they were paying 1-2 years ago. Disgusting.

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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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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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StarbeamII t1_ix20aie wrote

Wind and solar today are the cheapest form of electricity.

This price hike is entirely because New England is heavily reliant on imported liquified natural gas, which is much more expensive now due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Europeans are now relying on LNG to make up for lost Russian gas imports, and massively bidding up LNG prices.

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RailRoad_Candy t1_ix22att wrote

Its because its not talked about in CA from a political point of view. I'm sorry, I forgot to mention I'm a transplant. I was born and raised there, I still have family there, a whole bunch of friends, there. So, incase youre wondering, in a 2ksqft home in Solano County, you're going to average $500 a month for electricity, and thats only if you have solar. Why so high? Because you get what amounts to a fine that goes directly to PG&E because youre not using all of their electricity.

Please be aware that if your bill is ~$500, about $280 is what youre still paying for power because the solar is definitely not keeping up with the AC on 110 degree days.

But thanks for mentioning my phrasing. Are you also from CA? Care to share stories?,

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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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drtywater t1_ix25d7k wrote

Screw Eversource but also the dumb ass voters in Maine that voted against Hydro Quebec line

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Granolapitcher t1_ix279np wrote

Why stop there? They have a monopoly what’s stopping them from jacking it up any more?

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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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Anustart15 t1_ix2cdxj wrote

>Because you get what amounts to a fine that goes directly to PG&E because youre not using all of their electricity.

Not really. They have to charge you differently because you are paying for the benefit of grid access (which 99% of people absolutely require), but no longer pay for it through electricity use like everyone else on the grid

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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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imanze t1_ix2ty9x wrote

You don’t pay for grid access you pay for delivery and distribution. That cost is usually set per khw on top of the electrical rate. With solar you’d still almost always still be using grid power thus using both of those. If there is (i don’t know CA rules) an additional fee just for having solar that’s a bit fucked

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magellanNH t1_ix34udf wrote

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swap_catz t1_ix35wtg wrote

And this is why we need nuclear

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swap_catz t1_ix36928 wrote

Has nothing to do with the local monopoly. Our electricity is generated from LNG and we have to bid for it just like everyone else when there isn't much available due to the war. The prices for LNG are up 50% spot aready.

People will learn the hard way that we need fo invest in nuclear yesterday. It's frankly embarrassing that we psyopsed ourselves to depend on Russia for energy due to the green ESG bullshit and its irresponsible focus on wind and solar, when it's not mathematically possible to depend on it for base load today.

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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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Ok_Fox_1770 t1_ix3go2t wrote

Raise the price by 64%, incase you had any money left. Happy holidays! And make sure to buy an electric car to save the world by 2030 when the price will be 10x I’m sure

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LHam1969 t1_ix3n3mk wrote

Thank a Democrat for this. They have fought every gas pipeline, every oil pipeline, every refinery, every nuclear plant, fracking....and so here we are with shortages and price hikes.

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Anustart15 t1_ix3nuxs wrote

But they are also providing a very crucial service by providing grid access and maintaining the grid. If nobody paid for it's maintenance because everyone had solar, it would fail for everyone

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epicjas0n t1_ix3o51m wrote

Luckily my town started a cea last year and we're locked into $0.10 rates for 2 more years.

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Master_Dogs t1_ix4327s wrote

Medford just got a new contract with National Grid: https://medfordma.org/2022/09/29/city-providing-energy-cost-relief-to-residents-with-community-electricity-aggregation-renewal/

Rates went up from 11.507 cents/kWh to 15.358 cents/kWh - 33% increase. It's good until December 2024 but who knows what we'll end up with then. And still half the cost of the National Grid Basic supply rate of 33.891 cents/kWh.

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voidedrealms t1_ix43p76 wrote

Eversoyrce is Colombia gas for those who don’t know

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NeptuneFrost t1_ix4dn7o wrote

Do you have one meter for the whole building? How would that work for individually metered units with a shared roof?

Edit: or just realizing this may be a more suburban hoa suburb situation

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charons-voyage t1_ix4je4l wrote

They most certainly are not lol. Unless it is not well-refined, the vapors in paraffin wax contain only nominal amounts of benzene/toluene. You’ll inhale more benzene while pumping gas than you will by inhaling vapor emitted from candles. If you take a bunch of unrefined mineral oil and lather it on your nuts every day for a few years you’ll probably get some scrotal cancer, though (per the IARC monograph)

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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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defenestron t1_ix5lmlj wrote

Oh, my sweet summer child, have you forgotten how Capitalism works?

There’s been a modest increase in the cost of natural gas but it’s way down since the summer, this is about profits.

Edit: For the late stage capitalists who insult while lazily failing to cite any evidence. Less than 50% of MA energy comes from LNG, so even MA paying more than the National price for LNG does not account for these wild price increases. This is the direct result of deregulation and profit-seeking.

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shuzkaakra t1_ix5t0vx wrote

>“Understood, approved.”

Oh it sounds like you need to raise it probably by even a bit extra, and maybe give my cousin bob a job in your freelance layabout department.

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OneOnTheLeft t1_ix87mvq wrote

This change is already reflected in my current electric bill. My latest electric bill was more expensive than in the summer when my a/c was running. We have gas heat...

I don't even know what to do anymore. I can't afford to live in my home and turn on the lights.

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giritrobbins t1_ix8jyu0 wrote

There are a couple ways to do it. One person pays and connects to their meter (no one else benefits). The group pays and connects to a common meter with credits distributed across the various units. I think there's also a community solar approach as well

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StarbeamII t1_ix8vf5j wrote

So revenues went up but profit was flat. Which means all the increased revenues went to paying increased cost (such as more expensive electricity generation due to higher LNG prices)

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Old_Travel8423 t1_ix8xnkb wrote

Seconding this, and it makes sense to check to make sure you’re on it. Somerville just negotiated Dec 22 to nov 24 rates. Perfect timing, and the rates are pretty good. Still an increase but much less than proposed for the eversource basic.

People also need to check their bill. My building has 3 meters (2 units and 1 common). All 3 were on different plans (Somerville green, eversource basic, and one other one). I just switched them all over to Somerville green which will be a net reduction in electric cost.

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swap_catz t1_ixcie0y wrote

True, but the LNG marketplace is dominated with a significant chunk globally by Russian supply. With that off the market, all users have to compete for remaining supply. Basic economics. Supply goes down, price must go up as especially desperate users compete to get the supply they need. Its not a direct dependence, but the market as a whole is dependent.

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