Check my arithmetic.

[ransley]

Charts- averages are Bull Shit your BILL is king. 17.8c KWH tenants Chicago Illinois. Ran numbers last Saturday. Commercial- standard Res is less, but not by much.

[Joe]

My commercial rate (small building) from AmerenIP (illinois) was 23.9 cents, $40.26 for 168 KWH. They figured the 'delivery' service at $20.68 and the 'purchased non summer' power at $19.03. Five years ago the rate was 38 cents. Go figure. Of course there's three phase waiting on the pole if i ever need it. Haven't checked the residential yet.

Joe

Joe

[Tman]

$0.75 / KWH or thereabouts on Block Island. You can walk by the ~5 CAT diesel gennys on Ocean Avenue. Now thats expensive electric! T

[Stormin Mormon]

The other costs include: Five arguments with your wife, who doesn't give a hoot about the test, and keeps turning it off. Four calls from Gladys Kravitch, who is calling from across the street to remind you turn your light off. Three rate increases from the gas and electric, cause you exceeded your cut off, two burnt out filament bulbs, and one nasty letter from Al Gore.

[Stormin Mormon]

Dictionary.

[Steve Barker]

The "Midwest" doesn't seem to have a definition. Some call OHIO the midwest. Personally, i call it the far east. Here in kansas, I pay about 15 cents. don't know exactly, don't care. gotta have it. Only one supplier, so why fret the rate?

s

[Don Klipstein]

I have heard that Chicago pays more, and probably also Chicago's suburbs.

It appears to me that Chicago, Philadelphia and NYC metro areas pay more like 14-15 cents per KWH. I blame that mostly on construction delays of nuclear power plants caused by anti-nukers in/around the late 1970's through the early 1980's when interest rates were high.

I expect that in a few more years, most of the bonds used to pay for these delayed nuclear power plants should be paid off, and Chicago, Philly and NYC will within a few years have electricity rates either closer to national average or differing on basis of more-current regional costs.

I have noticed that cost of electricity in Philadelphia has increased on average only something like 1.2% per year since 1989 or 1990 or so, and Philadelphia has been exceeding the national average by an extent that has decreased over the past several years. I suspect the bond burden from late 1970's and early 1980's has been decreasing during this time.

I have also noticed the recent PECO ("Philadelphia Electric Company") radio ads saying how their rates have been regulated and that in a couple years they will not be regulated, as in warning their customers to brace themselves and to get more energy-efficient. I suspect that if oil bounces back up to early 2008 levels while there are not enough nukes and coal-fired plants to meet the needs, Philly electricity costs could spike somewhat noticeably.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Don Klipstein]

I thought that "Midwest" was what was far enough west to be clearly west of the Appalachians, with exception for whatever is too far west or south to call "Midwest".

"Far East" means to me *at least* east of the Appalachian Trail, generally coastal or no farther west than "within corridor of" routes 1 and I-95. Though I would consider Harisburg and Roanoke to be East - but not "far East". Pittsburgh is in an "Eastern State" and in Appalachian hill country but has in the past been considered "gateway to midwest". I think that Youngstown OH is "as far east as Midwest goes" and "a bit or somewhat east-ish". It does appear to me that Chicago was, has been and still is the great big city of the Midwest, though it does appear to me slightly "east-ish" in comparison to the whole of the region between the Appalachians and the Rockies.

One other thing I have heard (while within cycling distance of Route 1): Many people like to call the region east of the Rockies but west of states on or bordering the Mississippi not "midwest" but "great plains", as in "more west than midwest" but short of "west". Although I find that more in weather discussions - much of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas may not be too different politically from much of Indiana and a majority of the land area of Michigan for all I know!

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[aemeijers]

Almost all the power used by US forces over in the sandbox is genset-based. Anywhere from 5kw up to 125kw and larger, often set up up in tandem with load balancing and fail-over, running 24/7. Thousands of them. Hardware and diesel trucked or flown in. In 24/7 use, in heat and sand, with iffy PM, they don't last long. You don't wanna even think about the dollar cost. (Not to mention how 3-5 per cent of the containers and skids shipped into the area simply vanish without a trace....) The oil and air filter sales alone for over there are making some people very rich.

-- aem sends...