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According to Floridatoday.com, floodwaters from Tropical Storm Fay have overwhelmed lift stations in Florida’s south beaches:

“The South Beaches system serves about 22,000 accounts or an estimated 50,000 residents south of the Pineda Causeway.

It includes more than 300 miles of neighborhood pipes that rely on gravity to push sewage to about 80 pumping stations, which then pump the waste through pressure mains to a treatment plant in Melbourne Beach.

Water leakage into the pipes, exacerbated by flooded streets and yards, has at least doubled the normal volume of water pumped to the treatment plant to a rate of more than 12 million gallons a day. . .

But the pumps can’t do their work fast enough to keep some sewage from escaping through manholes or backing up into homes in low-lying areas of the barrier island.”

According to sources in the article, the area is in the process of updating aging infrastructure, but Fay has overwhelmed even the improvements made to the system.  

Read the full article here.

Do you know what you pay per kW/hr, do you know how to read your electric bill?  When evaluating a system for potential upgrade/optimization a key component of the evaluation is energy cost.  In my travels doing energy assessments and system evaluations I was surprised to find that many companies are not aware of what they are paying per kW/hr, a key component in the project justification process.

Higher rates will become a fact of life and will make a direct impact on your companies’ bottom line.  In these uncertain times it is more important then ever that the consumer understand what they are truly paying for electricity. 

Virtually every power company in the United States will use the same basic billing format.  A typical industrial electric bill will include, billing address, electric usage history, rate schedule, power factor adjustment (if applicable), additional facilities charges, account summary, usage information, demand information, metered service charges and amount due.

For the purpose of this “blog” we will focus on the segments of the electric bill that directly impact your bottom line, specifically:

 Electric Usage History

• Rate Schedule
• Power Factor Adjustment
• Additional Facilities Charges
• Usage Information
• Demand Information
• Metered Service charges

Electric Usage History – Compare your electric usage over the past 13 months.  This is important to understand any trending in power usage. 

Rate Schedule – Indicates the electric rate (negotiated rate) for the metered point of delivery

Power Factor Adjustment – This billing adjustment applies if the power factor for the metered services falls below a specified % during the billing period.  The percentage generally ranges from 85% to 90%.  Power factor adjustment may be negotiated with the utility company and may not be applicable in some areas.  However, power factor adjustment can have a huge impact on your energy cost. 

NOTE – Power factor is a calculation indicating how efficiently power is being used.  It represents the relationship of “real” power (kw) which performs useful work in turning a motor, to “apparent” power (kvar) which magnetizes motor and transformer coils.  Motor loads frequently adversely affect the power factor of a circuit, usually from oversized or lightly loaded motors.  Certain other types of loads can reduce power factor.  A low power factor also reduces the capacity of circuit conductors to deliver “real” power and can increase wiring costs as well as electric demand on the utility system.  Most power utilities reserve the right to adjust meter reading kw for billing where power factor is less than 85%.  Capacitors are sometimes connected on the load side of a motor controller to improve the power factor of the circuit.  When this is done, the total kvar connected should not exceed the value required to raise the power factor of the motor to unity when it is running unloaded.  Kw is defined as True (real) Power which is derived from volts times Amps times square root of 3 (or 1.730 times power factor (normally 0.8).  Some folks think kW is measured by Amps times voltage.  Actually the product of this calculation is apparent power or KVA. 

Usage Information - Includes the meter number for the point of delivery (POD), meter readings, days in billing period and total KWh usage.  This is valuable information and must be factored when determining “actual” energy cost.

Demand Information – Includes actual peak kW demand, on peak and off peak demand and peak reactive power (kVAR).  This information allows the customer to calculate actual peak usage (higher cost per kW) and determine when this demand period occurs, allowing “consumer” to perhaps plan operations around this demand period.  Again, this is critical information when calculating true energy cost.   

Additional Facilities Charge - Indicates charges for additional facilities or non-metered services.  This charge may involve dawn to dusk lighting or other types of lighting service.  This cost will generally remain constant however total amount should be verified monthly.

Sample Calculation

 On Peak Kwh + Off Peak kWh + Demand + Facilities Charge = Cost per kWh

                                         Total kWh usage

A few weeks ago, P&S Account Executive Charli Matthews and I were visiting clients in the Midwestern United States and found ourselves in the charming town of Beloit, which sits directly on the state line that divides Illinois and Wisconsin.

A beautiful historic house with a white picket fence sitting on the corner of the heart of downtown caught our attention. Shadowing the house was a huge stone water tower. The sign in front . . . “The Pump House.”  We immediately went inside to check it out.

We discovered a local treasure. The house has been completely restored and now serves as the office for the City of Beloit Parks and Leisure Services and Friends of Riverfront. In the center of the house (perhaps where the living room should be) is the essence of its character and charm – a huge green pump that in 1935 pumped an average of 1.6 million gallons of water for the community.

The citizens of Beloit are proud of this little piece of history. Walking into The Pump House is like walking through a time machine. The pump is roped off and on display. On the walls surrounding it are original artist renderings of the house and tower, antique photographs and framed newspaper clippings that chronicle the progression of Beloit’s history and commitment to clean water.

Today, there are more than 67 miles of water mains in the distribution system serving Beloit and the city claims to have the purest water in North America (thanks to testing samples every two weeks at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene).

The stone water tower, built in 1885 to serve as the pedestal for a cypress-board water tank of the Beloit Water Works, is a visible community landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

Pump Houses are everywhere, and many are considered historic landmarks. Because this one is so important to the community of Beloit and its history, it is worth visiting.

Don’t be too hasty in answering the question, let’s take a few minutes and look at a few facts, then we can review all of the unsubstantiated facts that seem to be clogging the media and energy industry.

Just the facts:

• We have an aging labor force the lack of skilled experience labor is impacting the mining industry.  Several companies (James River Coal, Massey Energy Co. and Alpha Natural Resources are doling out gas money in hopes of avoiding labor shortages. 

• Demand for coal is growing worldwide, china recently shifted from mostly exporting coal to mostly importing it.  Soaring coal prices and international demand push the coal companies to produce as much product as possible (coal prices and demand have more then doubled since 2007).  Rising wages and expensive new safety regulations have boosted the cost of mining coal.

• Emissions control systems, the average price cost for scrubber systems has gone up 83%, from 250M to 457M in the last couple of years, primarily due to material and labor.  This additional cost will be past on to the consumer.  It should also be noted that the scrubber system provide zero return on investment and reduces the output (net megawatts) of the power plant, in simplistic terms the scrubber is a liability.

• Currently, coal is the most reliable and affordable energy source in the United States.  However, coal –fired power plants produce a significant amount of emissions.

• The U.S Geological Survey has lowered its estimates of the amount of “recoverable” coal in the nation’s largest coal fields

• The nation’s rail freight network (primary source of transportation for coal) is in shambles.  By the year 2035, traffic jams could be so severe trains would grind to a halt for days with nowhere to go.  The nation’s 140,000 mile network of rails devoted to carrying freight (coal) is already groaning under the strain of congestion.  And it’s probably going to get worse over the next two decades.

• The average coal plant consumes 100 to 250 rail cars (100 tons per car)) of coal per day.  Some of this coal is imported and blended with U.S coal

• Coal accounts for 48% of power generation in the U.S. today.  Over the past several years, multiple power producers have announced plans to move forward with construction of a plethora of coal-fired generating units. At the peak of activity, well over 200 new coal-fired generating units were announced. Coal-fired power plants continue to generate a great deal of the energy consumed in North America, especially in the United States, and according to long-range projections, this is not expected to change in the near future. In fact, coal supplies approximately 48% of the electricity generated in the United States. The Department of Energy estimates that by 2030, our dependency on coal will increase to a point that 54% of our electricity will be supplied by this fuel source.

Now for the speculation and unsubstantiated comments:

•  North American coal supply, I have heard estimates ranging from 600 years to 200 years.  Are these number based on current usage or future usage, did they take into account exporting to India and China?

• Despite recent price increases, coal is still cheap compared to other fuels?  For how long?  What other fuels?   Did they take into account renewable energy was Life Cycle Costing factored in?   The price of coal has doubled since last year, largely due to surging energy use in China and India why wouldn’t we assume the cost will continue to rise, making coal cost prohibitive?

• Alternative / renewable energy is expensive (compared to coal).  Wind, solar, bio-mass doesn’t depend on fossil fuels.  Did they consider LCC and projected fuel cost over the life of the plant? 

Our dependency on fossil fuels and resistance to change will eventually bring our economy to a stand still.  It never ceases to amaze me that U.S consumer will rush out to buy the latest and greatest electronic device but fight every inch of the way when our perceived entitlements (utility services) are challenged.  Wake up America the age of fossil fuel is a mere blip on the geological scale, its time to move on.

Is coal or for that matter fossil fuel really King?  You be the judge.