[GreenKeys] OT: Measurement of Power Line Noise

[Jones, Douglas W]

From:  E. [hanyou at xsmail.com] -- Monday, March 25, 2024 4:02 PM

> I’m thankful that Nebraska is a public power-only state…
> no silly guidelines for profit nor profiting off of something that everyone needs…
> some of the lowest rates in the nation too!

I just checked.  Nebraska residential power is 10.58 ¢/kWh
I live in Iowa, we pay 11.88 ¢/kWh, more than you, but still dirt cheap compared to much of the country.
Nebraska is public power, Iowa is mostly investor-owned utilities.  Perhaps you can charge that penny difference in price to the free-enterprise system, but something else is at play here.

One factor may be wind.  Iowa got 60% of its power from wind in 2020, and the fraction has been rising.  Last year, my utility announced that its total wind generation over the year equaled its total power delivered to customers.  That's not 100% green energy because during peak demand periods, they burned fossil fuel and during peak wind generation, they exported lots of power.  North Dakota has even more wind generation per capita, and their rates are similarly low.

South Dakota and Nebraska aren't in the same league as North Dakota and Iowa for wind power, but in wind generation per capita they're 6th in the US, which you can't sneeze at.  Nebraska also has very low transportation costs for Wyoming coal, being right next door.

               Doug Jones