Hi Rick
On (21 Oct 96) Rick Cowles wrote to Jim Mcandrew...
 RC> I'm not 100% sure (and will check on this tomorrow), but I believe the 
 RC> opposite to be true in most cases.  A typical large industrial user is 
 RC> paying on the order of $.015 to $.02 per KwH, while the typical
 RC> residential user is in the neighborhood of $.08 per KwH
In this country [and possibly in US] the cheapest rates by far, are those for
heavy industry eg ore refining, large process heating, city water pumping to
storages- where the user may be happy to accept an occasionally unreliable
electricity  supply in return for bargain rates. To have a consumer
using 100MW for example, who is willing to lose supply occasionally due to
fire/ flood/ blizzard/ industrial strike is the equivalent from the Utility
side, of having avoided the capital cost and maintenance of 100 MW of backup
[reserve] generating and transmission capacity.
For these customers, the Utility can bill at a rate slightly above the
INCREMENTAL costs of generation, which are quite low: and still make a decent
profit.
The Utility provides undervoltage/ underfrequency relaying to detect system
stress, and auto trip the user feeder when desired. Another saving to the
utility is that these large rapidly switched loads, can be utilised to 
nhance
network dynamic stability thus reducing the costs of added capacitors,
reactors or synchronous condensers.
- and with the 
 RC> coming of deregulation in the utility industry, would expect to see that
 RC> gap actually widen for a variety of reasons that I'll go into if you'd 
 RC> like.  Hence, my own personal interest in energy alternatives and home
 RC> power.  :)
Because the UK grid developed as a single entity whereas US has had a lot of
independent utilities, I guess that US has a surplus of transmission and
generating capacity in relation to the gross demand of its customers. But 
hat
surplus may not be readily shared between some utilities who prefer the
independent life, to the risk of their system being "pulled down" due to elec
trouble in the next county.
Cheers...ALEC
... ......Many people die of thirst but the Irish are born with one 
illigan]
--- PPoint 1.92
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