IIRC, Doug Lewin said there was a *LOT* of resistance heat in TX. So, when I heard Octopus Energy was entering that market, I was a little disappointed to hear them say they would not be deploying heat pumps.
Recently Denver Water was in the news here for raising it's "tap fees," aka "System Investment" fees. Some reporting showed these to be $20,000 to $50,000 per "unit," across Colorado, with the high end for big houses in the 'burbs. Made me think should we charge these kind of fees for electric service? Or maybe stop charging them for water to homes as part of housing "affordability" campaigns?
If we wanted to apply it to electric, maybe $10/W of average demand. Then if a hyperscaler or whatnot could find "efficiency as a resource," at less than that by all means let them pay to reduce or improve our load profiles and reduce their own system charge. Google says data centers cost $11/W to build so the threat to double that for the electrical service might get someone's attention.
IIRC, Doug Lewin said there was a *LOT* of resistance heat in TX. So, when I heard Octopus Energy was entering that market, I was a little disappointed to hear them say they would not be deploying heat pumps.
Recently Denver Water was in the news here for raising it's "tap fees," aka "System Investment" fees. Some reporting showed these to be $20,000 to $50,000 per "unit," across Colorado, with the high end for big houses in the 'burbs. Made me think should we charge these kind of fees for electric service? Or maybe stop charging them for water to homes as part of housing "affordability" campaigns?
If we wanted to apply it to electric, maybe $10/W of average demand. Then if a hyperscaler or whatnot could find "efficiency as a resource," at less than that by all means let them pay to reduce or improve our load profiles and reduce their own system charge. Google says data centers cost $11/W to build so the threat to double that for the electrical service might get someone's attention.
I had this *exact* thought when I read how much of USA's grid capacity is there to support HVAC. 300GW!