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A comment on Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages. Parent comment

Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages by bob1029 on Sunday September 25, 2022 @10:06AM (#32971466)
I think we need to figure out how to de-complicate variable rates for residential customers. Forcing people to pay what electricity actually costs (ideally, in real-time) is a good way to make your demand-side much more responsive.

During the Texas winter crisis, virtually no residential customers saw a financial incentive to wind down power usage. Only those crazies on Griddy, et. al. were impacted.

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Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages by gonzo on Sunday September 25, 2022 @01:42PM (#32973843)
During: true.

But most Texas utility customers now pay a surcharge every month to pay off the accumulated debt of that crisis.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2022/02/11/how-much...

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Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages by bombcar on Sunday September 25, 2022 @11:52AM (#32972541)
Both in Texas and California recently lots of people voluntarily cut back but it’d be nice to reflect that in the billing in some way. The Griddy way may have been too extreme but encouraging conservation of energy is a generally good idea (imagine things like rebating permit fees based on sliding scale of how much you “beat code” on a blower door and insulation test).
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Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages by ab_testing on Sunday September 25, 2022 @12:39PM (#32973085)
It is actually the opposite. In California, police attack your home if you are thrifty and use less energy. Apparently you are placed on some sort of suspicious list and accused of stealing power.

https://www.yahoo.com/video/senior-asian-couple-california-g....

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Re:Europe is in danger of rolling electricity shortages by Johnny555 on Sunday September 25, 2022 @03:35PM (#32975136)
Forcing people to pay what electricity actually costs (ideally, in real-time) is a good way to make your demand-side much more responsive.

That's only a valid strategy if your customers can be more responsive, but in a freak cold snap where most customers are running heaters at 100% to keep their homes habitable, there's little they can go to reduce demand.

Many people have purchased generators after that crisis, but telling (and maybe subsidizing) millions of people to buy a generator and stockpile fuel because the grid can't handle cold weather is not good energy policy.

It'd be better if regulators required demand-response automation that would let them intelligently scale back demand of high-energy appliances before the grid reaches critical levels without heavy-handed rolling blackouts.

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