Re:In Defense of Electricity Markets
by jillesvangurp on Thursday October 12, 2023 @05:29AM
(#37855070)
Europe has a very robust energy market. The Ukrainian war put a lot of stress on it last winter. The lights stayed on. Sure prices rose a little and that sent off a strong price signal for people to conserve energy and invest in alternative solutions. Exactly what you'd hope for in a well functioning market. The European market is all interconnected. You might get electrons from Norwegian hydro, German or Danish wind, or Spanish solar. Or a mix of all of those. And of course there are loads of coal, nuclear, and gas plants connected to the grid as well. There's plenty of generation capacity. The main technical challenge is cables, not generation. More cables means better energy distribution and more competitive pricing.
A lot of French nuclear plants being down for maintenance right in the middle of the Ukrainian crisis did not result in rolling blackouts. Instead it resulted price signals for others to step up their energy production and serve that demand. The bad thing was that that was German coal. But the good thing is that it worked. Coal is expensive, so the price signals exist to get rid of it. Renewables are cheap, so there's a shift from coal to renewables in most places with a functioning market.
The European energy market is much more dynamic than the US. In the US you have Texas basically disconnected from the rest of the US market for ideological reasons and local monopolists both setting prices and dictating what home owners can and cannot do with things like solar.
The Texas grid collapsed there when it got a bit cold and gas pipes and coal piles froze up. The local monopolists created a price signal but were not able to produce the required energy supply. And as they were unable to import any energy, they had to do rolling blackouts. They should be exporting clean energy most of the time. There's plenty of it. Why is that not a thing? Don't they like money there? Classic example of a broken market. The fix is changing the policies that prevent competitors from challenging the status quo. There's no shortage of entrepreneurs in Texas. They could fix it in no time.
A lot of French nuclear plants being down for maintenance right in the middle of the Ukrainian crisis did not result in rolling blackouts. Instead it resulted price signals for others to step up their energy production and serve that demand. The bad thing was that that was German coal. But the good thing is that it worked. Coal is expensive, so the price signals exist to get rid of it. Renewables are cheap, so there's a shift from coal to renewables in most places with a functioning market.
The European energy market is much more dynamic than the US. In the US you have Texas basically disconnected from the rest of the US market for ideological reasons and local monopolists both setting prices and dictating what home owners can and cannot do with things like solar.
The Texas grid collapsed there when it got a bit cold and gas pipes and coal piles froze up. The local monopolists created a price signal but were not able to produce the required energy supply. And as they were unable to import any energy, they had to do rolling blackouts. They should be exporting clean energy most of the time. There's plenty of it. Why is that not a thing? Don't they like money there? Classic example of a broken market. The fix is changing the policies that prevent competitors from challenging the status quo. There's no shortage of entrepreneurs in Texas. They could fix it in no time.