when the snow melts into hydroelectric dams? Or does it melt into bigger profits for the generating boards? I’m watching Making Scotland’s Landscapes, the remote controlled hydroelectric stations. They only work when the electricity can be sold for the highest price. Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and France swap electricity around a common grid market.
no.
energy companies budget over an entire year — sometimes several years.
hydroelectric generation is the easiest to start and stop.
you don’t have to worry about warm-up and cool-down time.
for that reason, often hydro generation is used primarily for peak demand.
not because of price, but because of how easy it is to start and stop.
Edit: <<Water, electricity should all be handled by the public authorities on a non-profit basis. >>
Unfortunately, in the US, power is already private.
The government would have to buy it.
Considering that the people are already unwilling to pay for that which they consume, the idea of paying more is not about to happen.
Having it as a regulated utility is not all that bad.
If the government were to run it, it would get messed up.
you’d have unqualified folks making decisions that would lose money.
allowing private companies to do that, but regulating them is probably better.
However, when you don’t regulate them, then you get the likes of Enron.
<<When the need is greatest, the penstocks can be opened and the highest price can be got.>>
That doesn’t work.
Power is an inelastic demand.
When power is cheaper on Tuesday, you don’t use more.
In fact, power companies can afford to use their more expensive means of generation when prices are high, and reserve some of the lower cost resources for times when energy prices are lower.
That way they’re profitable all the time.
