Re: And she's gone..

In article <fceobn$m79$1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
abuse@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Peter Corlett) wrote:

Garrett Wollman <wollman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[...]
The standard commercial tariffs around here all include both demand (kW)
and energy (kWh) components.

Certainly not on any electricity bill I've seen in the UK, although with
deregulation any sort of weird combination is presumably possible.

Commercial .NE. Domestic.

Domestic tariff assumes that all loads are resistive (because it started
out as a electric lighting supply) and that with every third house on the
same phase the overall load will be true and balanced and there will be
no exciting current flow in the neutral line (which can be an earth pin
in really old installations).

Commercial tariff means *anything* could be on the load end, from half
a dozen soldering irons to a huge arc furnace, or escalators to rolling
mills. It then becomes *vital* to keep the phases balanced (saves you
melting the feeder cables, shifting the neutral point considerably
above earth potential with consequent nastiness, or getting your single
phase voltages seriously out of specification). The stick and carrot are
both applied: use lots of electrons and we'll give you a discount if it's
a steady load. Hit us with big surges and we'll hit you with big prices
because our generating plant likes the quiet life rather than stop/go.
Screw the power factor and we have to use heavier cable *and* get it
back to something approaching normal at the generator end, and that
costs us money, so it will cost you *more* money. *LOTS* more money.

So the commercial tariff is based on:

1) Total consumption for the period.
2) Peak loading (in the old days this was an ammeter whose needle moved
a (red) second pointer that lacked a return spring. Meter reader would
log the reading, cut the seal and turn the red pointer back to the
current (sorry) ammeter reading, and apply a new seal.
3) Worst-case power factor (similar to (2)).

You'll get the cheapest rate(s) if you're using several megawatts at an
absolutely flat load with a power factor nailed to 1.0. Big companies
spend money to try and achieve that - to the extent of using their own
generating plant to supply the "awkward" stuff that would otherwise
cause disproportionate increases in their monthly bill.

Domestic tariff is simply:

1) Consumption up to x KWh at $expensive rate (to replace the old "Standing
Charge" for supply provision and maintenance, etc.)
2) Consumption over x KWh at a reduced rate because you've paid your share
of the maintenance/infrastructure costs.

According to my latest Brutish Methane bill, I used 319kWh last quarter.
They charge me 15.5p/kWh for the first 192 kWh and 8.25p/kWh thereafter. And
that's about as exciting as the bill gets: no width-of-pipe charge, no power
factor charge, or anything. I'm sure they're working on it though.

319kWh is laughably low, mind. I'm not saying anything - I'll take the nine
months interest free credit while they get round to reading the meter again.

Heh.

Chris.

--
It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it
is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It
isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.
-- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

.

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