Topic: Electricity prices (Read 2828 times)

India

     0-500 kW      = 2INR  ~ 0.03$  (now we Offer from TN government ,so 0-500 = 0INR ~ 0$ for first 500kw)
 500-1000 KW     = 3INR ~ 0.05$
 above 1500 KW  = 4INR ~ 0.07$

Yes. Industrial rates start at 100k kwh, and even then the cost is very high. around 0,26$.
Small businesses have to take the standard rates.

No there is very little to stop anyone from starting a business, I think it costs about $100-300 to set one up and get a ABN (Australian Business Number?). You would have to submit BAS (Business Activity Statement) / Tax statements periodically.

Small businesses like restaurants also pay >$0.3 per kWh?

man you guys are hilarious. I pay 0,31-0,33$/kwh in Germany. I would love industrial rates but they start to be cost effective at around 1 Gigawatt -.-

Is it a problem for miners here? I know some countries have prohibitory barriers to prevent registering new businesses (like security deposit $100K or so), but I will be very surprised if Australia is one of them

Yes a large % of houses have solar panels on their roofs, contributing to over saturation of energy during the daylight hours of the day. Apparently this has caused them to massively increase grid infrastructure, passing all the costs onto customers.

Out of curiosity, are there programs in place by the governments and electricity companies of your area to subsidize (encourage) residents to handle electricity programs themselves.

For example, if you operated a small solar farm, are you permitted to sell the electricity back to "the grid"?

Here in Australia we have a fairly complicated mess of privatised and government run energy organisations and their mode of operation varies regionally just to make things extra-confusing.

Where I live my current residential provider charges at $0.29 / kWh with planned +~10% yearly for the next forever, because of distribution network (grid) costs supposedly brought on by an over-saturation of solar installations. This is for the standard tarrif, there exists many other tarrifs that supply time-controlled electricity for pool pumps, bulk hot water heaters, etc. The cost of these can be as low as 50% of the normal $0.29 / kWh tarrif.

There are different ways that providers bill different non-residential customers here. Some commercial spaces are billed directly for their kWh use just like residential. So no luck running your 50 KW scrypt farm there...

Others like restaurants and industry locations can have completely different kinds of agreements. I have seen some where they are billed based on the daily minimum and maximum instantaneous consumption value. As for if this is a good deal or not depends exactly on how clever the person who signed up for that agreement was and how well they know their equipment. This is surely not the kind of thing you would be able to sign up for without being a registered business and perhaps a visit or two from your local energy supplier to see exactly what you needed the power for...

The tiered plan here has always had reducing prices the more you use, summer or not

but if you consider the base fee, it probably cancels out a lot of those small increases that are being listed here...  like a $20 or $25 meter reading fee

The weird progressive tier thing is in effect in MI, too, no matter the time of year. For Consumers Energy, $/KWh if 250KWh consumed = $.16076, if 500KWh consumed = $.1457, if 1000KWh consumed = $.15218, if 2000 KWh consumed = $.158925

Those are the "real rates" (after fees/taxes), and factor in the price for previous tiers getting up to, say 2000KWh (that is, $/KWh from 1KWh-2KWh consumed is not $.15218, but significantly higher because it was cheaper in the lower-consumption tiers - if that makes sense). I actually can't find the nominal $/KWh tiers. It seems to be intentionally difficult-to-find.

Find your power company website and look up their schedules of rates.   Usually the schedule will specify the terms. 

Are tariffs in CA restricted to geographical areas (i.e. some areas are only residential, other ones only commercial)?
In my city (Riga, Latvia) many multistory buildings have both residents and businesses, so you can declare your apartment as place for business any time and vice versa.

No, its just residential.  Commercial and industrial get cheaper as you use more.

In the EU we have similar policies, but they seems don't apply to businesses (even to smaller ones, so you don't have to qualify for industrial consumption level).
Is California the same, or do small (non-industrial) business consumers (which most miners are) have to pay these "green" tariffs?

Yes, its actually a law here.  Many other states have similar tiers though, especially in the summer.

"By California law, all of the state's investor-owned gas and electric utilities must charge residential customers more per energy unit as the customer's energy use increases. This policy gives customers a financial incentive to conserve energy. Customers who are able to maintain usage at levels within the lowest-priced "tiers" of usage will pay considerably lower average rates per unit of energy used and much lower total bills than customers with usage in higher tiers."  http://www.pge.com/en/mybusiness/rates/rateinfo/howratesset.page

That is unusual and has nothing to do with economics.  You can thank your politicians for trying to force a green lifestyle.  In just about anywhere else in the world you pay less the more you consume.  If you think about it, it makes sense.  The power plant has to be built even if you use less, the transmission lines need to be maintained even if you use less.   Larger customers are cheaper.

In VA (roughly)
summer
first 800 KW $0.08
above 800 KW $0.09

winter
first 800 KW $0.08
above 800 KW $0.07

Generally industrial (not to be confused with commercial) customers need to not only use a LOT of power but also agree to a mininum demand.  Depends on the utility but usually it is around 100 KW.  Note LW is an instanteous value, 100KW doesn't mean 100 kWh a month it means 100KW continually.  Like hooking up 100x  1,000W power supplies 24/7/365 forever until your contract ends.

A LOT OF POWER.  

Even if you wanted took your house couldn't handle that kind of power.  Most homes only have 100A or 250A mains so that limits them to 12KW or 30KW of continual load.  Still energy becomes heat.  100KW of electrical gear is like 300,000 BTU/hr.  Your AC couldn't cope eventually the air temp would get hot enough to ignite stuff.

Still if you really feel you have a need for that kind of power (building a 100 TH/s farm) rent some warehouse space and your utility will happily sign you up for an industrial contract.  Usually you will need to agree to power for 12 to 24 hours and pay a penalty when you don't use the agreed to power.  Yeah thats right industrial customers contract for a certain demand (i.e. 100 KW) and if in a particular month they use less ... they will pay for the 100KW PlUS they pay a penalty for not using enough power.

It is because many people don't meet the minimum demand to get those prices.  For many utilities it starts at 25,000-100,000/Kwh and higher to qualify.

Normally you will pay a lot more for electricity in a residential area for power.  The electrical lines going to residential areas are normally smaller and there are more service calls and maintenance expenses.  Commercial and industrial areas have larger lines and very little maintenance costs so it is usually cheaper.  I think people are going to be pretty surprised with their electricity bill when they start adding a bunch of miners to a residential area.  I know in California, everything is on a tiers.  You get your first bit of power for a decent price but if you get above a certain level, it goes up drastically.  Adding a big miner to your house will almost certainly put you in the highest tier if you have tiers in your area.  In CA, these are my tiers

1. < 282 KWh = $.11
2. 282 to 367 KWh = $.15
3. 367 to 442 KWh = $.27
4  > 442 KWh = $.31

On the other hand, commercial and industrial rates are right around $.10 KWh right down the street.

A KNC Jupiter is going to be about 550-700 KWh per month by itself so that already puts me at Tier 4 if I was to host one at home.  Long term, running a miner at home is not going to make sense for most people.  Traditional data centers don't fit the mold for mining either.  I think you are going to see hosted mining as the only viable option for the vast majority of people very soon.