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Topic: Facilities with $0.02/kWh in Seattle or Washington State (Read 7090 times)

sr. member
Activity: 472
Merit: 250
As others have said you have to be in an area with cheap power.  There are 3 counties in central WA that have their own dams, and thus very cheap power.  (Chelan, Douglas,  Grant)

For example :

Electric rates
Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, Chelan County PUD moved to a flat residential rate for electricity of just 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour. That's one of the lowest rates in the nation. This new approach to rates will lower bills for most residential customers. Read more about the new rate structure.

Residential monthly energy charge per kWh: 2.7 cents
Monthly basic charge: $7.70

Unfortunately Benton County is just 1 county too far south and my local PUD charges $0.06/KWH   Sad
member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
Can somebody please enlighten me how companies in Washington, or specifically in Seattle, are only paying $0.02/kWh for electricity?

Or is that just the unit of kWh, without demand charges etc?

Does this also scale, say 1MW, 2MW, 5MW etc?


You get rates that low when you consume enough power and that number is what it comes out to AFTER additional charges. Essentially buying electricity in bulk makes it cheaper and you need to learn to understand the rates, charges, and fees then apply scale to them. Also I know that some datacenters / people can buy power super cheap through deals with power suppliers.
newbie
Activity: 7
Merit: 0
Look here at Grant County rates:
 
http://www.grantpud.org/customer-service/payments-billing/rates-and-fees
 
specifically, 'Large General Service Rate 7 '.
200kW minimum load is a bunch of Bitcoin miners.

200kW * 24 * 30 * $0.021 = $3024 / month minimum

You better be mining on a huge scale!

Also as others have said, even on this scale the dreaded words are still there "TAX ADJUSTMENT: The amounts of any tax levied by any city or town, in accordance with RCW 54.28.070, of the Laws of the State of Washington, will be added to the above charges. "

At my place that is over 3 cents/kwh
member
Activity: 63
Merit: 10
You should all understand that these super low rates being quoted ignore different fee's that commercial and industrial accounts see (for example demand charges) That being said the rate I pay for our operation is "Energy Charge per kWh: $0.02910"
hero member
Activity: 873
Merit: 1007
We pull a little over 4MW of electricity form Seattle City Light and Pay $0.068kWh. The only business that gets it cheaper that i'm aware of is Seattle's largest power customer Nucor Steel near West Seattle. Moses Lake, Wenatchee the going rate is $0.026kWh and technically is the least expensive electricity in North America. Another fact about Seattle, besides having Starbucks across the street from Starbucks is it's the greenest utility in the nation. Seattle City Light is 97% hydo and wind renewable resources as it's energy mixture. This is great as natural resources like coal and natural gas rise in price your electric bill should stay the same.  

only if you are a medium or large business.  resi users (such as myself) have not been able to hit ROI over the last month since it is 3 times the amount of commercial rates.

Well 4MW has to be a business.  The would be like 180 homes running 200A panels to the max  Shocked

Do you have a farm with that 4MW Digital Fortress or is that some other business?

Compare that to Southern California Edison who charges $0.35 KWH once you go into Tier 4 at around 700KWH/month.  I have to keep my AC use down to a minimum just to stay in Tier 3.  And this is using pretty much all gas and natural gas fuel sources, barely any renewable.  If SCE used renewable power I would be putting a generator/battery on a bicycle and riding to work so I could sell my battery power  Grin
hero member
Activity: 553
Merit: 500
We pull a little over 4MW of electricity form Seattle City Light and Pay $0.068kWh. The only business that gets it cheaper that i'm aware of is Seattle's largest power customer Nucor Steel near West Seattle. Moses Lake, Wenatchee the going rate is $0.026kWh and technically is the least expensive electricity in North America. Another fact about Seattle, besides having Starbucks across the street from Starbucks is it's the greenest utility in the nation. Seattle City Light is 97% hydo and wind renewable resources as it's energy mixture. This is great as natural resources like coal and natural gas rise in price your electric bill should stay the same.  

only if you are a medium or large business.  resi users (such as myself) have not been able to hit ROI over the last month since it is 3 times the amount of commercial rates.
newbie
Activity: 3
Merit: 0
We pull a little over 4MW of electricity form Seattle City Light and Pay $0.068kWh. The only business that gets it cheaper that i'm aware of is Seattle's largest power customer Nucor Steel near West Seattle. Moses Lake, Wenatchee the going rate is $0.026kWh and technically is the least expensive electricity in North America. Another fact about Seattle, besides having Starbucks across the street from Starbucks is it's the greenest utility in the nation. Seattle City Light is 97% hydo and wind renewable resources as it's energy mixture. This is great as natural resources like coal and natural gas rise in price your electric bill should stay the same. 
hero member
Activity: 553
Merit: 500
You won't be able to get $0.02 in Seattle unless you have a large manufacturing business and a contract.  The low income housing rate is $0.042 KWH by Seattle Lights.

You need to go to Eastern Washington in the middle of nowhere to get close to $0.02.

I guess 'Moses Lake' counts as 'in the middle of nowhere.

Yep.  You're about 100 miles from Seattle.  Do you have a Starbuck in town?  Grin  Google maps doesn't show an airport.  Farthest out that way on the 90 I went was Snowsquammie Falls.

No, not me living there.
Whoops, got the threads mixed up.
I was talking about these guys, they plan on setting up a facility in Moses Lake:
 https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7912048

Anyone who sends their rigs to someone with 1 post here has to be out of their minds.
hero member
Activity: 1232
Merit: 516
You won't be able to get $0.02 in Seattle unless you have a large manufacturing business and a contract.  The low income housing rate is $0.042 KWH by Seattle Lights.

You need to go to Eastern Washington in the middle of nowhere to get close to $0.02.

I guess 'Moses Lake' counts as 'in the middle of nowhere.

Yep.  You're about 100 miles from Seattle.  Do you have a Starbuck in town?  Grin  Google maps doesn't show an airport.  Farthest out that way on the 90 I went was Snowsquammie Falls.

No, not me living there.
Whoops, got the threads mixed up.
I was talking about these guys, they plan on setting up a facility in Moses Lake:
 https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7912048
hero member
Activity: 873
Merit: 1007
You won't be able to get $0.02 in Seattle unless you have a large manufacturing business and a contract.  The low income housing rate is $0.042 KWH by Seattle Lights.

You need to go to Eastern Washington in the middle of nowhere to get close to $0.02.

I guess 'Moses Lake' counts as 'in the middle of nowhere.

Yep.  You're about 100 miles from Seattle.  Do you have a Starbuck in town?  Grin  Google maps doesn't show an airport.  Farthest out that way on the 90 I went was Snowsquammie Falls.
hero member
Activity: 553
Merit: 500
Location, Location, Location.

Cheapest power in the USA is in Wenatchee, supplied by the Rocky Beach and Rock Island dams.

The major issue is that it is over 100 degrees now, and keeping them cool is a major battle.

Source: I used to work for one.
hero member
Activity: 1232
Merit: 516
You won't be able to get $0.02 in Seattle unless you have a large manufacturing business and a contract.  The low income housing rate is $0.042 KWH by Seattle Lights.

You need to go to Eastern Washington in the middle of nowhere to get close to $0.02.

I guess 'Moses Lake' counts as 'in the middle of nowhere.
hero member
Activity: 873
Merit: 1007
You won't be able to get $0.02 in Seattle unless you have a large manufacturing business and a contract.  The low income housing rate is $0.042 KWH by Seattle Lights.

You need to go to Eastern Washington in the middle of nowhere to get close to $0.02.
legendary
Activity: 1045
Merit: 1000
http://www.eia.gov/state/print.cfm?sid=WA

Nov-13

Electricity    Washington
Residential    8.70 cents/kWh    
Commercial    7.95 cents/kWh
Industrial    4.49 cents/kWh    

Still no clue where to find the $0.02/kWh that has been mentioned here so many times.


here in europe in Austria its at least double as expensive. And we are getting 80% of the energy from water energy plants, which were build centuries ago. Thats a deal!
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
@kluge, "designed by government bureaucrats"

If it weren't for those gov't bureaucrats, you would be paying outrageous utility bills.
sr. member
Activity: 328
Merit: 250
3k/month for electricity? Wow... You should be getting atleast 5k/month from mining BTC in order to get into profit. Remember to take the cost of miners into account too.
member
Activity: 69
Merit: 10
Look here at Grant County rates:
 
http://www.grantpud.org/customer-service/payments-billing/rates-and-fees
 
specifically, 'Large General Service Rate 7 '.
200kW minimum load is a bunch of Bitcoin miners.

200kW * 24 * 30 * $0.021 = $3024 / month minimum

You better be mining on a huge scale!
sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 250
The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington is the largest hydroelectric power producer in the United States. Most commercial/industrial rates range anywhere from .049 to .06 kWh. Gotta love Washington...we have the highest minimum wage being $9.32 and some of the cheapest power.

Don't forget about Chief Joseph Dam!!!  2nd largest, and its right down stream!
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Hamsters, they use a legion of hamsters!!
newbie
Activity: 23
Merit: 0
Look here at Grant County rates:
 
http://www.grantpud.org/customer-service/payments-billing/rates-and-fees
 
specifically, 'Large General Service Rate 7 '.
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
The majority of power in WA comes from hydroelectric sources, which makes electricity EXTREMELY cheap to produce. I'm sure if you look at non-peak hours, you can get your power costs down pretty low. But, I'm fairly certain that $0.02/kWh is a bulk rate given to large corporations (i.e. Microsoft, Boeing, etc...) who buy their power in massive quantities and therefore are able to get deeply discounted prices from the power companies that supply them. If you're not a large corporation that's buying power at a rate of 100 megawatts or more per day (which would be enough to power a small city), you're not going to get that kind of rate.
full member
Activity: 150
Merit: 100
The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington is the largest hydroelectric power producer in the United States. Most commercial/industrial rates range anywhere from .049 to .06 kWh. Gotta love Washington...we have the highest minimum wage being $9.32 and some of the cheapest power.
full member
Activity: 130
Merit: 100
You can get around 3.5 per kw after fees in central washington but thats about as low as it gets...
newbie
Activity: 40
Merit: 0
0.02, no way. maybe possible under special situation which has government subside.
member
Activity: 119
Merit: 10
in Washington state checkout central Washington I pay 0.027 cent a kw and we also have 100x100 for 60 bucks a month checkout Chelan County Douglas County and grant county we have tons of data centers and cheap power also megabigpower has a few places over here Good Ole Central Washington
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
buy a chp... get long term natural gas contract... add cooling to chp you should get to around 5cent per kwh incl. cooling..
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1015
Can somebody please enlighten me how companies in Washington, or specifically in Seattle, are only paying $0.02/kWh for electricity?

Or is that just the unit of kWh, without demand charges etc?

Does this also scale, say 1MW, 2MW, 5MW etc?


Scale?  What do you mean...?
Depending on the electricity provider, they'll often effectively have either progressive or regressive pricing schemes based on how much you use, though they'll sometimes (not always) also offer flat-rate pricing for heavy users. Most companies give a near-useless "base cost" number, or "number to compare," which doesn't factor in taxes, "volume restrictions," cancellation fees, "minimum use" charges, and a whole host of other stuff you can't fit into a cute, single number. When asking if it scales, it's asking if the price for a KWh after, say, 1MWh is consumed, will cost the same or near as a KWh after, say, 50KWh is consumed.

Best way I've found for finding best electricity price is to look up a map of electricity providers for the state (in the US), seeing who claims what territory, then looking them up one-by one and reading through their god-awful "fee schedule books." Some will have a fixed rate which can only be changed annually or some other scheme designed by government bureaucrats, some change each billing cycle, some have "real-time" rates based on nonsense, some charge you based on the time of day you're using your electricity.... some will charge you less if you're old (not kidding) but tack weird restrictions.... this is ignoring the "sign-on bonus" market which exists in some states, which is a whole other clusterfuck of legal nonsense and manipulative advertising (though maybe beneficial if you play it right).
legendary
Activity: 1031
Merit: 1000
You researched out by Wenatchee?
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1000
Can somebody please enlighten me how companies in Washington, or specifically in Seattle, are only paying $0.02/kWh for electricity?

Or is that just the unit of kWh, without demand charges etc?

Does this also scale, say 1MW, 2MW, 5MW etc?


Scale?  What do you mean...?

Watts = Voltage * Current

1MW.. is a lot of power..  746watts = 1 horse power. 
sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 250
no such thing, more like a private power plant..
hero member
Activity: 489
Merit: 500
Immersionist
http://www.eia.gov/state/print.cfm?sid=WA

Nov-13

Electricity    Washington
Residential    8.70 cents/kWh    
Commercial    7.95 cents/kWh
Industrial    4.49 cents/kWh    

Still no clue where to find the $0.02/kWh that has been mentioned here so many times.
hero member
Activity: 489
Merit: 500
Immersionist
This is from various threads here on the forum, and also what an asic hoster in Seattle says (they have a thread here).
hero member
Activity: 1232
Merit: 516
Can somebody please enlighten me how companies in Washington, or specifically in Seattle, are only paying $0.02/kWh for electricity?

Or is that just the unit of kWh, without demand charges etc?

Does this also scale, say 1MW, 2MW, 5MW etc?


where did you get this price quote from?
hero member
Activity: 489
Merit: 500
Immersionist
Can somebody please enlighten me how companies in Washington, or specifically in Seattle, are only paying $0.02/kWh for electricity?

Or is that just the unit of kWh, without demand charges etc?

Does this also scale, say 1MW, 2MW, 5MW etc?
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