The Dispatchable Electricity blog discussed the advantages of dispatchable electricity as well as some of the pricing options. It is important to understand the benefits and costs of dispatchable electricity before deciding if it’s right for your company.
What is Dispatchable Electricity?
Dispatchable electricity is electricity that can be turned on or off at will. This is different from regular electricity, which comes with a fixed rate per kilowatt-hour, and cannot be adjusted in real time. The difference may seem small, but it has a huge impact on how we can use and pay for electricity. For example:
A company that uses a lot of electricity at night could sign up for a block of time when their usage will be low (e.g., midnight), and get a much lower rate for that period than they would if they were receiving power from the grid all day long.
A company that uses less energy during certain times of year could switch over to dispatchable energy during those times without changing anything else about their energy use or payments. They would still receive power from the grid when they needed it, but they’d pay less because there are fewer people using electricity at night or on weekends.
There are many more examples where this comes in handy!
How Much Does
Dispatchable electricity is when you can turn off the electricity at your plant and when you want it, you can turn it back on. This is different than traditional electricity where you pay for the amount of power that comes into your plant.
Dispatchable electricity has several advantages over traditional plans:
● It’s more predictable because you can turn off the electricity when your plant is not operating. This means less risk of going over your budget.
● It’s more flexible because you can turn off the electricity whenever you want. This means less risk of going over your budget.
● It’s cheaper than traditional electricity because there are no hidden fees or charges for turning on/off the electricity during times when demand is low or high.
If these benefits sound good to you, then read on!
Dispatchable Electricity Costs & Benefits
The costs and benefits of dispatchable electricity vary depending on the type of business you run and how much energy use in a given year. For example, if your company uses 100,000 kWh per month then dispatchable plans will likely save money compared with traditional electric rates. If your company uses less than 100,000 kWh per month, however, then it’s unlikely that dispatchable plans will save
Several years ago, we began a journey with the state’s largest energy provider. They were struggling to understand just what the implications of dispatchable electricity would be for their customers and for their business. We worked with them to understand how it might impact their residential and commercial customers, how people were thinking about it, and how they might communicate this new option to the public.
Building on that work, we’re now collaborating with NRG Energy on a new project that is helping them develop messaging around dispatchable electricity. With more people concerned than ever about the environment, they want to show prospective customers why NRG is the most environmentally-conscious choice among the different energy providers in deregulated states like Texas.
The findings of our research have been quite illuminating – and may be a surprise to some readers. We recently published a piece on our blog that explores some of these findings and offers insight on what you should know before you decide whether or not your company should switch to dispatchable electricity. To view this post, please click here.
Dispatchable electricity has been in the news a lot lately, with claims from companies like Tesla, who have pioneered the technology, that it can help businesses save money and be much more energy efficient.
But what is dispatchable electricity? And is it really as good as these companies say?
We’ve put together this guide to help you figure out whether dispatchable electricity is right for your business.
What Is Dispatchable Electricity?
Dispatchable electricity is electricity that can be turned on and off at will, allowing businesses to use power when they need it rather than when it’s available. This makes dispatchable electricity cheaper than non-dispatchable electricity because companies don’t have to pay for power they aren’t using. In addition, dispatchable electricity allows businesses to cut their carbon footprints by reducing the amount of energy they use.
The world is changing.
In order to meet the challenges of climate change and sustainability, companies are being encouraged to transition towards using renewable electricity. However, a majority of the world’s electricity is provided from the grid which means that it is not dispatchable (it cannot be controlled). This means that companies are unable to guarantee their power supply and energy costs can fluctuate, so how can companies transition to renewable electricity?
The answer is Dispatchable Electricity, which is guaranteed and therefore provides a more stable power supply than grid-provided electricity. Dispatchable Electricity can be supplied by combined heat and power (CHP), battery storage and other types of power generation such as solar.
Dispatchable electricity is the exact opposite of intermittent electricity. Dispatchable electricity is the type of power you get from your local utility company. It’s constantly available, whether you’re using it or not, and it can be turned on or off based on demand.
Dispatchable electricity comes in two forms: thermal energy, which is heat that’s generated by burning fuels like natural gas, coal, and oil; or nuclear energy, which is created by splitting atoms inside a nuclear reactor. Both types of energy are stored in large silos that can be turned on or off based on demand.
When a customer uses dispatchable electricity to power their home or business, they’re billed based on their usage over a set period of time (usually one month). The price of the electricity per kilowatt-hour varies depending on how much demand there is for it at any given point in time. If a customer uses more electricity during times when demand is high, they’ll have to pay more for it than if they use less electricity at times when demand is low.
Dispatchable Electricity vs Intermittent Electricity: What’s The Difference?
When we think of batteries, we usually think of electric cars.
But the great opportunity for batteries is in the electricity industry itself. It is there that batteries can perform their most valuable service: delivering power when it is needed.
As an example, consider a coal mine. Coal mines use electricity to power everything from ventilation to the machines that excavate and transport coal. That electricity comes from the grid, which means the mine produces no carbon emissions during operation. But if a truck breaks down, or a conveyor belt jams, and the mine needs more electricity than what it is getting from the grid, how does it meet its needs?
In most cases, it fires up a diesel generator. These plants produce about two pounds of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour, compared with 0.7 pounds for a typical U.S. grid mix (which includes natural gas). If a mine has to run its generator for an hour, while it fixes its machinery and gets back on track, it will emit an extra ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
That’s not ideal – but it’s also not good business sense either. Switching over to generators takes time and effort; they are expensive to own and maintain; and they have lower availability than grid power