New push to deregulate energy: Schwarzenegger electricity plan fuels fears of another debacle

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/11/03 | Zachary Coile

[Pokey78]

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.

[Carry_Okie]

Best I can tell, the Schwarzenegger plan isn't going to deregulate pricing, except for commercial users who can opt out of the system.

I sure hope so, especially for those with potential co-generation capability.

And you are stuck. Gray Davis committed California to long-term contracts and that power has to be delivered to somebody.

Don't blame me, I voted for McClintock. ;-)

I think Arnold should focus on creating more supply, and worry about deregulating prices (and even direct access) later.

Yup. We'll see what he does, but given his political affiliations, I am concerned.

[snopercod]

Just bumping this thread with a little joke. You've all heard the "Economic Systems Explained" joke that starts with, "You have two cows...". Here's the updated California version:

CALIFORNIAN

You have a cow and a bull. The bull is depressed because it has spent its life living a lie. It goes away for two weeks and comes back after a taxpayer-paid sex-change operation. You now have two cows. One makes milk; the other doesn't. You try to sell the transgender cow but its lawyer sues you for discrimination. You lose in court and have to sell the milk-generating cow to pay the damages. You now have one rich, transgender, non-milk-producing cow.

You change your business to beef. PETA pickets your farm. Jesse Jackson makes a speech in your driveway. Cruz Bustamante calls for higher farm taxes to help "working cows". Hillary Clinton calls for the nationalization of 1/7 of your farm "for the children". Gray Davis signs a law giving your farm to Mexico. The L.A. Times quotes five anonymous cows claiming you groped their teats.

You declare bankruptcy and shut down all operations. The cow starves to death. The L.A. Times` analysis shows your business failure is Bush's fault

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!!

[general_re]

Weather in California is fairly predictable on a seasonal basis....

Be careful with that - remember that it was the unpredictability of the weather that exposed the problems with the first deregulation scheme ;)

[Carry_Okie]

Be careful with that - remember that it was the unpredictability of the weather that exposed the problems with the first deregulation scheme ;)

That's akin to saying that taking the pasties off an exotic dancer is an act of public lewdness.

[general_re]

You know the funny thing is, in the summer of 1996, the PUC sent a letter to the legislature that warned that power shortages could result in problems under such a plan, but they closed the letter by essentially predicting that there was no way such a thing could ever happen - there would always be excess capacity to hold down the spot price of electricity. And then Mother Nature conspired to make sure that the thing the PUC said would never happen, happened ;)

[Carry_Okie]

My dad was once a muncipal financing consultant. He was telling me about coming shortages in electrical generating capacity in 1983. If he knew about it, so did everybody else who needed to know.

It took twenty five years for the eco-thugs to make this mess. It's going to take a while to get out, even if we wake up. Given that we elected Arnold with his claque of friends that include the same people as foisted the crisis over that twenty five years, I have my doubts.

[general_re]

Well, we'll see, I guess. The basic problems are obvious enough that even the slowest and stupidest Democrat should be able to figure it out by now - or maybe I'm too generous ;)

I think you're spot-on in desiring nuclear generation - the state of California is overly dependent on natural gas for its power, and natural gas is awfully volatile, obviously. Unfortunately, I think it'll be a cold, cold day in hell before the greenies allow something like that to happen....

[snopercod]

Why not ressurect the plans for Diablo Canyon units 3 & 4?

[Carry_Okie]

There is now breakthrough technology in nuclear that might get the public to accept it. The Japanese, I believe it was Hitachi, have produced a modular, sealed, intrinsically, safe reactor cooled by sodium in gravitational convection. There isn't enough fissile material in the thing for it to melt down. There is no steam. It is SMALL, a power plant would easily fit on a half city block. They build a concrete silo and drop it in ready to go. When it's done in fifty years, pull it from the silo intact and replace it.

It's clean, efficient, cheap, fast, and safe.

[Lancey Howard]

I'm liking Arnold more and more. This will be interesting to watch - - a socialist government relinquishing ownership of an industry doesn't happen every day.

[general_re]

Why not ressurect the plans for Diablo Canyon units 3 & 4?

Because maroons like these folks will pitch a fit. Other than that, there's no good reason that I can think of. And the sad truth is, people like that are convinced that nuclear power is inherently evil, no matter how safe you can make it - they simply don't believe it, and they'll resort to half-truths and outright deceptions to persuade others. In most other places, you can get around them with some work, but unfortunately, California seems to have a somewhat higher concentration of fruits and nuts than other states. And by the time they get done with you, your nuclear power plant will end up costing about six times what it otherwise should, thus destroying any economic advantage it might have had. Be sure to thank them the next time you get a $900 electric bill ;)

[biblewonk]

All they need is more windmills.

[Carry_Okie]

Why not ressurect the plans for Diablo Canyon units 3 & 4?

Because the design is an antique and smaller, intrinsically safe, gravity cooled, distributed units have lower line losses, are more secure, and easier to decommission. There is one being planned for installation in Alaska now.

[Dog Gone]

That's fascinating. That's the first I've ever heard about it. How could it work without producing steam?

[snopercod]

I know the Muthers for Peace well. I even mooned them once from the passenger seat of a car while leaving the DCPP gate after work. Ahhhh...the memories...

[Carry_Okie]

I'm sorry, I spoke misleadingly. When I said "no steam" I was referring to inside the reactor itself, a cooling water leak that would vaporize and carry away radioactive minerals into the surriounding area.

There is a heat exchanger that produces steam, but it's not a water cooled reactor. Posted here:

Village invited to test cheap, clean nuclear power (Galena, Alaska)

Not a huge, Three Mile Island-type power plant but a new generation of small nuclear reactor about the size of a big spruce tree. Designers say the technology is safe, simple and cheap enough to replace diesel-fired generators as the primary energy source for villages across rural Alaska.

[Snip]

The Galena design is part of a new generation of small nuclear reactors that can be built in a factory and transported by barge, truck or helicopter. A federal study, funded at Stevens' request and published in May 2001, found they are inherently safe and easy to operate, resistant to sabotage or theft, cost effective and transportable.

Toshiba Corp., the Japanese electronics giant, calls its reactor the 4S system: super-safe, small and simple.

[Snip]

The reactor core would be constructed and sealed at a factory, then shipped to the site. There it is connected with the other, nonnuclear parts of the power plant to form a steel tube about 70 feet long with the nuclear core welded into the bottom like the eraser in a pencil, Rosinski said. The assembly is then lowered into a concrete housing buried in the ground, making it as immune to attack or theft as a missile in its silo.

The reactor has almost no moving parts and doesn't need an operator. The nuclear reaction is controlled by a reflector that slowly slides over the uranium core and keeps the nuclear fission "critical." If the reflector stops moving, the reactor loses power. If the shield moves too fast, the core "burns" more quickly, yielding the same amount of power but reducing the reactor's life, Rosinski said.

Because of its design and small size, the Toshiba reactor can't overheat or melt down, he said, unlike what happened in the 1986 accident at Chernobyl that killed 30 people and spewed radiation across northern Europe.

The nuclear reaction heats liquid sodium in the upper portion of the reactor assembly. It circulates by convection, eliminating pumps and valves that need maintenance and can cause problems, Rosinski said. The liquid is contained in a separate chamber so it isn't radioactive. Because the reactor assembly is enclosed in a thick steel tube, it will withstand earthquakes and floods, Rosinski said.

"What comes out (of the ground) are two pipes with steam that power a turbine," he said. "You wouldn't even know it's there," except for the steam generator building above it.

[snopercod]

Some of these new designs use helium as the working fluid. Heat it in the reactor, then run it through a gas turbine.

[snopercod]

No operator. BWWWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Dog Gone]

Can these reactors be refueled? Or are they simply replaced?