US Electricity Prices Rise Most in 41 Years as Inflation Endures

WASHINGTON -
Electricity bills for US consumers jumped the most since 1981, gaining 15.8% from the same period a year ago, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Natural gas bills, which crept back up last month after dipping in July, surged 33% from the same month last year, labor data released Tuesday showed. Broader energy costs slipped for a second consecutive month because of lower gasoline and fuel oil prices. Even with that drop, total energy costs were still about 24% above August 2021 levels.
Electricity costs are relentlessly climbing because prices for the two biggest power-plant fuels -- natural gas and coal -- have surged in the last year as the US economy rebounds from the pandemic and as Russia’s war in Ukraine triggers an energy crisis in Europe. Another factor is the hot and humid summer across most of the lower 48 states drove households and businesses to crank up air conditioners. Americans likely used a record amount of power in the third quarter, according to US Energy Information Administration projections.
New York’s state grid operator warned of a “sharp rise in wholesale electric costs expected this winter” with spiking global demand for fossil fuels, lagging supply and instability from Russia’s war in Ukraine driving up oil and gas prices, according to a Tuesday report. Geopolitical factors are ultimately reflected in wholesale electricity prices and supply charges to consumer bills, the New York Independent System Operator said.
Electricity price futures for this winter have increased fourfold from last year, with prices averaging near $200 a megawatt-hour, the grid operator said. That has been driven by natural gas futures for the upcoming winter, which are more than double current prices to nearly $20 per million British thermal units.
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BC Hydro Expects To See Electricity Usage Rise This Holiday Season
VANCOUVER - BC Hydro data showed residential electricity load in the Cariboo and throughout the province dropped on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 2020.
Northern Community Relations Manager, Bob Gammer, said the decrease was due in part to more people following the COVID-19 restrictions and did not get together for big meals.
However, this year Gammer said between 4 and 10 pm on those two days, BC Hydro does expect to see a change in overall usage.
“On Christmas Day and Boxing Day, we expect to see increases through those hours and a little bit more so between 4 and 10 pm…