Negotiations continue between Bluewater Wind and Delmarva. Despite an imposed gag order of the megavolt discussion going on in DeLuca’s office , there are a a couple of kilowatts of information which have leaked out… some from one side, and some from the other…. And of course, there is some misinformation as well, as is usual in negotiations with which the public is heavily involved….

Much of the discussion centers upon whether Bluewater Wind will supply 30% of our electricity with clean, cheap, and stable prices lasting twenty five years….

Or….

Will they supply 20% of our electricity with chean, cheap, and stable prices lasting twenty five years…

Let us look at how that affects rate payers…. Let’s assume that in 5 years, our rates will have climbed as high as Hawaii’s are today…. $200 per megawatt. As most of you know by now, Bluewater Wind will provide wind generated electricity at a cheaper $105 dollar cost per megawatt.

What Delmarva will do, is average all the power they receive from different sources, and determine an average cost (cough, cough) and tack their approved 4% increase on top of that….. “carrying charges.”

Therefore we can use math to create a model which will determine how our costs will be affected by the current proposal, and how much it will cost if the reduced proposal becomes the finalized version.

With Bluewater Wind contributing thirty percent of our load, it looks like this…

30% @ $105 + 70% @ $200 = $171.50 per MWh X 4% Delmarva charge = $178.36

With Bluewater Wind contributing only 20% or our total:……..

20% @ $105 + 80% @ $200 = $181.00 per MWh X 4% Delmarva charge = $188.24

The difference is $10 per MWh. Not much, really….. Or is it?

Divided by 1000 to get our kilowatt/hour price, our two choices are 0.178 cents or 0.188 cents per every kilowatt hour we use for the next twenty five years…

The standard amount of electricity used per home for calculations of this type, is usually 1000 kilowatt/hr per month. (It simplifies calculations) But you can do these calculations using your own electric bills if you wish to determine how much your household will be paying….

So using a 1000 kilowatt/hours per month, the penny price difference comes to a rough figure of $10 per month….

I hope most of you catch the irony of this….We heard for the last eighteen months, that Delmarva Powers was looking out for its customers, by fighting a $6 increase on their monthly electric bill. But, lo and behold….they are negotiating right now with Senator Tony DeLuca to raise your bill $10 a month. (I’m shocked…Outraged….there’s gouging going on in here…. (here are your winnings, sir) Oh thank you….)

Obviously, twenty five years is a long time… If you are over 65 right now, there is a chance you may not live out the end of the contracts being signed today…. So if one takes that $10 dollars a month, and determines it will cost a customer $120 dollars a year, and $3000 over the life of the contract, then all of Delaware is going to pay (using 550,000 Delmarva customers as a base) ……………
…………
………..$1,650,000,000 or 1.65 Billion Dollars of Delaware’s income, will be sucked from all of us by this reduction of 100 MW being supplied by Bluewater Wind.

Not to belabor the obvious, but that is $1.65 billion we can’t spend at local restaurants, ..That is $1.65 billion we can’t spend at our grocery stores…. That is $1.65 billion we can not put towards our retirement. That is $1.65 billion we will not have to pay for our uncovered medical expenses…. That is $1.65 billion we can’t pay for our sewer bills, our water bills, our cable bills, or gas or propane bills, our gasoline bills, .. that is $1.65 billion we can’t pay for our credit card bills, and how many Delawareans do they employ?

So the cost may be sold to us as being small, just as a single point on our interest rate is often sold as being tiny…. But the long term effects over time, are a different story… It is not about whether or not it will cost us anymore…It is about realizing the fact that the Delawarean Senate can vote tomorrow to force the agreed PPA forward and we will then be able to invest that $1.65 billion over the next twenty five years in something productive, …instead of letting Delmarva siphon it straight up to Pepco Holdings, from whence we will see nary an economic ripple…….