The Cost Of Doing Business In Delaware......On Bloom Energy, Delmarva Power, Grid Reliability And The Data Centers LLC

1. More bad news for Delmarva Power customers.....

   
   

   (News Journal) Aaron Nathans reports ~ Bloom charge for Delmarva customers soars

   Residential power customers will pay an average of $4.37 in November, up from $1.08 a year ago. The dramatic increase comes as policymakers sharpened their critique of the economic development project as a drag on ratepayers who are still struggling to pay their bills.
   The Public Service Commission staff released the monthly surcharge information for November, filed by Delmarva, on Friday. One of the four commissioners, Jay Lester, said the lower cost projections that commissioners saw in 2011, before they approved the surcharge, were well-intended, but “I didn’t think it would go anywhere near this high.”
   Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark, said of the projections in 2011: “There was either an inept accounting of what the actual charge would be, or a deliberate misrepresentation of what the amount would be. I don’t know the answer,” Kowalko said.
   The surcharge is helping to support Bloom’s recently opened manufacturing facility on the former Chrysler plant site in Newark, where Bloom will cut the ceremonial ribbon on Oct. 16, and where the company expects to hire 900 people by September 2016.
   In 2011, lawmakers and the Public Service Commission allowed a Bloom subsidiary to install an electric project totaling 30 megawatts at two Delmarva substations in New Castle County, helping Delmarva reduce its state renewable power purchase obligations.
   Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara said the higher surcharge is a product of natural gas rates and electricity prices remaining far lower than independent experts predicted a few years ago. The Bloom project has job benefits, as well as supporting electrical reliability, and helps avoid other costs, including driving down electrical congestion charges on the Delmarva Peninsula, he said.
   The Bloom surcharge tends to go up as electricity prices go down, and vice versa. O’Mara noted that overall electricity prices are down for Delmarva customers, and when they go back up, “Delaware customers will reap savings from this project, in addition to the jobs, reliability, and air quality benefits.”

(DE, Inc.) ~ PSC staff: Delmarva upgrades could cost $19 a month 

The Public Service Commission doesn't believe DPL needs this for reliability and will increase profitability with the upgrades.

Attend the public hearing 7PM October 16th At UD's Arsht Hall in Wilmington or click the link above for how to write in comments.


Meanwhile, why the hell isn't UD/TDC Newark campus data center planning on using Bloom Boxes instead of burning fossil fuel in the middle of my city??????

(Business Bulletin) Doug Rainey reports ~ eBay data center powered by Bloom servers

According to the company, the facility will be critical in achieving its target of enabling $300 billion in commerce volume by 2015.The data center will be the first facility of its kind in the world to use Bloom Energy Servers as on-site, primary power. “It tangibly advances our vision for a more environmentally sustainable commerce future,” the company wrote in its environmental blog.The company also worked with Dell and HP on state-of-the-art technology for servers.The Bloom fuel cells are expected to result in approximately 49 percent less CO2 emissions than the first-phase data center while reducing the risk of outages.Another project from eBay aims to capture head from the natural gas pipeline that powers the Bloom servers to provide additional electricity.The company is investing in an alternative energy company that convert the waste heat to electricity.

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