File #: | 21-0207 |
Type: | Presentation | Status: | Agenda Ready |
In control: | City Council Study Session |
On agenda: | 2/18/2021 |
Title: | Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on the City’s efforts to create and maintain an environmentally sustainable community. |
Attachments: | 1. Presentation |
City of Mesa asking natural gas customers to conserve usage until February 21
February 18, 2021 at 12:51 pmThe state of Arizona has been fortunate that enough gas producing wells and interstate pipelines in the Texas panhandle have maintained the ability to send natural gas west to New Mexico, Arizona and California.
The Governor of Texas has ordered natural gas producers in Texas not to export product out of the state until February 21st and instead sell it to providers within Texas.
This order could jeopardize the ability of the City of Mesa's gas utility to acquire sufficient supplies to meet its customers' requirements.
As a result, the City of Mesa is asking its natural gas customers to conserve and curtail any non-essential uses of natural gas for the next several days.
Some ways to conserve include:
Renewable Energy Prices Hit Record Lows: How Can Utilities Benefit From Unstoppable Solar And Wind?
The bottom line: Renewables are now cheaper than the average cost to operate coal and average cost to build new natural gas. Plunging clean energy prices have been made possible by both R&D and the economic "learning curve" concept: As more of a technology is deployed, it becomes cheaper and more efficient.
Add it all up, and this trend isn’t going away anytime soon. Utilities can capitalize on this trend while reducing emissions, but policy helping manage the financial transition is key to encouraging a smooth and rapid transition.
Opportunities for utilities with the right policy support
Some utilities have embraced the transition to clean energy, while others are still running uneconomic coal plants and building new natural gas. But as energy economics and state targets shift from fossil fuel to clean energy, the utilities that stick with a business-as-usual approach do so at their own peril, increasing the risk of expensive stranded assets and higher consumer electricity prices.
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