NewsWhore
09-26-2007, 03:00 PM
The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the electricity distributors are worried about the recent increases in the price of crude oil. A barrel of crude traded at over US$80 on the New York Stock Exchange for most of last week. The electricity distributors have to work with consumer prices "frozen" by the government and most admit to 40% losses in transmission, theft and fraud. All of this is working to reduce their once ample profit margins. Coal and natural gas generation is looking better and better for the generators. Preliminary calculations indicate that generators can save around US$22.6 million per month with these fuels, rather than use fuel oil #6, the current fuel of choice for 60% of the nation's generation capacity. For example, a million BTU of coal costs US$2.28; the same amount of energy by natural gas would cost US$6.43; and fuel oil #6 would cost US$9.30 for the same million BTUs. Currently, only AES-Andres uses natural gas at the Andres and Los Mina generating sites.
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More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)