Portugal hit 80% renewable electricity in January, saving €703 million on bills, securing the grid and spurring green projects—benefiting residents nationwide.
However I suspect that what’s charged in Portugal for that cost is way beyond a fair value, with rent-seeking “administrative costs” of the power provider which far exceed actual real costs in the era of smart-meters and computing (plus which are already included in the price for power itself, which is why retail power prices are much higher than bulk market prices, thus there’s double-dipping going on there) as well as “taxes” to pay for subsidies for renewables which were often de facto politicians needlessly shoving money to their mates so that they had higher profits - the big power company in Portugal is very well connected politically and is involved in at least on major Corruption case - rather than actually needed to incentivise provision of things which would otherwise not be provided.
Yeah, that does make sense.
However I suspect that what’s charged in Portugal for that cost is way beyond a fair value, with rent-seeking “administrative costs” of the power provider which far exceed actual real costs in the era of smart-meters and computing (plus which are already included in the price for power itself, which is why retail power prices are much higher than bulk market prices, thus there’s double-dipping going on there) as well as “taxes” to pay for subsidies for renewables which were often de facto politicians needlessly shoving money to their mates so that they had higher profits - the big power company in Portugal is very well connected politically and is involved in at least on major Corruption case - rather than actually needed to incentivise provision of things which would otherwise not be provided.
Yeah, that sounds pretty bad.