Rigged Against Reliables: How Electricity Pseudo-Markets Punish Reliability and Drive Up Costs

Power Hour with Alex Epstein

It’s common for us to hear that solar, wind are cheaper than coal or gas. Specifically we’ll hear that solar and wind are “bidding” at lower prices than goal or gas. All of this sounds very competitive, like they’re winning on the merits on a free market.
And yet at the same time, something is clearly very wrong. Electricity costs tend to go up the more “cheaper” solar and wind you add. Intuitively we know that it’s wrong to not factor in reliability when you’re comparing prices.
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Tom Stacy, an electricity consultant who explains how electricity markets are “rigged against reliables”--and what we need to do to make them fair and beneficial.