Re: Aluminum (electricity in virtual solid form): Government issue

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

The article raises an interesting question that I hope some RADSAFER can
answer.  When I lived in the Northwest, the aluminum producers had
essentially their own utility company (at least in Washington) and about 2/3
of their electric power was interruptible -- not firmly guaranteed -- which
was why it was so cheap.  customers buying firm guaranteed power came first.
The Al plants operated on a "spinning reserve"  -- essentially excess power
from the hydro dams.  So I do not understand the "selling back."  The power
isn't stored anywhere.  Is this a charge by the Al utilities for using the
interruptible power the Al companies would normally use?  Is it a charge to
companies or customers who had no contracts at all with, say, Bonneville, so
that the aluminum companies would be in the position of selling their
interruptible contracts?

I hope someone can explain.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Bjorn Cedervall <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Friday, December 29, 2000 5:36 AM
Subject: Aluminum (electricity in virtual solid form): Government issue


>A friend of mine has kindly forwarded the NYT article below - well here is
>only the first part of it to avoid too much off-topic (don't comment too
>much!). I nevertheless believe that this is of interest to many Radsafers -
>as fuel to the nuclear debate as well.
>
>My reflections only,
>
>Bjorn Cedervall  bcradsafers@hotmail.com
>----------------------------------------
>December 29, 2000
>Lack of Power in the West Proves a Boon for Some
>By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>SEATTLE, Dec. 28 — Of all the ways in which the West's electricity problems
>are creating havoc in the marketplace for power, here is one of the
>strangest: there is a fortune to be made these days in not producing
>aluminum.
>
>At least three big aluminum companies here in the Northwest have shut down

>or sharply cut production in recent weeks. Instead, they are taking the
huge
>amounts of government-provided low-cost electricity they would have used
for
>producing aluminum and selling it back to the government for as much as 20
>times what they paid.
>
>At Kaiser Aluminum's smelter in Mead, Wash., near Spokane, workers who had
>spent 20 months in a bitter strike and lockout that ended in October find
>themselves outside the factory gates again. Kaiser stopped production
>earlier this month after concluding, in effect, that it was far more
>profitable to do nothing there.
>
>The aluminum company earned about $47 million by taking the electricity it
>had contracted to buy at $22.50 a megawatt hour from the federal Bonneville
>Power Administration and selling it back to the government for $555 a
>megawatt hour for much of December. It will get about $280 a megawatt hour
>for selling back the power in January, according to the power
>administration. A megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 average-size
>homes.
>
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