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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

If a 4% increase seems like bad policy to you in a high inflation (~9%) macro environment, your expectations are likely unrealistic. There would’ve been a cost to keep the coal plant running, including buying coal on the spot market at highly elevated (compared to long term contracts) prices (~300-400%).

https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/coal-price

https://www.wvpublic.org/energy-environment/2022-07-12/coal-...

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It’s an avoidable 4% increase. That’s why I think it’s poor execution.

If my city increased by utility price by 4% because they messed up the sequencing on a contract it would be a sign of poor planning.

Sure, but the cost of really good planning that never messes up sequencing is likely to add a lot more than 4% to your utility bill.

How much more are you really willing to pay for completely flawless sequencing?

Part of the issues were due to an unforeseen pandemic that messed up the supply chains and increased prices drastically. However keeping the plant running may not have been feasible. There's some coal plants on Maui were parts suppliers shutdown or simply don't produce spares anymore. The energy producer there is faced at trying to get custom fabricated parts and hoping they work or building a whole new plant to provide interim power. A lot of these projects were planned years in advance and major disruptions (like a global pandemic) can wreak havoc on plans.

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