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#utilities

19 posts15 participants3 posts today
Public
ABC Feeds

Smart meters are breeding confusion and broken trust, a watchdog says
By Daniel Mercer

They were billed as the intelligent key to some sort of energy utopia, but smart meters are breeding confusion and broken trust, a watchdog finds.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-07/nsw

ABC News · NSW energy watchdog bemoans 'confusion, broken trust' as smart meter rollout sputtersBy Daniel Mercer
#ConsumerProtection#Utilities#ElectricityProductionandDistribution
Public
ABC Feeds

Parties urged not to repeat solar 'mistakes' with batteries
By Daniel Mercer

A top energy expert says governments must ensure households that can't access subsidies for batteries still get a benefit, and must not be penalised.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-07/lab

ABC News · Expert says Labor must ensure battery subsides don’t entrench inequality By Daniel Mercer
#EnergyIndustry#ElectricityProductionandDistribution#SolarEnergy
Public
ABC Feeds

How could a battery subsidy benefit you? Experts crunched the numbers
By Jo Lauder

If you already have solar or are considering getting a new solar-and-battery system, we've answered some questions you might have on batteries and how they could work for your household.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-06/the

ABC News · Labor offers a 30 per cent battery discount and this is how it could work for your householdBy Jo Lauder
#EnergyPolicy#AlternativeEnergy#AustralianFederalElections
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Preston Maness ☭

texasobserver.org/staying-aflo

>“We need to have a culture of efficiency in our state,” Walker said. There are plenty of ideas for conservation and reuse of water in the State Water Plan that need funding, she said, especially in smaller rural communities that don’t have as much technical expertise as larger cities and their utilities. “There’s a lot of good things we can be spending money on.”
>
>While both the proposed legislation and the current state water plan acknowledge that Texas also needs to conserve water and fix existing water systems, so far leaders seem more focused on grander plans to build new infrastructure.

Until Texas bans lawn watering state-wide, we ain't fuckin' serious about the water crisis.

>These days, SAWS [San Antonio Water System]—which serves 2 million people in Bexar, Medina, and Atascosa counties—has nine different sources of water. The utility can now draw from four additional underground aquifers, its own recycled wastewater, and three reservoirs, including Medina Lake. But because of drought, San Antonio hasn’t used Medina Lake for years.
>
>SAWS has invested instead in its “advanced storage and recovery” system as a better insurance policy. The utility doesn’t always use its full annual water rights from the Edwards Aquifer, especially during rainy times. So SAWS has turned to injecting extra Edwards water into a different rock formation directly below the H2Oaks Center, the Carrizo Aquifer, to use later during dry summers and droughts. Utility staff refer fondly to this reserve as “the bubble.”
>
>All this water used in homes, businesses, and public buildings throughout San Antonio eventually flows from drains and toilets downhill to the city’s lowest elevation point, where SAWS has built its wastewater recycling plant. Here, trash—mostly “flushable” wipes that in reality are not at all flushable—gets screened out of the water, and the plant’s workers diligently cultivate microbes that eat the city’s biological waste.
>
>At the end of this lengthy process, the treated water flows into the Medina River, just above where the Medina itself flows into the larger San Antonio River. The water entering the river looks clean, like a small waterfall more than anything. Trees surround the wastewater plant’s outfall, the air smells fresh, and birds fly by.
>
>“You should take us for granted,” said SAWS CEO Robert Puente, who previously served in the Texas Legislature and chaired the House Natural Resources Committee, in an interview with the Observer. The utility has plenty of water for at least the next decade, and longer if San Antonio’s recent population growth levels out, he said.

Excellent! So we already have a model for what every other city needs to be doing.

#water #hydrology #texas #drought #Municipal #utilities #SanAntonio #TexasObserver @TexasObserver

The Texas Observer · The Medina And San Antonio Rivers Are Drying UpLessons for the future of Texas water
Public
ABC Feeds

Spender urges 'permanent' power bill relief through efficient appliance plan
By Jake Evans

Independent Allegra Spender is pitching a scheme to help "permanently" cut the power bills of owners and renters through zero-interest loans for home batteries and other appliances, saying the major parties are only offering temporary relief that will expire within months.

abc.net.au/news/2025-04-03/ele

ABC News · Allegra Spender urges 'permanent' power bill relief, with electricity and fuel subsidies due to expireBy Jake Evans
#CostofLiving#AustralianFederalElections#Utilities
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mootchoowal aid requests

URGENT! please help a #disabled #Indigenous #mom & #artist cover #rent & #utilities & survive under US fascism. she's had a stressful & busy time helping her daughter & grandson escape domestic violence. she needs to keep her family safe & housed. you can buy her #art & #jewelry below!

$0/2000 DUE MAY 1

PayPal.me/kiagbear
Cashapp/Venmo: kiagbear
ko-fi.com/mahtheyzhawey/goal?g
etsy.com/shop/MahtheyzhaweyArts
linktr.ee/mahtheyzhawey

a pair of perler beaded eagle feather earrings in lavender and pale blue
Public *
mootchoowal aid requests

URGENT! please help a #disabled #Indigenous #mom & #artist cover #rent & #utilities & survive under US fascism. she's had a stressful & busy time helping her daughter & grandson escape domestic violence. she needs to keep her family safe & housed. you can buy her #art & #jewelry below!

$0/2000 DUE MAY 1

PayPal.me/kiagbear
Cashapp/Venmo: kiagbear
ko-fi.com/mahtheyzhawey/goal?g
etsy.com/shop/MahtheyzhaweyArts
linktr.ee/mahtheyzhawey

a pair of beaded earrings by kiamichi. they have a red teardrop shaped jewel centerpiece surrounded by black beads and outlined by red beads. from them hangs a black spikey metal heart with two long black spikes on either side of it
Public *
mootchoowal aid requests

URGENT! please help a #disabled #Indigenous #mom & #artist cover #rent & #utilities & survive under US fascism. she's had a stressful & busy time helping her daughter & grandson escape domestic violence. she needs to keep her family safe & housed. you can buy her #art & #jewelry below!

$0/2000 DUE MAY 1

PayPal.me/kiagbear
Cashapp/Venmo: kiagbear
ko-fi.com/mahtheyzhawey/goal?g
etsy.com/shop/MahtheyzhaweyArts
linktr.ee/mahtheyzhawey

a pair of perler beaded eagle feather earrings in teal and pink
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