Problem Set 2: Electric Bill Analysis
Name (-10 if not included): Ayomide Ogunsua
CUNYID (-10 if not included): 24097220
I’ve uploaded three electric bills to blackboard to use for this assignment, one from a 570 ft2 apartment on Long Island, one from a 900 ft2 apartment in central NJ, and one from a ~2900 ft2 house in suburban Georgia. For part 3, you will also need to use the uploaded excel sheet.
Step 1: For each bill, answer the following (30 points total):
1. How many kilowatt-hours (KWH) were used during the billing cycle (5 points)?
Bill from Long Island: KWH
Bill from NJ: KWH
Bill from GA: KWH
2. What was the total cost for each electric bill (5 points)?
Bill from Long Island: $88.31
Bill from NJ: $128.99
Bill from GA: $114.94
3. For each electric bill, how much does a KWH cost (in cents)? Show your work. (5 points)
Bill from Long Island:
Bill from NJ:
Bill from GA:
4. Which location has the cheapest electricity? Which has the most expensive? (5 points)
5. Based on this website, is the price for electricity greater or less than the state average for each of the bills? https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/ (5 points)
6. Why might electricity costs be higher on Long Island as compared to Georgia or New Jersey? (5 points)
Part 2: Answer the following questions using the specified electric bill: (40 points total)
7. GA Bill: What months were electric costs the lowest? Which were the highest? Why might this be? (5 points) (note: this home is heated with natural gas, not electricity)
8. Long Island Bill: Which costs more, delivery costs OR power supply costs (this is the cost for the actual fuel)? (5 points)
9. Long Island Bill: What percent of the bill is taxes? (5 points)
10. The following chart shows the amount of energy used by different household appliances. Fill this chart out (total will be more than the cost of the bill – it is just an estimate). I recommend doing this in excel or google sheets, but a calculator will work fine. (20 points)
Include an example calculation for one of the appliances. (-10 if not included)
11. Based on the chart from question 5, which three household appliances used the most energy this month? Do you have any recommendations for reducing energy use? (5 points)
Step 3: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, JCP&L vs. PSG&E (40 points total)
Go to the excel sheet and enter your student id in the yellow highlighted box on the tab named “for students”. The number in cell B4 is the number of kWh generated per month that you will use in this problem. You must use this number for calculations, otherwise your answers will be counted wrong.
kWh generated per month from excel sheet: _________________ (5 points, -10 if not listed here)
Fill out the table on the following page by following these instructions:
12. Use this webpage to determine the amount of CO2 generated per kWh from each source and enter into the table: (5 points)
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=74&t=11
13. Use these websites to determine the percent generation for each resource and enter into the table: (5 points)
JCP&L: https://firstenergycorp.com/content/dam/customer/billinserts/9223-NJEnvironmentalLabel1119.pdf (if the website doesn’t work, it is also uploaded as a file named: 9223-NJEnvironmentalLabel1119.pdf)
PSG&E (page 23, use 2019 data): https://corporate.pseg.com/-/media/PSEG/Corporate/Newsroom/attachments/2020/2020_Climate_Report.ashx
14. Then, use the number of kWh consumed per month, the amount of CO2 generated per source, and the percent of electricity generation that is from the resource to determine the amount of greenhouse gas emissions there are from each resource. Include an example calculation (10 points)
15. Add the greenhouse gas emissions from each resource to determine the total greenhouse gas emissions that you would generate if your electricity provider was PSG&E or JCP&L. (5 points)
PSG&E JCP&L
Resource Lbs CO2 generated per kWh per source Percent generation GHG Emissions per source (in lbs) Percent generation GHG Emissions per source (in lbs)
Coal
Natural Gas
Nuclear 0
Renewables (non-hydro) 0
Hydro 0
Other (assume to be oil)
Total GHG emissions
16. Which of the two electricity providers produced the most greenhouse gases? Why and what changes could they make to limit their greenhouse gas production? (10 points)