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As follow-up to this post about Apple, federal energy regulators approved Apple’s application on 8/4/2016 to start selling electricity at wholesale market rates.
The cool part about this is that they can now play, or hedge, the markets. For example, if wholesale electricity prices are 14 cents per kilowatt-hour, and they can buy retail at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, they can choose to sell at the higher price and buy at the lower retail price, and pocket the difference. And this pricing situation often happens, especially during heat spells, extreme cold snaps, or when a power plant unexpectedly goes offline. When there is a high demand for electricity and limited production, power providers are often willing to pay more than they sell for. Of course, they hope this only lasts for a short time!
Good for Apple! They are setting an example, using all renewable energy, that I’m sure will be followed by more large companies.