Electric Utility Deregulation

[Az]

Well, honestly, that's just bad management. Our glorious overpaid, government monopoly which is effectively run by the trade unions is about to get Brownouts somewhere in the beginning of next year with the forecasted growth in electric output.

I am beginning more and more to think that this is a cultural thing.

[Q Classic]

i dunno. in georgia, electric dereg didn't seem to bother anything, nor did phone dereg.

it was gas dereg that screwed everyone over.

[MichaeltheGreat]

With Georgia (and several other states) it's a pipeline access issue, not a market issue.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Plato - I worked in the midst of the Cali restructuring Scheißsturm throughout most of the 90's, doing consulting work related to strategic planning for public agencies, powerplant siting, land-use and environmental requirements for independent power producers, and a whole bunch of rate, feasibility and operations analysis. I'll post more about this later, but the "Enron collapse" had nothing to do with Cali, except perhaps their approach to the Cali market was symptomatic of their basic stupidity outside their core gas pipeline business.

More later.

I suspected as much. This article was written by the CEO of a small electrical co-operative. They operated over 3 to 4 counties. Prices are relatively low and service is reliable. They are most likely trying to sway the debate in order to maintain a no-competition environment since they have no real desire to expand their service area. Thanks for the info MTG.

[Asher]

Originally posted by St Leo
LOL. It's not working out at all in Canada.

It's already working fine in Alberta, so perhaps you should revise that.

Ontario's still in the transitionary period, historically the prices skyrocket the first year or two before settling down to normal, and then they start getting cheaper.

[Starchild]

Micheal, smookie, I'm in the UK. Excellent location of tide and wind power generation but you're right, nothing in comparision to the sheer amount of green energy the Canadians could harness.

[Q Classic]

mtg, it might have been pipeline--but from what i've seen, it's a billing problem.

one guy has never gotten a bill.
another one didn't get a bill for two years, then suddenly received one to the tune of several thousand dollars.
others have received much higher bills than the amount they've used...

that just ain't right....

[Ned]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Deregulating public utilities is a crap idea. I am trying to get a new electricity supply installed in a building at work. Before deregulation it was all Yorkshire Electricity. Now I have to deal with YEDL to run a new cable from the street to the building. They did but the new meter cabinet wasn't ready so they capped off the cable and left it. Then Npower came to fit the meter and would not because the mains cable wasn't connected to a cut-off box in the meter cabinet and our electrician hadn't done the internal wiring properly.

YEDL say that their computer shows the job has been completed so they can't come back. Everybody says it is someone else's responsibility. No-one will give a clear list of what needs to be done in what order. In the middle of all this someone else actually turned up to read the meter that hadn't been installed!

I just want to pay the money and have the work done but that concept is too difficult for these morons.

Thatcher and the idiots who privatised electricity in the UK should be hanged for their stupidity. Oh, and don't even mention the endless stream of reps calling at the door and the mountains of junk mail trying to persuade me to switch supplier. That must cost a fortune to do and the electricity user ends up paying for it in the end.

This reminds me of the complainers here in the US who still complain about the breakup of AT&T.

[Sava]

The breakup of AT&T was bad... I don't understand how you can think otherwise

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Asher

Ontario's still in the transitionary period, historically the prices skyrocket the first year or two before settling down to normal, and then they start getting cheaper.

Yeah right. Not every Albertan is as happy as you about it.

[Odin]

I was talking Gasoline prices, I don't know much about natural gas, I get my heating from a propane co-op, not a corporation.

Sava, why was the breakup of AT&T bad, it was geting too big. I think Microsoft needs to be broken up too. The reason capitalism no longer works is that the corporations have gotten to big, free market works best when there is as much compitition as posible, it spurs low prices and a good variety of products.

[Q Classic]

i don't think microsoft needs to be broken up. there's still much competition to be had in the computer os market.

att being broken up was before my time, so i honestly don't know what life was like before it. (i was still <10yo at the time, so~)

[Willem]

Originally posted by Asher

It's already working fine in Alberta, so perhaps you should revise that.

Ontario's still in the transitionary period, historically the prices skyrocket the first year or two before settling down to normal, and then they start getting cheaper.

You didn't answer my questions. What's your rate per kilowatt hour now and how stable are the prices?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Sava
The breakup of AT&T was bad... I don't understand how you can think otherwise

Uh, lower rates overall 20 years later.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Starchild
Micheal, smookie, I'm in the UK. Excellent location of tide and wind power generation but you're right, nothing in comparision to the sheer amount of green energy the Canadians could harness.

I thought you were living in Canada for a while, hun. Not like the UK's a garden spot for weather, either.