Power suppliers and you
- Thread starter Miss Chicken
- Start date
Always have, and I imagine I always will.
Would you like to have a choice of supplier, or are you happy with the power company you have to deal with?
I'm happy with our power company (OPPD). I've never had any major problems with them - they always give great service and reasonable rates.
Plus, when we had a devastating storm a few years ago that knocked out power for days, they did the best they could to get back up and running (as they always do whenever there's outages). I give them all the props. I would not want competition here.
Plus, when we had a devastating storm a few years ago that knocked out power for days, they did the best they could to get back up and running (as they always do whenever there's outages). I give them all the props. I would not want competition here.
Yup, and it couldn't be better for this province IMO. Manitoba Hydro is a Crown Corporation of the province and due to the abundance of hydro dams, our electric rates are among the lowest on the continent. We export a lot to the US mostly which allows us to keep the rates low.
Though, because it's a crown corp, the government sometimes can't resist the urge to dip their fingers into the cookie jar. Thus, we end up with Hydro being forced into stupid situations like spending hundreds of millions of wasted dollars building a power line from the east side of the province to the west side and back again just so the government can push for their pet project of a relatively useless UNESCO designation for a particular forest. Don't know what makes that forest more important than the other forests they'll have to cut down for the longer power line.
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Amaris
Guest
I'd love to have a choice in suppliers. We have a monopoly power supplier where we live, the rates are not reasonable, the costs are always going up, even when I slash bigtime to save energy, and they're generally inflexible with payment options. I will give them credit when it comes to power outages. In the event of a storm that knocks the power out, they tend to get it restored fairly quickly.
I do. There is only one company that offers electrical service in the city I live.
In every place I've lived, there's always been only one option for power. The quality of service & cost have varied from place to place, but right now I'm pretty happy with our provider.
To be honest, I'm a bit confused as to how you *can* have more than one power provider, since most companies I'm familiar with are responsible for upkeep of the lines and power stations.
To be honest, I'm a bit confused as to how you *can* have more than one power provider, since most companies I'm familiar with are responsible for upkeep of the lines and power stations.
Yeah, I'm not sure I get it either. How exactly does it work?
Where I live, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has a monopoly on providing electric power, but I don’t have any complaints. The rates are reasonable and the standard of service is high. The longest we’ve ever had to go without power was for about nine hours following the big ’71 earthquake. And that one was a whopper.
Yeah, just how does that work? I mean, it all comes in over the same wires, right?
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Amaris
Guest
What would be the benefit compared to the current setup (I'm honestly curious)?
Water services and electricity almost inevitably become natural monopolies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly
Natural monopolies should be handled by the government (or, at the very least, strictly regulated by the government). Otherwise, you're leaving people open to price gauging.
I'm sure most people have heard of Enron, but many people aren't aware of what they were actually doing. California deregulated their energy market, and private companies (particularly Enron) were able to create an artificial energy shortage (by producing less energy and selling much of the energy outside of California). The result was that Enron was able to charge up to 20x normal peak energy prices, and rolling blackouts were the norm.
We really only have one choice here, and it's one of the Australian suppliers whose prices are going to increase by over 40% in the next few years (to deal with "infrastructure costs" or some such bullshit). In the quarter before last we actually used less power than the previous quarter, yet our bill almost doubled.
I'd very much like to have a choice, but there isn't one. Oh, joy.
I'd very much like to have a choice, but there isn't one. Oh, joy.
Do they generate their own power, or are they just a transmission company?
I assume that it's a private company and not a Crown Corp? Not that it matters all that much, I suspect that MB Hydro will have to (either by their hand or the Public Utilities Board) raise rates to pay for the multi-hundred million dollar extra-long line the NDP wants them to build.
Nope, government owned. Well, sort of; the monumentally incompetent excuse for a government we have in this state has been selling off electricity "assets" in recent times - and true to form, spectacularly screwing up said sale. It's all rather messy at this point.
Cause and effect.
If customers use less energy, the power supplier will have reduced profits.
No corporation would find that acceptable, because the shareholders would lose confidence in the company.
They'd be forced to increase rates to get their profits back up to what they were.
