Your thoughts on Electricity Deregulation

[GISTechnician]

After the Enron thread, I was wondering some of you thoughts about electricity deregulation.


I work in the Electric Cooperative industry and have been in several meetings with my state legislature on the issue.
The legislature, along with myself, are of the opinion that there is no way deregulation will benefit the consumer.
In our state, currently the average price per kWh is $.06. Projections of price per kWh after deregulation according to the state's research is about $.09.

What's your take?

Is it a good or bad?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Well, to be concise

deregulation = suck

I often deregulation is a good thing. I have yet to see it. With the power companies, I haven't seen ANY good come of it.

 

[Linflas]

There are certain things that seem to me to be natural monopolies. Electrical service is one of them. As I understand deregulation when it comes to electricity or natural gas it really is all about companies buying in bulk then contracting to deliver to whatever carrier serves your house. The problem is that when you switch to one of these bulk carriers you often end up getting charged more after the contract period ends. The bottom line is that the natural gas or electricity entering my house is identical irregardless of the accounting mumbo jumbo that goes on in the background and the only way I as a consumer can benefit is if I pay constant attention to my bills to monitor what the charges are per unit of delivery each and every month. I do not see that I save enough doing this vs the regulated system to make it worth my while.

 

[XZeroII]

Yea, one is best. There is NO difference in electricity and no way to differentiate it. On the other hand, telephone service is the same way...