> The root problem is simple: It’s the way utilities are structured. They are monopoly providers of a whole bundle of electricity services in a given geographic area. But technology has evolved to the point that many of those services could be provided just as reliably, or better, by participants in competitive markets — if there were any such markets. Competitors keep trying to squeeze into the electricity space, and utilities keep using their monopoly power to try to squeeze them back out. That’s what all the fights are about.
I have a hard time getting mad with my local utility. For 50+ years they were specifically structured to provide electricity at the lowest pass through as cheaply as possible while managing modest of small infrastructure investments.
And they did great at it.
They can’t just randomly sprout a whole renewable energy department with recurring revenue they don’t have and then build billions of dollars of stuff with staff they don’t have and money they don’t have, and projects that aren’t yet approved.
It’s going to take a while to get the wheels turning, but it’s starting to happen more and more now.
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> The root problem is simple: It’s the way utilities are structured. They are monopoly providers of a whole bundle of electricity services in a given geographic area. But technology has evolved to the point that many of those services could be provided just as reliably, or better, by participants in competitive markets — if there were any such markets. Competitors keep trying to squeeze into the electricity space, and utilities keep using their monopoly power to try to squeeze them back out. That’s what all the fights are about.
I have a hard time getting mad with my local utility. For 50+ years they were specifically structured to provide electricity at the lowest pass through as cheaply as possible while managing modest of small infrastructure investments.
And they did great at it.
They can’t just randomly sprout a whole renewable energy department with recurring revenue they don’t have and then build billions of dollars of stuff with staff they don’t have and money they don’t have, and projects that aren’t yet approved.
It’s going to take a while to get the wheels turning, but it’s starting to happen more and more now.