The End of Direct Electric Utility Competition in Lubbock
Michael Giberson It is done.
retail competition
Pg&e Spending Big to Protect Its Monopoly Against Municipal Aggregation
Michael Giberson For a number of years, state law in California has permitted cities or counties to arrange to become the electric power service provider for their areas – an arrangement where they would be responsible for acquiring the electric energy needed for consumers in their areas while the local utility would continue to operate …
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Georgia Electric Consumers Want Competition to Help Protect Against Higher Prices, Just Like They Have for Natural Gas
Michael Giberson From WTVM-9: Latrese Brown, a Cusseta [Georgia] resident, gathered a group of people who believe Sumter EMC is ripping them off. “Not only mine but my entire community light bills are outrageous high, they’re more than our mortgages, more than our rent, more than our car note,” complains Brown. … The citizens of …
The Revised History of Electric Competition in Lubbock
Michael Giberson At the time of the initial announcement that Lubbock Power & Light would acquire the distribution assets of competing electric utility Xcel within the city, leaving LP&L as a monopolist, I took note of several inconvenient statements about the benefits of competition included in official LP&L history. (See “The (soon to be revised) …
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Smart Meter Benefits for Low-income Consumers
Michael Giberson Much of the smart grid promise (and hype) implicitly suggests that the benefits will be scooped up by high-income consumers. Who else is going to be buying “grid aware” washer-dryer sets with built in wi-fi connectivity integrated into internet-linked home energy managements system? Still, the benefits won’t be limited to big spenders hoping …
Electric Power Rate Reforms Needed for Smart Grid to Create Value
Michael Giberson In a white paper released yesterday, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) identified three requirements necessary for the smart grid to create value for residential customers: Pricing must provide incentives to manage energy use more efficiently and enable consumers to save money. Communication Standards must be open, flexible, secure, and limited in …
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Energy Information Devices Start to Go Mass Market
Lynne Kiesling Tim Haab helpfully points out an article from Time about EnergyHub, a device for consumers to see more, and more timely, information about their energy consumption. I’ve written about EnergyHub here before, and honestly, they have not been among the most forward-looking or impressive of the products I’ve seen for providing consumers with …
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New Meters Enabling New Rate Designs by Competitive Power Suppliers in Texas
Michael Giberson Many companies offer retail electric power contracts in the competitive retail portions of Texas, but for a long time the contracts have been kind of, you know, boring: either fixed rate or variable, if fixed then for 1 or 2 years. Renewable content offerings provided a little color, ranging up to 100 percent. …
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Austin Energy’s Future Rate Hikes
Michael Giberson A few years ago Lubbock’s municipal electric utility was in a tight financial spot that threatened to put it and the city into bankruptcy. When the utility pushed through a rate increase, customers started switching to competing electric utility Xcel. The dwindling customer base forced the municipal utility to find another way out …
What the Fpl 2009 3q Earnings Call Transcript Says About the Texas Retail Market
Michael Giberson Seeking Alpha has begun publishing transcripts of quarterly corporate earnings calls. Typically these calls are discussions presented by the CEO and other corporate officers followed by Q&A with financial analysts. The calls offer a more “inside look” at company operations than you get from reading newspaper or magazine stories or even trade press. …
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