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130 comments on Problems for the Pickens' Plan

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airdale on July 10, 2009 - 8:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Electric costs in Ky.

Well I do not consider it cheap.

Here is the results of the bill I just received today.

565 kwh usage divided by price = 13.329 cents per kwh

If I add it the taxes that go with it then it comes to 15.488 cents /kwh

It has been escalating rapidly over the last year or two. The service frankly is sucky. I lost a freezer worth of about $300 of food and not counting the cost of the dead freezer. Then I lost a refrigerator of badly decomposed food just a couple weeks ago due to a total of 18 hours outage in a 24 hr period.

The freezer due to a continual cycling of power about 30 times. Blew the compressor motor.

I won't even speak of the massive ice storm where extremely shitty infrasturcture caused 6 weeks of outage and some even longer.

Seems that a slight blow and some rain and we are without power for hours each time.

This is ridiculous for the rates charged and NO oversight since its a co-op...unregulated and they take advantage of it.

What can one do? Nothing. They buy the power from TVA. TVA sucks also in my opinion. I once took a trip to Chattanooga Hdqtrs to interview for a job in their computing center. I spoke to what were supposed to be managers of that center. I turned the job down for they were lucky to even find their shoe laces. A bunch of no ops. Clueless in the extreme.

Airdale-it used to not be this way but then they brought in a new mgr at the co-op who was still burnishing his MBA and knew how to really squeeze the consumers. Its disgusting and will get worse.

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AlanfromBigEasy on July 10, 2009 - 10:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Kentucky Utilities (owned by Eon (German In think) has considerably lower rates. Service seemed to be acceptable @ Georgetown.

Alan

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airdale on July 11, 2009 - 8:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

KU is owned basically by LG&E of Louisville. There was formed a holding company that is owned by LG&E and under this is KU.

This may have changed in the years since the Y2K time frame. I do not remember the name of the holding company/corp.

I was doing contract consulting of both parties when this came about.

The name KU is still used however.

KU supplies most of the states power but not all. There are many Rural Electric Co-ops and in my area they abound.

What is your kwh rate then in Georgetown?

KU was once a very good company but changes came about.

Like I said, my coop buys power from TVA. And when rates go up they blame it on TVA.

Airdale

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AlanfromBigEasy on July 11, 2009 - 10:32am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The KU trucks have "An eon Company" under the logo. A quick search found that www.eon-us.com lists KU.

E.ON U.S., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a subsidiary of E.ON A.G., the world's largest investor-owned energy services provider.

Per the on-line filing, the base residential rates are $5/month plus $0.05879 per kWh plus various taxes & fees with a fuel cost adjustment.

This coincides with my somewhat vague memeroy from my once a year accounting for my father of the farm expenses. Total bill/kWh is about 7 cents/kWh.

Your co-op will have to recover the massive costs (with little revenue that month) from last winter's ice storm. Sure to impact the bills.

Alan

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airdale on July 11, 2009 - 3:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Rates were up before the ice storm.

The ice storm repairs were paid by the US Government as a Federal disaster was declared.

The utility in fact profited since many of their infrastructure was replaced for basically FREE.

When I brought this farm I was paying about 6 cents kwh. I have kept track of every bill.

Storm did not impact bills. But they allowed them to increase with the thought by the populace that is exactly as you state. They 'assumed'.

Lots of folks made lots of money off our misery. The cost for all these trucks to pick up the debris was $4.07 per cubic foot. Wow.

Yet the county was not out and the utilities was not out. Money that is.

In fact many profited as I stated. And I can likely bet that boom trucks from other parts of the country had men paid very very well.

What was NOT told very well was the churches and men who on their own DIMES came and cut downed trees and helped landowners but COULD NOT go near the right of ways.

I myself spent 6 hours on the first day cutting trees off the state hwy that comes thru..and doing it going back in. Then again the next day and the next day. It was quite a few days before ANY HELP arrived. Except for the church men of course who came right away and brought their own food and sleep in the churches nearby.

My own church would not even offer hot coffee and instead asked others to help them!!!!! Did NOTHING. The other churches opened up and heated food on propane grills. Mine? Zero.

It was the residents who helped each other and came together. I worked on getting generators going and hooked into houses. While I had no generator of my own due to letting others have them.

I got a very good close look at how emergencies are handled.

It was atrocious. It was ugly. It was administration at its very worse. I will never forget it and you should have read all my very copious POSTS during the whole time and event. Thats what I said then and what I say now.

Its like you got this idea about things that are simply not reality.

As for LG&E..perhaps they sold out.. But not when I was there on Y2K. Or else it was all very mysterious and hidden.

Just like the ice storm me and the other systems programmers worked our nuts off and were not even given an 'attaboy'. The manglers copped all the good stuff while making embarassing mistakes and plans.

Airdale

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eric blair on July 11, 2009 - 8:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Lots of folks made lots of money off our misery.

How is that different than any other day - 'cept it was you who got the short, brown sticky end of the stick this time?

I got a very good close look at how emergencies are handled.
It was atrocious. It was ugly. It was administration at its very worse.

Do feel free to show any government that does not have "atrocious" or "ugly" to describe some of the responses to emergencies.

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r4ndom on July 13, 2009 - 11:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'd note that our government did pretty well through the '90's.

Not perfect, but a lot of the failings of recent years would simply not have been tolerated.

Now, well, "Who could have known?"

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AlanfromBigEasy on July 13, 2009 - 12:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Bill Clinton saw the failure of the older Bush after Hurricane Andrew (and the political fallout) and decided to make FEMA attractive and well operated.

More than one Beltway commentator noted that Clinton liked to visit disaster areas and bask in the afterglow of a job well done (and show his concern for those suffering, the "I feel your pain"). Good sound bites and photo-ops.

I never felt the same as the commentators, I still believe that politicians should rightfully bask in the applause for a job well done. We are well served if good policy is good politics.

GWB appointed the college roommate of his 2000 campaign director, a man who had been "asked to leave" because he could not properly organize a horse show. The results were predictable, and it shows R priorities.

Alan

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eric blair on July 11, 2009 - 8:53pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

NO oversight since its a co-op...unregulated

Co-OP is a specific legal term.

Same with unregulated.

co-op

An association or corporation established for the purpose of providing services on a nonprofit basis to its shareholders or members who own and control it.

The control is shareholders or members. If yours is a member co-op and you use the system as a member - you are an owner. Otherwise control is with the shareholders. Someone has to own the shares to then control the corporation. If you opt to not own shares or excersize the power of the ownership you have - that does not mean "NO oversight"

unregulated

without regulation or discipline

regulated

controlled or governed according to rule or principle or law

1) You have identified them as a co-op. Typically exist under the governance and structure of the state.
2) For your claim to be correct, this power company must not have the US norm of right of way, or even Federal control.

If the lack of government control is bothersome WRT electrical power - might I suggest moving to someplace with effective government control?

Just because something did not go airdale's way does not mean there is no oversight.

What can one do? Nothing.

More BS. One can take charge and make their own power via wind or PV (or hydro) Model it after the bellcore -48vDC model. Then your EQ has a buffer to power fluxations.

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130 comments on Problems for the Pickens' Plan

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