Quote:
Originally Posted by BigNumbers
What do you people think the costs are of delivering the electricity? ...
I don't understand how people can be this obtuse - power is expensive not only to produce, but to transmit and maintain the transmission infrastructure...
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"Well, this is the cost, people!". "If you want to pay less, expect get less services!" This is the same kind of post. Regulated energy delivery is not a simple thing, but in the end, it means, that providers' and distributors' profits are limited to a governed rate, which is around 3% or 4% a year on their costs, I believe. There is a good reason Berkshire Hathaway bought AltaLink - it's like a AAA guaranteed bond. But it is their costs that are a problem. For anyone who had to deal with ENMAX or AltaLink or ATCO they are operating like USSR-type bureaucracies - taking their sweet time to design simplest things, to respond to an email, to attend a meeting, to provide outrageously long schedules without any chance of negotiation or challenge etc. Their staff and management salaries, benefits and administration overhead are gigantic. They own beautiful buildings and they allocate/download costs of owning and operating these buildings to these little fees and charges.
As an engineer, I would be the first one to vouch for public safety over costs. But efficiency is hardly second on their list of priorities.