Fair Treatment

Thought part of the package with utility deregulation was the ability of the customers to be able to choose their supplier. What happened to the competition. Commercial users have the opportunity, why not residential customers. It is easy to price gouge when you are the only act in town. If I am misinformed, please explain. From my viewpoint, utility companies are charging more and doing less for the end user. Anytime you have a problem, you’re told to have it checked out by a private contractor. Why is the commercial/industrial rates cheaper? Yes they use more energy, but they also are the ones putting the burden on the supply chain.

You are right that we were promised competition with deregulation of prices. The only problem is that power producing companies don’t seem to want to compete for the business of individuals and small businesses.

Commercial rates are cheaper because they buy in bulk. It’s the same principal behind SAM’s Club. You are mistaken that they place a greater burden on the supply chain. It is actually individual customers who place the greatest burden on the supply chain because of individuals place the greatest burden (per kilowatt hour) on the transmission system. You might have 1000 homes each using X kwh and one large plant using 1000X kwh. The cost to the utility of servicing the lines to those 1000 homes is more than the cost of servicing that one plant.

My big concern about the power rates is that the cost of generating one kwh has risen dramatically since 1999 when rates were frozen and now the state wants to keep the cost from going up in line with the cost of fuel. I know a 78% increase is a lot, but oil has gone up almost 700%, coal by over 30% and natural gas by over 100% since the rates were frozen.

I thought Choptank Electric bought it’s power from DP&L? So how does Choptank manage to hold electric prices down without an increase? Another conundrum is, why would DP&L charge interest to Delaware customers for deferred payments while at the same time, “not” charge interest to Maryland customers for deferred payments, when DP&L’s home plant is in Delaware? Maybe Ruth Ann Minner didn’t cave in to corporate greed, kickbacks and corruption? The Delaware legislators should investigate those dealings.

I have wondered that myself. Perhaps they have a series of futures contracts with PEPCO or some other generator. Remember, they don’t have to buy from DP&L (PEPCO), they only have to have their power transmitted through them.