5-90 said:
Yugh - I don't envy you!
It's not the line-animals I have issue with - y'all are the ones actually doing the work. It's the decision-makers up the chain with whom I have issues. They don't seem to think ahead, they certainly don't seem to plan ahead, and the rates keep going up! Probably the biggest issue I have with PG&E is that the rates keep climbing, there's no real end in sight, and I'm just not making any more money to make up for it (granted, it's not just PG&E's rates going up, but that's what we're talking about now. Don't get me started on the gasoline companies, rent increases, and other fun stuff - it just about all comes back to "everything goes up but the money I make," and "why are we paying more for less?")
Upper management, in just about any endeavour, should probably be the lowest-paid members of any outfit, unless and until they start actually thinking farther forward than the ends of their noses...
5-90
Thanks for the compliment...sort of :roflmao: , but I'm not a line-animal. I'm mid upper management myself. But yeah, electric rates are a whole separate thread in itself.
But in a nutshell, todays rates are a result of the failure in electric deregulation in California. You (rate payers) are still paying for the Enron, Mirant, Duke, etc fiasco. To put things in perspective, from 1991 until 1998, PG&E electric rates remained flat. Rates actually dropped in 1993, and remained flat until deregulation took effect in 1998. Name one other energy commodity that can claim that....
As mentioned, Deregulation went into effect in 1998 and was actually working quite well by bringing electric cost down further for the first couple of years. It was working much like the deregulated natural gas market of today works.
Now enter Enron and company, that found a way to "game" the system, created artificial "markets", and all hell broke loose. But because of the "price freeze" on energy during the 5 year deregulation transition period, PG&E had to purchase power on the open market for more than it could legally sell it. Yes, legally as spelled out in AB 1890 (Electric Deregulation Bill). At one point we were loosing a $1 million an hour, and after a $12 billion tailspin, bankruptcy was declared by PG&E. Edison was "this close" to declaring bankruptcy as well....
Todays rates are a result of that debacle, and we can expect to pay for it for at least the next 10 years or so. At least some settlements were reached with some of the generators, so that 10 year projection is less than what it could have been...
eace:
