Comments on: Are the electric utilities scrambling to get out of the generation business?

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:43:59 +0000

In the UK the ordinary Joe on the street used to own the power generating capacity but a fine woman known as M Thatcher had the idea that stealing this from the people and selling it to her friends would make the system better and electricity cheaper. Well, initially that is what happened, we enjoyed 10 years of low energy prices brought on by the competition in the market. But now we see steeply rising prices, power stations reaching the end of their service life (especially the nuclear) and the ‘dash for Gas’ which supplemented the generation capacity has now slowed due to the high price of gas. Here in the UK it has been predicted that we too will face shortages in the near future, even if we build nuclear plants to replace out dated stations, this will take 10 years, what happens in the interim? How are the generators dealing with this? Well in our branches of do it yourself stores we see heavily subsidised compactfluorescentt lamps and roof insulation, this is an attempt to reduce demand, this couples with the introduction of ‘green’ energy is our only hope to make the electricity available reach around all the consumers. I think we are screwed, we will all see the lights go out and will be considering buying generators to keep the lights on and the freezer running, make the best of now, even if our politicians act now, it will be 10 years before the problem is solved. Canada, don’t be too smug, the temptation to sell your electricity to the USA will be too great and you will have to do without at home.
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Looking at life for 56 years.

By: David F

David F — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:13:59 +0000

Not in Canada, where the utilities are run by the government.
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By: mariskalen kampf Strudl v.Wurst!

mariskalen kampf Strudl v.Wurst! — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:46:59 +0000

This sounds like an oxymoron. How can a utility get out of the power generation business? Someone must build and run power plants. If they don´t, they will have to BUY it, which is the same thing, only more expensive.
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On the other hand, it makes sense, since it passes the generation burden to someone else and the utility can concentrate on more administrative tasks.
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The price of electriciy is not set by the EPA or anybody else, it is being bid up at auction. The bidders commit to a certain amount of power for certain periods of time during certain dates. It is a market, in the truest sense, although there are "manipulations", particularly with peak power.
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By: dogsafire

dogsafire — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:37:59 +0000

What they're trying to do is avoid the expense of building new generation plants, so they're encouraging people to use alternative sources of energy and to shift the times of their usage.
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