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I think there's a place for privately operated power generation. It doesn't have to be one or the other. There should be some avenue for the profit motive to pr

I think there's a place for privately operated power generation. It doesn't have to be one or the other. There should be some avenue for the profit motive to produce effeciency gains. There needs to be effective regulation, though. And perhaps the amount of regulation needs to be proportional to the fraction of power generation that is privately operated.

imglorp 6y ago
Yes. Most of the US has privately operated with close regional oversight usually called a public utility commission for gas, electric, water, landline, and sort of for cable. It approves rate changes, assessments for big projects etc. The system works very well overall, avoiding both extremes of full government and full private. My rates are reasonable and I've very rarely had outages of anything over decades. Edit. Cable is the exception. They are a PUC approved monopoly or duopoly with intensely abusive customer experience, in most places.
0_____0 6y ago
The issue isn't public vs private, it's the combination of a profit motive + inelastic consumer demand + lack of alternatives. It would make sense to run electricity as a public enterprise, to run it as a deeply regulated private one, or run some kind of mix - public ownership of distribution, private ownership of generation.
orwin 6y ago
Power generation != power distribution. You can (and should honestly, if you're liberal) have privately owned power generation, but the infrastructure and network? Its a bad idea. Private road, private rail, private lines... The same way, you can have water extraction and cleaning privately owned (and some say you should), but its dangerous to let private sector run the water infrastructure. And also, if any power generation company is caught lobbying against public infrastructure funding or nuclear power plant funding, kill them. force sell or something. You can't have private owners with skin in the game lobbying public spending.
ed25519FUUU 6y ago
For the price I paid for power in Silicon Valley (32c kWh) versus what Texas pays, I could have taken the extra money and purchased a spare generator and a large fuel tank, and then enjoyed a fraction of my current bill while still being prepared for a blackout. Or took the different and invested it in the cost of solar panels and a battery. We’re taking about almost $100 a month difference.

imglorp 6y ago

Yes. Most of the US has privately operated with close regional oversight usually called a public utility commission for gas, electric, water, landline, and sort of for cable. It approves rate changes, assessments for big projects etc. The system works very well overall, avoiding both extremes of full government and full private. My rates are reasonable and I've very rarely had outages of anything over decades. Edit. Cable is the exception. They are a PUC approved monopoly or duopoly with intensely abusive customer experience, in most places.

0_____0 6y ago

The issue isn't public vs private, it's the combination of a profit motive + inelastic consumer demand + lack of alternatives. It would make sense to run electricity as a public enterprise, to run it as a deeply regulated private one, or run some kind of mix - public ownership of distribution, private ownership of generation.

orwin 6y ago

Power generation != power distribution. You can (and should honestly, if you're liberal) have privately owned power generation, but the infrastructure and network? Its a bad idea. Private road, private rail, private lines... The same way, you can have water extraction and cleaning privately owned (and some say you should), but its dangerous to let private sector run the water infrastructure. And also, if any power generation company is caught lobbying against public infrastructure funding or nuclear power plant funding, kill them. force sell or something. You can't have private owners with skin in the game lobbying public spending.

ed25519FUUU 6y ago

For the price I paid for power in Silicon Valley (32c kWh) versus what Texas pays, I could have taken the extra money and purchased a spare generator and a large fuel tank, and then enjoyed a fraction of my current bill while still being prepared for a blackout. Or took the different and invested it in the cost of solar panels and a battery. We’re taking about almost $100 a month difference.