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You can just split infrastructure into a separate company which does not sell power itself. That what the EU forced almost everyone to do. Basically you end up

You can just split infrastructure into a separate company which does not sell power itself. That what the EU forced almost everyone to do. Basically you end up with a publicly owned monopoly which owns the power lines and a bunch of companies which basically make their money from hedging. The outcome is that countries which adopted the model tend to have lower energy prices than those that didn’t and have it’s a government regulated monopoly (more or less) like Poland. In theory having a lot of participants competing on equal terms should result in higher efficiency longterm.

cool_dude85 3y ago
What you're describing is called "deregulation" in the US. This is what the post you're replying to means when it says "weird middle-men that use financial trickery to resell energy". An unflattering but not unfair way to describe the companies who sell complicated plans direct to residential customers.
- ffgjgf1 3y ago
  If you have multiple of these companies competing on even playing field you should be able to get very close to what considered to be “perfect competition” at least in theory (with some regulation).
  - mistrial9 3y ago
    too much money, too many customers.. what you can do in your backyard physics demo is not the same as what you can do at scale in real time with millions of customers. Proof? California "de-regulation" + ENRON => stable system changes to first-time-ever failing system
    - ffgjgf1 3y ago
      I would not describe the EU as my “backyard”.
0xbadcafebee 3y ago
> You can just split infrastructure into a separate company which does not sell power itself. The largest energy conglomerate in the US is basically that. The distribution and generation companies are 50 feet from each other because they used to be the same company. (They might work out of the same building too, I forget) But of course the state doesn't own the infrastructure (hey, this is the USA!). The history of our energy market is like that of 10 countries combined. Texas by itself is a weird case study, as deregulating its market (Texas has its own power grid, because... Texas...) shot prices seven times higher, though they eventually stabilized again. Deregulation by itself isn't going to fix things, but more public ownership probably would, as the incentives would be towards stability, safety and stable prices, combined with increased funding toward sustainable energy.

cool_dude85 3y ago

What you're describing is called "deregulation" in the US. This is what the post you're replying to means when it says "weird middle-men that use financial trickery to resell energy". An unflattering but not unfair way to describe the companies who sell complicated plans direct to residential customers.

ffgjgf1 3y ago
If you have multiple of these companies competing on even playing field you should be able to get very close to what considered to be “perfect competition” at least in theory (with some regulation).
- mistrial9 3y ago
  too much money, too many customers.. what you can do in your backyard physics demo is not the same as what you can do at scale in real time with millions of customers. Proof? California "de-regulation" + ENRON => stable system changes to first-time-ever failing system
  - ffgjgf1 3y ago
    I would not describe the EU as my “backyard”.

0xbadcafebee 3y ago

> You can just split infrastructure into a separate company which does not sell power itself. The largest energy conglomerate in the US is basically that. The distribution and generation companies are 50 feet from each other because they used to be the same company. (They might work out of the same building too, I forget) But of course the state doesn't own the infrastructure (hey, this is the USA!). The history of our energy market is like that of 10 countries combined. Texas by itself is a weird case study, as deregulating its market (Texas has its own power grid, because... Texas...) shot prices seven times higher, though they eventually stabilized again. Deregulation by itself isn't going to fix things, but more public ownership probably would, as the incentives would be towards stability, safety and stable prices, combined with increased funding toward sustainable energy.