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"In several states, such as California, profits are 'decoupled' from consumption." Hmmm, I wonder why CA has such unreliable, expensive power?

• tomsaffell 17y ago
  That's some pretty speculative wondering.. According to this study, California has fairly average reliability (page 26). (using interruption cost as proxy) http://www.netl.doe.gov/moderngrid/docs/Cost_of_Power_Interruptions_to_Electricity_Consumers_in_the_.pdf http://www.netl.doe.gov/moderngrid/docs/Cost_of_Power_Interr...
  • TheElder 17y ago
    The expensive part doesn't seem to be too speculative: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html Wow, I didn't realize California and the north east has such high energy prices compared to the rest of the continental US.
• camccann 17y ago
  It's probably more that they failed to expand their power generation capacity to meet demand, then tried to fix the problem by implementing a half-baked "deregulation" scheme that created a distorted market full of loopholes that allowed unscrupulous raiders (cf. Enron) to go on a looting spree and wreck the whole system, and it takes a while to pick up the pieces after a disastrous mistake. The moral of the story is that sometimes, "a competitive free market" and "a stable, regulated public utility" are both local maxima and may have very, very deep minima between them.
  • randallsquared 17y ago
    [...] sometimes, "a competitive free market" and "a stable, regulated public utility" are both local maxima and may have very, very deep minima between them. QFT. This is a very, very important point, and one that is usually lost in the vociferous arguing between those who prefer one pole or the other.