Right. I happen to live in a PUD. I moved from Florida to Washington. There's currently 832 coops (which I think includes PUD's) covering 56% of the area of the US, but only 42 million people. That tells me the idea is not all that crazy. It also tells me country folk are smarter than city people.
I'm not aware of privately owned power systems ever being transferred to a coop or PUD. Cities can threaten to condemn utility assets or wait until the franchise agreement expires. Coops don't have similar powers.
Good point. Cities could use their judicial powers to create a muni and then spin it off into a coop. But that would require politicians to give up power, which is an oxymoron. Will ponder.
Nothing in itself. The Upper Keys Coop and the Washington PUD's do that.
The problem is reflecting the consumer's desire for reliability while at the same time regarding gargantuan price spikes such as happened in Texas during Storm Uri as unacceptable. The spike signaled to investors. There's money to be made in offering peaking capacity. In a truly competitive market with low barriers to entry, this would have created a surge of such capacity, and a period of low prices and losses for this capacity, until the cycle repeated. But if we suppress the spike as inhumane and create regulatory barriers to entry, we will under-invest in peaking and back up.
100% agree, but good luck getting there from here.
There are also public utility districts (PUDs). They're functionally very similar to coops.
Right. I happen to live in a PUD. I moved from Florida to Washington. There's currently 832 coops (which I think includes PUD's) covering 56% of the area of the US, but only 42 million people. That tells me the idea is not all that crazy. It also tells me country folk are smarter than city people.
Boulder spent a few tens of millions of dollars and about a decade trying to leave their local monopoly corporation.
https://www.cpr.org/2020/11/20/boulder-ends-decade-long-pursuit-of-city-owned-power-utility/
I'm not aware of privately owned power systems ever being transferred to a coop or PUD. Cities can threaten to condemn utility assets or wait until the franchise agreement expires. Coops don't have similar powers.
Good point. Cities could use their judicial powers to create a muni and then spin it off into a coop. But that would require politicians to give up power, which is an oxymoron. Will ponder.
What's wrong with separating generation/trnsmission from distribution? [And taxing net emissions is good whatever the system.]
Nothing in itself. The Upper Keys Coop and the Washington PUD's do that.
The problem is reflecting the consumer's desire for reliability while at the same time regarding gargantuan price spikes such as happened in Texas during Storm Uri as unacceptable. The spike signaled to investors. There's money to be made in offering peaking capacity. In a truly competitive market with low barriers to entry, this would have created a surge of such capacity, and a period of low prices and losses for this capacity, until the cycle repeated. But if we suppress the spike as inhumane and create regulatory barriers to entry, we will under-invest in peaking and back up.