While the economy, inflation and employee pay stays stagnant, another utility wants more, more more;
Xcel Energy is asking for a 9.3 percent hike in electric rates for its 84,000 customers in Sioux Falls and surrounding areas of southeast South Dakota.
The company said Thursday that the increase would add about $7 to the monthly bill of a typical residential customer and raise $14.6 million in revenue.
Xcel said the money is needed to improve infrastructure, comply with new regulatory requirements, and respond to changes in the economy.
The request for a rate increase will be decided by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.
Respond to changes in the economy? If so, shouldn’t you be reducing rates instead of raising them?
We all know the PUC already had a meeting and has decided to allow for the raise. The PUC just goes through the moves to give the impression that they are doing their jobs for the betterment of South Dakota. Actually I think they should drop the “P” from the name.
Oh, I figured. I’m not against rate increases, but they should be based inflation and cost increases, personnel raises etc, not reduced revenue. That is why electric and water rate enterprises want to increase rates, because people are flat ass broke and have cut back on water and electrical usage. And instead of making cuts like the rest of us have, they want to charge more for the same product.
Costs just as much to construct and operate the power network whether anyone uses it or not. If people are using less electricity – that does NOT reduce the operational costs of the company. It does nmean they have less coming in.
Ruf – Some things, sure, but not everything. If there is a lesser load on the system, it means less stress and less maintenance.
Nah – electricity is not “Mechanical” – it doesn’t wear like that. If you play your stereo at 5 – or at 6 (on a 10 point volume scale), It won’t wear any differently. Wear on an electrical appliance has more to do with how many times you turn it off and on (effecting changes in temperature -> expansion, contraction of materials) than anything. I have a server in my basement that has been running 24/7 for about 11 years. Only things I’ve had to replace are mechanical parts – fans, HDs.
Storms, tree branches and such are the real stressors – not load.
Poppycock. I’m talking about turbines, etc. And you know it. Please try again.
I don’t believe Excel Energy owns or operates any genration facilities in SD – maybe ONE back-up/emergency gas fired turbine. They are (IIRC) simply a transmission line business in SD. In Minnesota they do generate electricity – but that is regulated by the STATE of MN, and Federal law.
And BTW, large scale genration facilities (Coal and Nuclear plants for ex.) don’t get trurned on and off, used more or less dependoing on demand. The entire grid system – nation-wide and to some extant internationally (Canada/US) operates with a constant base-line amount of electrical genration. There are “supplemental” plants (like the above mentioned gas-fired turbine) that get OCCASSIONAL use when demand exceeds the baseline capacity. Most “adjsutment” however is done via shifting directional flows (unlike the AC lines in your home, the big DC lines are ONE WAY) from area to area within the grid. FROM areas with lower demand – TO areas with higher demand. They don’t just “turn up the volume” when there is more demand. The “stress” is constanbt on generation facilitates regardless of demand. The COSTS of operation are pretty much constant. Only kicking in the peak-demand sources varies – when demand is high for a few hours here or there. None-the less, the only variable there is the FUEL. Those peak demand generators still have to be built and maintained – USED – or NOT.
So basically what you are saying is that they need this increase so they can pay higher bonuses next year to their top management?
Probably more like they can pay the same number of employees the same amounts they paid last year – I.E., ALL of their employees – no lay-offs.
Yeah, whah, whah, whah. While I understand the pain, I also understand where you come from. Shit flows downhill.
Scooter wrote: “I think they should drop the “P†from the name.”
The PUC really works for the shareholders of the utility companies, almost none of which are “public” utilities. The “P” should be replaced by “S” – for shareholders, who long ago captured this weak regulatory agency – the SUC, Shareholders Utility Commission. SUC describes what they do to the customers’ wallet.
The common business model, principle of more customers drives costs (and rates) lower is perverted in the monopolistic SUC system. It needs real reform from either draconian competition or regulation. Neither will occur in the present SUC system.
Fine then – let’s extend the class disparity movement ALL THE WAY. Electricty for the wealthy – candles for the “middle class”.
The attitiude displayed in this thread is one that makes the “conservative” Plutocrat loving Repubs in the US VERY HAPPY. It means their anti-government, anti-regulatory rhetoric is succeeding in convincing the masses to vote against their own interests – and love doing it.
let me get this straight: my teaching job got riffed, i haven’t found another one as other teachers are looking too. i cut back and don’t run my air-conditioner, xcel isn’t getting “enough” and so they’re raising rates. i’m screwed at both ends.
Not to mention Xcel is a monopoly in SF. You can’t choose between SF Power and Xcel, you either get one or the other, if they had competition like the cellphone companies, they wouldn’t be raising rates.
Electric companies are monopolies everywhere. THAT is why they are regulated – they are limited in the % of profit they can make and they are REQUIRED to furnish power to EVERYONE in their service area. They are also guarnteed sufficient rates/profit to maintain their service levels. Thye whole idea is to assure that electricty is both available and affordable. The free market is NOT at work in the electricity industry. It is probably the single most socialized industry there is. If the electricity were operated in a totally “free market” way There would be no incentive for any electric company to collaborate with any othyer electric company. The whole intercnnoected nation-wide grid system would not exist. From place to place to place, there would be different standrads of voltage, and amperage, and whether or not you need to buy DC or AC equipment. Heck, it might depend on who your ekectric company was in a singke location what kind of appliances you could get to “match” your provider’s service levels and so on.
There would be separate lines/cables/networks everywhere. Imagine 5 or 6 times the cabling running all over the place. Talk about increased costs – porices would be MUCH HIGHER. Monopolies were granted because it is much more EFFICIENT and COST EFFECTIVE to just have one provider – thus keeping costs DOWN.
IF there were more “competitors” in local electric markets electricity would be MUCH MORE COSTLY. The “free market” is NOT the only reasonable economic answer to everything.
Oh, I agree. I should clarify. I should have used a different word. Besides the PUC who is challenging Xcel’s rate increases? No one. A small group of government people basically say yeh or neh and have to trust the information given to them by the utility. They can make up any host of reasons why they need to increase rates and the PUC has to rely on the information given to them. I think it is shady.