Conservation pays:Low power use in the winter means Hydro rates increase
45 Replies to “Wynneing!”
I live in Ontario, and I just received a coupon book from the local utility for LED bulbs. They want me to buy $15 bulbs so I can save a little power, then jack the rates so I end up losing money.
pfft. same thing happened in Californicate during one of the early and now frequent droughts. water conservation worked so well there was a big drop in consumption, so the utility was ‘forced’ to increase rates.
its all been done before !!!
Something doesn’t compute here. One of the prime goals of Ont Energy Dept, is to conserve electricity, better insulation, energy efficient appliances etc. The government spends considerable time hectoring consumers to save electricity. So when they actually do as directed, the rates must increase? Why?
I’m convinced there are about 3 groups of people forming Ont Energy policy and not communicating. Subsidizing Billions for Wind plants when Ont is in power surplus represents subsidized Supply.
Another group plans to get a million electric cars on the roads, with government charging stations, subsidized Demand.These two ideas are mutually exclusive. Who, if anyone is coordinating policy?
I think Wynne and McGuinty are simply politicians wanting on the next popular band wagon. It is back room ideologues like G Butts (Now in PMO) who formulate these ideas, No, cost/benefit analysis or even much thought goes into their Green whims.
Accounting 101. Hydro is a utility. A significant amount of the cost is up front (like building a dam). This must be recovered regardless of the amount of electricity generated. In addition, there are fixed costs like maintenance that must be done regardless of the amount of energy generated (Think of something like maintaining the power lines). End result – If the users collectively use less electricity, the price per kw/hr must increase. Add to that all the manufacturing moving out of Ontario; there are fewer users to spreadthe costs over.
This all started with that stupid dog that barked “off”.
Stupidity reigns in Ontario. It’s use less pay more on all services, water and sewer and hydro are taking the province right over the cliff.
Same thing happened to me a few years ago and I’m surrounded by Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior. Our region decided to ban car washing in the driveway and restrict watering to once per week. Next year they had to increase the rates due to lower revenue. Captcha was GOMEZ – not a Trump voter
As usual,whenever there ‘s story with some controversy ,the media doesn’t allow comments.
In this case,I can’t see why CTV doesn’t allow comments,as most of them would assuredly be along the lines of,” I’m only too happy to pay more for hydro in order to maintain the health of our public utilities and keep the best government we have ever had in Ontario,in power.”
18 cents per peak kw/h is a huge price to pay , we pay 9 cents and 13 cents here, and that’s only due to Liberal machinations that forced Hydro to sign contracts with private utility companies.
The Best Premier we ever had,understood well that Hydro was built by the taxpayers,belonged to the taxpayers,and was there to provide service to the taxpayers,first and foremost.
The Current government only sees it as a cash cow, just like in Ontario, but because of our history, they know that a drastic raise in power rates is a sure path to electoral defeat,so they inch rates up and soak the hell out of us on every other public service.
If I wanted to live in Chavez’ Venezuela, I would have moved to Chavez’ Venezuela.
Welcome to our Socialist Paradise!
True socialist paradise, create less of lives necessities and then jack the price up.
Parasites are entitled to a middle class income at the productives expense…If there were no government employees,why there would be no middle class in Canada.
I can’t afford to heat my house with electricity and a delivery charge of $200. and over.
I, as a number of people in this area have done, am having a propane furnace installed in a couple of weeks.
That will be less electricity sold and loss of revenue so maybe they’ll just increase the delivery charge.
They aren’t going to let us win.
Martin, there are several things going on here. The first is that Ontario is committed to a series of long term power purchase agreements, some of which are still under construction and to start wind production over the next year or two. As these are very expensive power sources, rates have to rise to accommodate them. The government abolished the Ontario Hydro Financial Corporation a couple of years ago. It functioned as the slush fund to hide rate increases, but it’s gone now.
Second, there has been a large internal war going on within the Cabinet and bureaucracy over the role of green energy vs. sensible energy policy (in Ontario’s case, nuclear). And it’s been going on for at least a decade. Up to now, the green energy side has been winning, but last year’s decisions for the refurbishment of Darlington and Bruce meant that someone finally understood that wind was not going to keep the lights on. So the greens surrendered to the need for refurbished nuclear, foreclosing on any huge expansion of wind beyond what’s already in the pipeline.
The consequence of all this is that Ontario will have a stable electricity system for the long term, but its electricity customers will be paying a long time for the excesses of green energy already built or committed.
We should teach the government a lesson. Let’s use a lot more electricity and they’ll have no option but to raise our rates. We’ll beat ’em at their own game!
Here in the Communist Regional District (Victoria), water supply is run much the same way.
Usurious rates are in place, plus, extreme water restrictions are enforced every year, despite the lack of drought, AND a safe, healthy volume of water in the reservoir, which, was raised 10 years ago.
Every year, thanks to the severe restrictions (and penalties), and high water rates, consumption does not rise, despite growth in the area.
Every year, the statists at the CRD RAISE the rates because “consumption was less than anticipated”.
Nice racket.
CUPE MUST BE PAID. There is NEVER any talk of greater efficiencies at government, the taxpayers must be soaked.
T minus 8 years to getting out of here
cgh: Yes I’m sure you are correct, there are arguments within the bureaucracy over future energy policy, clearly there are analysts there who have some expertise and common sense. The old OPA (later merged into IESO) reported over a decade ago that Wind could never be more than a niche market for the province. This correct advice was ignored and McGuinty initiated the building boom on Wind plants. The decisions have been political, rather than economic and hugely tilted toward Green ideology.
Still I cannot fathom a push for electric autos, surely this isn’t simply a ploy to use up the surplus power being generated by all the proposed wind plants? With this government such devious moves cannot be discounted.
While electric vehicles might have a role as run about transport in cities in good weather, why should taxpayers in N Ont or even rural SW Ont pay for this urban privilege?
Martin, never underestimate the blindness of the theologically inclined. Electric vehicles supplied by batteries are utterly incapable of use as heavy transport like trucks. Doesn’t matter. Whether something actually works or not is irrelevant to the green devotees. Think of square pegs in round holes. Most of us understand that they just don’t fit short. To the Greens, the bigger the misfit the more encouragement there is to use a bigger hammer to pound it in harder.
Large EV takeup is impossible anyhow. Even if it sops up large amounts of existing surplus electricity, the distribution system cannot handle any significant increase.
My folks are in their 80s and on a (very) fixed income. They were a generation that saved for things, but their savings have to go to things like a 10 year old used car, etc. In short, they are the perfect advertisement for Ontario’s ill-advised go-it-alone pension scam.
So they applied through a government program that rebates some of their energy costs. Guess what? Well, the same government that says they are so poor they need a new pension says they make too much money to get a rebate…
Figure that one out.
The obvious ALWAYS takes progressives by surprise.
Electric vehicles supplied by batteries are utterly incapable of use as heavy transport like trucks. Doesn’t matter.
Exactly! It doesn’t matter if BEV technology isn’t applicable to 18 wheel heavy transport trucks.
Their biggest application is urban delivery trucks. They’re charged overnight when electricity demand is low, and used during the work-day. http://www.smithelectric.com/
jean said: “Their biggest application is urban delivery trucks.”
Are you aware of what happens to all-electric vehicles in the cold? Their efficiency and ability to hold a charge drops about in half.
Also, are you aware that due to the insane traffic, most deliveries in places like Toronto take place at night? Meaning they would be charging in the -day-, at peak rates.
The MSM pushed this Greenblob agenda for 10 years. Paid propaganda organs of Kathleen. The Toronto Star, CTV and CBC attacked everything in sight that didn’t go along with the Khmer Wynne Rouge’s view of Ontario. A pox on all their houses.
Agreed, Phantom. And as already pointed out, the distribution system can’t handle any significant increase of EVs regardless of whether they are cars or trucks.
“The Ontario Energy Board says the hike was necessary due to the lower than expected electricity use over the winter.”
That is…I need you plebes to keep paying my fat ass to run your lives. And feed my yap.So using more costs less? The mental disease called SJW politicians strikes again. You go,Ontriowe. Out the back door.
Good old Ontario!
Where no good deed goes unpunished.
18 cents per kilowatt hour? I pay something like 6 cents for coal fired power in Alberta. You guys in Ontario sure are lucky to be environmentally conscious. By the time the next election rolls around, we’ll be on track for 18 cent power too.
Who, if anyone is coordinating policy?
No one. There are liberal crony capitalists farming subsidies; ideologues wanting to force their ideology onto others (as ideologues do) and professional politicians who see an issue they can milk as a diversion and to preen themselves. “We are saving the planet” (by spending your money, thanyou very much).
EVs will be used in cities like Vancouver and Victoria where cheap hydroelectricity is available. They would be as impractical as motorcycles in cities like Toronto with harsh winters. That’s why nobody in Toronto owns motorcycles; they’re no good in the winter.
Rach had told albertans the same thing. So if you cut your consumption to zero. Atco cuts your bill in half. This isn’t going to end well.
Like every thing the government touches. Turns to $hit
Any chance we can burn Liberals to stay warm next winter?
Punishing success is very, very, bad policy. But that’s what the greens want from you. They want your footprint to shrink to Zero … along with all your financial resources. Then they will assign you to the State euthanasia panel (don’t call it a death panel like silly old Sara Palin).
Ran into a friend who has just purchased an EV in Victoria and he is now installing the charging system in his garage. He needs a 50 amp circuit breaker to power the charger which will run for approximately two hours to provide a full charge. Without going into great detail for the greenies reading this the energy used is about equal to running two electric dryers for two hours now think about where that energy is coming from. Now take Wynne’s latest encyclical about dictating the use of EV’s in Ontariowe and think about where all that power is going to come from. And by the way the sun doesn’t shine during off-peak times.
I think that’s called Jevons paradox.
I believe that the phenomena is called the Jevons paradox.
Jevons paradox. -FJCR
Is it wrong for me to be laughing my ass off right now?
They voted for the idiots.
They swallowed the media’s lies.
For now. When the dips shutter the coal plants the undepreciated value will go into the rate base . Also the cost of all the wind power and solar stupidness at about 10 times the price will also go into the rate base.
Now here is Liberal logic. So…if you use no electricity at all, you can be guaranteed bills that are unaffordable ? Has it occurred to them that low power use might have been forced on the average citizen because its already unaffordable ? 3rd world status in the name of junk science looms ever closer because all that separates us from them is cheap abundant electricity.
“Has it occurred to them that low power use might have been forced on the average citizen because its already unaffordable?” Not a chance. They are not that bright. Ideology trumps all common sense.
Ken, think it is more likely they themselves believe its affordable to their household. And since they are just average middle class, so should most everyone else. And everyone is richer than them anyway, and so on.
The same mind then endorses the next extortion round aka “contract negotiations” to deliver more goodies than would ever be justifiable in the real world.
If you go to their distribution site, http://www.ieso.ca, you can see just how useless this whole initiative is. Thousands of acres of farmland being destroyed so the utility can provide a very small amount of clean energy at an incredibly large price.
The green energy act gives green power priority onto the grid. To achieve this an additional level of technology is used making the grid less stable.
This will and does result in additional power outages.
Whenever government creates a “monster” utility, and they have created many, these monsters have an appetite and they must be fed.
Always remember….Government Eats First
incompetent, yep, stupid, yep, criminal, yep, will anything be done? nope.
Every Marxist initiative comes with a huge administrative organization of useless civil servants. It should not be a surprise that the cost of Green BS goes up. Your not paying for the Energy produced, but for the human energy wasted.
Agreed.
So I went and bought hydro one stock, good return without the dividend so far. As a publically traded company it is still being shielded from the disciplines of the free market. If income drops, they need to cut costs. This means less management, lay off workers. As a share holder I will be telling management that staff can no longer purchase assets at 10 cents on the dollar, that staff cannot borrow equipment and then forget it at home, and then lose the first day of work for the customer because they have to drive back 3 hours to get the generator or 4 wheeler or chainsaw. There is no oversight by management of their workforce and they are like the teachers, no clear lines of demarcation between the bosses and the workers. They are all in it together and they are laughing at us. So someday I will leave Ontario, no withheld taxation, I will strip you fools of your money through hydro billings and just chuckle.
Green theocracy plus innumeracy equals expensive.
I’ve always maintained that the only people who would save money by buying low-wattage light bulbs and energy-efficient appliances would be those who did so near the beginning of the trend. The reason’s painfully simple: public utilities are high-fixed-cost entities with long-term debt horizons. Whether you consume 500KwH or 5,000KwH per year doesn’t really matter to the late entries — the utility still has to cover all its costs, and the only way they can do that is to ding their customers. The early adopters got a “free ride” off of the backs of everyone else who were still using the more energy-intensive technologies but were paying a lower rate per unit of energy.
Now everyone’s gonna get dinged, and the Greenazi’s smiles get ever wider…
I live in Ontario, and I just received a coupon book from the local utility for LED bulbs. They want me to buy $15 bulbs so I can save a little power, then jack the rates so I end up losing money.
pfft. same thing happened in Californicate during one of the early and now frequent droughts. water conservation worked so well there was a big drop in consumption, so the utility was ‘forced’ to increase rates.
its all been done before !!!
Something doesn’t compute here. One of the prime goals of Ont Energy Dept, is to conserve electricity, better insulation, energy efficient appliances etc. The government spends considerable time hectoring consumers to save electricity. So when they actually do as directed, the rates must increase? Why?
I’m convinced there are about 3 groups of people forming Ont Energy policy and not communicating. Subsidizing Billions for Wind plants when Ont is in power surplus represents subsidized Supply.
Another group plans to get a million electric cars on the roads, with government charging stations, subsidized Demand.These two ideas are mutually exclusive. Who, if anyone is coordinating policy?
I think Wynne and McGuinty are simply politicians wanting on the next popular band wagon. It is back room ideologues like G Butts (Now in PMO) who formulate these ideas, No, cost/benefit analysis or even much thought goes into their Green whims.
Accounting 101. Hydro is a utility. A significant amount of the cost is up front (like building a dam). This must be recovered regardless of the amount of electricity generated. In addition, there are fixed costs like maintenance that must be done regardless of the amount of energy generated (Think of something like maintaining the power lines). End result – If the users collectively use less electricity, the price per kw/hr must increase. Add to that all the manufacturing moving out of Ontario; there are fewer users to spreadthe costs over.
This all started with that stupid dog that barked “off”.
Stupidity reigns in Ontario. It’s use less pay more on all services, water and sewer and hydro are taking the province right over the cliff.
Same thing happened to me a few years ago and I’m surrounded by Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior. Our region decided to ban car washing in the driveway and restrict watering to once per week. Next year they had to increase the rates due to lower revenue. Captcha was GOMEZ – not a Trump voter
As usual,whenever there ‘s story with some controversy ,the media doesn’t allow comments.
In this case,I can’t see why CTV doesn’t allow comments,as most of them would assuredly be along the lines of,” I’m only too happy to pay more for hydro in order to maintain the health of our public utilities and keep the best government we have ever had in Ontario,in power.”
18 cents per peak kw/h is a huge price to pay , we pay 9 cents and 13 cents here, and that’s only due to Liberal machinations that forced Hydro to sign contracts with private utility companies.
The Best Premier we ever had,understood well that Hydro was built by the taxpayers,belonged to the taxpayers,and was there to provide service to the taxpayers,first and foremost.
The Current government only sees it as a cash cow, just like in Ontario, but because of our history, they know that a drastic raise in power rates is a sure path to electoral defeat,so they inch rates up and soak the hell out of us on every other public service.
If I wanted to live in Chavez’ Venezuela, I would have moved to Chavez’ Venezuela.
Welcome to our Socialist Paradise!
True socialist paradise, create less of lives necessities and then jack the price up.
Parasites are entitled to a middle class income at the productives expense…If there were no government employees,why there would be no middle class in Canada.
I can’t afford to heat my house with electricity and a delivery charge of $200. and over.
I, as a number of people in this area have done, am having a propane furnace installed in a couple of weeks.
That will be less electricity sold and loss of revenue so maybe they’ll just increase the delivery charge.
They aren’t going to let us win.
Martin, there are several things going on here. The first is that Ontario is committed to a series of long term power purchase agreements, some of which are still under construction and to start wind production over the next year or two. As these are very expensive power sources, rates have to rise to accommodate them. The government abolished the Ontario Hydro Financial Corporation a couple of years ago. It functioned as the slush fund to hide rate increases, but it’s gone now.
Second, there has been a large internal war going on within the Cabinet and bureaucracy over the role of green energy vs. sensible energy policy (in Ontario’s case, nuclear). And it’s been going on for at least a decade. Up to now, the green energy side has been winning, but last year’s decisions for the refurbishment of Darlington and Bruce meant that someone finally understood that wind was not going to keep the lights on. So the greens surrendered to the need for refurbished nuclear, foreclosing on any huge expansion of wind beyond what’s already in the pipeline.
The consequence of all this is that Ontario will have a stable electricity system for the long term, but its electricity customers will be paying a long time for the excesses of green energy already built or committed.
We should teach the government a lesson. Let’s use a lot more electricity and they’ll have no option but to raise our rates. We’ll beat ’em at their own game!
Here in the Communist Regional District (Victoria), water supply is run much the same way.
Usurious rates are in place, plus, extreme water restrictions are enforced every year, despite the lack of drought, AND a safe, healthy volume of water in the reservoir, which, was raised 10 years ago.
Every year, thanks to the severe restrictions (and penalties), and high water rates, consumption does not rise, despite growth in the area.
Every year, the statists at the CRD RAISE the rates because “consumption was less than anticipated”.
Nice racket.
CUPE MUST BE PAID. There is NEVER any talk of greater efficiencies at government, the taxpayers must be soaked.
T minus 8 years to getting out of here
cgh: Yes I’m sure you are correct, there are arguments within the bureaucracy over future energy policy, clearly there are analysts there who have some expertise and common sense. The old OPA (later merged into IESO) reported over a decade ago that Wind could never be more than a niche market for the province. This correct advice was ignored and McGuinty initiated the building boom on Wind plants. The decisions have been political, rather than economic and hugely tilted toward Green ideology.
Still I cannot fathom a push for electric autos, surely this isn’t simply a ploy to use up the surplus power being generated by all the proposed wind plants? With this government such devious moves cannot be discounted.
While electric vehicles might have a role as run about transport in cities in good weather, why should taxpayers in N Ont or even rural SW Ont pay for this urban privilege?
Martin, never underestimate the blindness of the theologically inclined. Electric vehicles supplied by batteries are utterly incapable of use as heavy transport like trucks. Doesn’t matter. Whether something actually works or not is irrelevant to the green devotees. Think of square pegs in round holes. Most of us understand that they just don’t fit short. To the Greens, the bigger the misfit the more encouragement there is to use a bigger hammer to pound it in harder.
Large EV takeup is impossible anyhow. Even if it sops up large amounts of existing surplus electricity, the distribution system cannot handle any significant increase.
My folks are in their 80s and on a (very) fixed income. They were a generation that saved for things, but their savings have to go to things like a 10 year old used car, etc. In short, they are the perfect advertisement for Ontario’s ill-advised go-it-alone pension scam.
So they applied through a government program that rebates some of their energy costs. Guess what? Well, the same government that says they are so poor they need a new pension says they make too much money to get a rebate…
Figure that one out.
The obvious ALWAYS takes progressives by surprise.
Electric vehicles supplied by batteries are utterly incapable of use as heavy transport like trucks. Doesn’t matter.
Exactly! It doesn’t matter if BEV technology isn’t applicable to 18 wheel heavy transport trucks.
Their biggest application is urban delivery trucks. They’re charged overnight when electricity demand is low, and used during the work-day.
http://www.smithelectric.com/
jean said: “Their biggest application is urban delivery trucks.”
Are you aware of what happens to all-electric vehicles in the cold? Their efficiency and ability to hold a charge drops about in half.
Also, are you aware that due to the insane traffic, most deliveries in places like Toronto take place at night? Meaning they would be charging in the -day-, at peak rates.
The MSM pushed this Greenblob agenda for 10 years. Paid propaganda organs of Kathleen. The Toronto Star, CTV and CBC attacked everything in sight that didn’t go along with the Khmer Wynne Rouge’s view of Ontario. A pox on all their houses.
Agreed, Phantom. And as already pointed out, the distribution system can’t handle any significant increase of EVs regardless of whether they are cars or trucks.
“The Ontario Energy Board says the hike was necessary due to the lower than expected electricity use over the winter.”
That is…I need you plebes to keep paying my fat ass to run your lives. And feed my yap.So using more costs less? The mental disease called SJW politicians strikes again. You go,Ontriowe. Out the back door.
Good old Ontario!
Where no good deed goes unpunished.
18 cents per kilowatt hour? I pay something like 6 cents for coal fired power in Alberta. You guys in Ontario sure are lucky to be environmentally conscious. By the time the next election rolls around, we’ll be on track for 18 cent power too.
Who, if anyone is coordinating policy?
No one. There are liberal crony capitalists farming subsidies; ideologues wanting to force their ideology onto others (as ideologues do) and professional politicians who see an issue they can milk as a diversion and to preen themselves. “We are saving the planet” (by spending your money, thanyou very much).
EVs will be used in cities like Vancouver and Victoria where cheap hydroelectricity is available. They would be as impractical as motorcycles in cities like Toronto with harsh winters. That’s why nobody in Toronto owns motorcycles; they’re no good in the winter.
Rach had told albertans the same thing. So if you cut your consumption to zero. Atco cuts your bill in half. This isn’t going to end well.
Like every thing the government touches. Turns to $hit
Any chance we can burn Liberals to stay warm next winter?
Punishing success is very, very, bad policy. But that’s what the greens want from you. They want your footprint to shrink to Zero … along with all your financial resources. Then they will assign you to the State euthanasia panel (don’t call it a death panel like silly old Sara Palin).
Ran into a friend who has just purchased an EV in Victoria and he is now installing the charging system in his garage. He needs a 50 amp circuit breaker to power the charger which will run for approximately two hours to provide a full charge. Without going into great detail for the greenies reading this the energy used is about equal to running two electric dryers for two hours now think about where that energy is coming from. Now take Wynne’s latest encyclical about dictating the use of EV’s in Ontariowe and think about where all that power is going to come from. And by the way the sun doesn’t shine during off-peak times.
I think that’s called Jevons paradox.
I believe that the phenomena is called the Jevons paradox.
Jevons paradox. -FJCR
Is it wrong for me to be laughing my ass off right now?
They voted for the idiots.
They swallowed the media’s lies.
For now. When the dips shutter the coal plants the undepreciated value will go into the rate base . Also the cost of all the wind power and solar stupidness at about 10 times the price will also go into the rate base.
Now here is Liberal logic. So…if you use no electricity at all, you can be guaranteed bills that are unaffordable ? Has it occurred to them that low power use might have been forced on the average citizen because its already unaffordable ? 3rd world status in the name of junk science looms ever closer because all that separates us from them is cheap abundant electricity.
“Has it occurred to them that low power use might have been forced on the average citizen because its already unaffordable?” Not a chance. They are not that bright. Ideology trumps all common sense.
Ken, think it is more likely they themselves believe its affordable to their household. And since they are just average middle class, so should most everyone else. And everyone is richer than them anyway, and so on.
The same mind then endorses the next extortion round aka “contract negotiations” to deliver more goodies than would ever be justifiable in the real world.
If you go to their distribution site, http://www.ieso.ca, you can see just how useless this whole initiative is. Thousands of acres of farmland being destroyed so the utility can provide a very small amount of clean energy at an incredibly large price.
The green energy act gives green power priority onto the grid. To achieve this an additional level of technology is used making the grid less stable.
This will and does result in additional power outages.
Whenever government creates a “monster” utility, and they have created many, these monsters have an appetite and they must be fed.
Always remember….Government Eats First
incompetent, yep, stupid, yep, criminal, yep, will anything be done? nope.
Every Marxist initiative comes with a huge administrative organization of useless civil servants. It should not be a surprise that the cost of Green BS goes up. Your not paying for the Energy produced, but for the human energy wasted.
Agreed.
So I went and bought hydro one stock, good return without the dividend so far. As a publically traded company it is still being shielded from the disciplines of the free market. If income drops, they need to cut costs. This means less management, lay off workers. As a share holder I will be telling management that staff can no longer purchase assets at 10 cents on the dollar, that staff cannot borrow equipment and then forget it at home, and then lose the first day of work for the customer because they have to drive back 3 hours to get the generator or 4 wheeler or chainsaw. There is no oversight by management of their workforce and they are like the teachers, no clear lines of demarcation between the bosses and the workers. They are all in it together and they are laughing at us. So someday I will leave Ontario, no withheld taxation, I will strip you fools of your money through hydro billings and just chuckle.
Green theocracy plus innumeracy equals expensive.
I’ve always maintained that the only people who would save money by buying low-wattage light bulbs and energy-efficient appliances would be those who did so near the beginning of the trend. The reason’s painfully simple: public utilities are high-fixed-cost entities with long-term debt horizons. Whether you consume 500KwH or 5,000KwH per year doesn’t really matter to the late entries — the utility still has to cover all its costs, and the only way they can do that is to ding their customers. The early adopters got a “free ride” off of the backs of everyone else who were still using the more energy-intensive technologies but were paying a lower rate per unit of energy.
Now everyone’s gonna get dinged, and the Greenazi’s smiles get ever wider…