Howard, John Frewen-Lord, and John Steele,
I must have spent my life in an impoverished part of the U.S. Never have
I had an option as to which company should provide my electrical energy.
Currently I live in an area served by an electric cooperative, Caney
Fork. At one time they owned their own generating stations but those
have since been bought by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) or have
been taken out of service. The electric cooperative is a
membership-driven organization that on behalf of its members maintains a
distribution network and buys electrical energy to feed that grid.
Usually, if not always, it buys from TVA.
I know next to nothing about natural gas sources or distribution, never
having used it.
Jim
Howard Ressel wrote:
Jim, at least in NY, we have a choice of providers. We have to choose
one (or default to our existing provider) at the end of each year. The
utility companies own the wires but you contract with them or a
different company to provide the electricity (we have a same deal with
the gas). There are several options with fixed and variable rate
pricing. Its extremely confusing and I doubt most consumers understand
this enough to make intelligent choices. We are bombarded by 5-6
companies who want to sell us electricity and it takes much research
(which most people don't do) to determine who is the cheapest and best
choice. In our case here the local company, Rochester Gas and Electric,
will sell you electricity on their wires, you can contract with a non
regulated company that they actually own, or a number of other non
regulated companies. You can also even buy 'clean' electricity which
means it comes from wind farms and such. How they get those wind
electrons vs. the nuclear or coal electrons to your specific house is
beyond me.
At least this is how I understand it, and I don't really understand it
that well.
I figured it was l like this elsewhere in the States but i guess not.
Your lucky.
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
