A Quick Briefing On Our Power Distributiion Crisis

This will get you, briefly up to date on the deregulation snafu.
Our power grids are protected by interlocking computer systems. The quality of the protection is based on a compromise between cost and engineering. Anytime you allow a private\unregulated entity the opportunity to voluntarily choose between quality and profit - we, the public will lose. I quickly found a comment on what happened to New Jersey when they deregulated electricity... Please do not consider that I'm being condescending - You asked and I am more than happy to attempt to prove my point.
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THE PRICE OF DEREGULATION
Hold your wallet
New Jersey's elected officials brought the joys of energy deregulation to the state in 1999. The idea was to create an "open market" in things like electrical power. Consumers would love it, officials said. Competition would drive down rates. As a matter of fact, lawmakers and then-Gov. Christie Whitman trumpeted, electricity rates will drop by more than 11 percent as soon as the deregulation bill is signed.

But that was then.

This is now: Rates for electricity around the state have increased, dramatically in some cases, as of Aug. 1. And about all the current administration can offer is a renewed push for energy conservation.

Got a problem with how this whole deregulation thing worked out? Shut up and turn up the thermostat on the AC, officials say.

The 1999 deregulation bill cut electrical rates all right - but not because of any deregulatory magic. The bill simply created mandatory rate caps that expired on - you guessed it - Aug. 1, 2003. All the state did was force utility companies to provide power at artificially low rates and then allow the companies to recoup those losses come August 2003. Statewide, consumers will now have to ante up some $1 billion in deferred costs.

The whole thing "raises the question of why rate decreases were implemented in the first place if consumers were just going to be required to pay for the rate cuts later," according to a state report prepared under the McGreevey administration.

Indeed.

So what do we do now?

Turn off lights, keep a close eye on the thermostat, buy more efficient appliances. Or prepare to pay a lot more for electricity.

Conservation is always a good idea - but this is not exactly what consumers were promised when the deregulation bill was pushed.

This isn't McGreevey's fault. The deregulation bill was flawed in the first place. And the whole thing spawned a wave of "new economy" nonsense. The word "synergy" got tossed around a lot. Stable companies that had done one thing well for decades suddenly had the equivalent of mid-life crises. Conectiv, for example, went into the telephone business - briefly.

The bottom line: Anytime you hear an elected official say the word "deregulation" - hold onto to your wallet.
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