"I'M TELLING YOU NOW" freddie and the dreamers
Or a least this Paducah Newspaper
This pretty much sums up the story;
PADUCAH – “The predicament Paducah Power System now finds
itself in with its investment in the Prairie State Energy Campus is a lesson in
why municipally owned utilities should not try to be venture capitalists.
Private companies have shareholders, and if they make a bad
investment it is the shareholders who pay the price. Further, shareholders have
options. They can fire management and directors for bad decisions. And they can
always dump the stock.
But when a municipal utility makes a bad investment, it’s
the ratepayers who are stuck. In the case of Paducah Power’s investment in
Prairie State, they are stuck for 30 years. The only way out of the investment
for them is to move. And in a city that already is struggling with population
loss, that’s a serious concern.
As a story in Sunday’s Paducah Sun notes, the power rates
now charged by Paducah Power are among the highest if not the highest in the
state. They are the highest regionally by a lot.
The all-in rate for 1,000 kilowatt hours in Paducah is $147.78. In most of McCracken County, where service is provided by Jackson Purchase Energy Corp., the rate for the same amount of power is $95.58, more than one-third less. If you happen to live in the small sliver of the county served by Kentucky Utilities it is lower still at $94.29. The rate for 1,000 kilowatt hours is (rounded) $28 cheaper in Mayfield, $35 cheaper in Owensboro and Murray, $66 cheaper in Metropolis and $70 cheaper in Henderson…
The all-in rate for 1,000 kilowatt hours in Paducah is $147.78. In most of McCracken County, where service is provided by Jackson Purchase Energy Corp., the rate for the same amount of power is $95.58, more than one-third less. If you happen to live in the small sliver of the county served by Kentucky Utilities it is lower still at $94.29. The rate for 1,000 kilowatt hours is (rounded) $28 cheaper in Mayfield, $35 cheaper in Owensboro and Murray, $66 cheaper in Metropolis and $70 cheaper in Henderson…
But the devil was in the details. Several months ago it was
learned that Paducah Power bought more power capacity than it needed at Prairie
State, ostensibly to provide for future growth. The plan apparently was to sell
surplus power on the open market, theoretically for a profit, thus further
stabilizing rates. That gambit was turned on its ear when the shale gas boom
and competition from gas-fired power plants caused wholesale power rates to
fall below levels coal-fired plants could profitably match on the open market.
The kicker, though, and this is what is currently hammering
Paducah ratepayers, is that Paducah Power contracted to buy a set amount of
power from Prairie State whether that power is generated or not. Put another
way, if Prairie State operates at below capacity or if as recently happened, an
accident forces one of its two generators to shut down, Paducah Power must pay
for power that wasn’t even generated, plus go out on the open market to buy
replacement power.
Editorial, Paducah Sun
First off Painesville didn't purchase anywhere near the power Paducah did, but they did purchase enough to make running the power plant an uneconomical venture. What is the logic to agreed to buy something and pay for it even if we didn't receive it? Now many will tell me on this blog. That there is proof that many other communities bought into this bad investment. Your right and at the same time off the top of my head Columbus and Oberlin, Ohio didn't . When representatives from Oberlin showed up in the Painesville council 'peanut gallery' they were ignored. and the former city manager of Painesville called Oberlin and asked that their council people not attend Painesville meetings.
Now we are learning little by little other communities are being proactive Painesville for some reason chooses not to be. Why? To Mrs. Jenkins I for one don't care when you get the information but it appears you are more concerned with receiving the message than doing something about it. What's your position once you receive the information? To many other members of council as well as the administration please get your heads out of the sand and please address this issue head on. Drop the this and that of Painesville and do some serious work.
Now we are learning little by little other communities are being proactive Painesville for some reason chooses not to be. Why? To Mrs. Jenkins I for one don't care when you get the information but it appears you are more concerned with receiving the message than doing something about it. What's your position once you receive the information? To many other members of council as well as the administration please get your heads out of the sand and please address this issue head on. Drop the this and that of Painesville and do some serious work.
posted by terminator1 @ 3:45 PM
11 Comments
11 Comments:
Have any of these cities/towns asked for investigations? Have any investigations into any of this been started by anyone? Investigations also need to go far enough to look into the people, like McMahon, who got us into these messes, even though so many citizens were saying no, no, no.
9:21 The wheels are slowly starting to turn.
Checked my electric bill it appears we are paying .1250 per kilowatt? Am I in the ball park?
12:30, what exactly does that mean? Do you have more details? ARE any of the other suckers asking for, or starting, investigations? Has anyone asked for an investigation for our city and/or McMahon/Hada?
10:54 That means many cities that signed up for this deal are starting to bleed financially from this deal. I expect many to hit the wall by the end of the year. Remember were all these communities promised something that couldn't be delivered?
Remember the we pay for the ones that go belly up or bale ...... It's a co-op folks.
9:31: But didn't some of the cities/towns write a letter to someone? Isn't somebody at least doing something somewhere? And wasn't the government looking into these messes somehow somewhere? If so, we, the citizens, could add our city, no? And if not, can't we write our own letter to whomever is supposed to watch after these things?
4:50 Yes, but as recently as last month councilman Flock asked for information from AMP-OHIO Mr. Bentein AMP's legal council that information could only be received by a the city manager (an employee of the councils?)
Write to who? It appears politicians are protecting their own turf or are beholden to who? I am positive AMP-OHIO gives generously at election time. WE as residents must hold our council's feet to the fire.
Go to a council meeting and demand a letter be sent.
Me? I can't even get council to get someone from shooting up a neighborhood.
I thought that other entities had written letters to someone, and our council refused to add their names.
Some councils have but very few. Some have already started litigation. No one want to admit to making a mistake. Painesville council's inaction seems to be to protect someone no other good reason is there? There's no concern over your cost to all this.
Why don't we ask the feds to look into this? I'm told if you put your request into writing, then they have to respond. Also, who did the other entities complain to? What's to say we can't send in a request to whomever they complained to. We also need to ask for investigations into McMahon and Hada, and what was in it for them? I hope they are investigating the people in the cities that got scholarships for their kids for signing on. Can you find out, from the cities that have complained, who they complained to, what is going on now, is the fed involved, is anyone looking into the individual people in the cities that signed on to see if they personally profited from these horrifying deals?
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