Tuesday, September 16, 2014

"I'M TELLING YOU NOW" freddie and the dreamers

Or a least this Paducah Newspaper

This pretty much sums up the story;



August 20, 2014 / admin / Comments Off

Mapa-de-la-Ciudad-de-Paducah-Kentucky-Estados-Unidos-1919-10662PADUCAH – “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…

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.

11 Comments:

At September 19, 2014 at 9:21 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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.

 
At September 20, 2014 at 12:30 PM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

9:21 The wheels are slowly starting to turn.

 
At September 20, 2014 at 12:38 PM , Anonymous REDI-KILOWATT said...

Checked my electric bill it appears we are paying .1250 per kilowatt? Am I in the ball park?

 
At September 21, 2014 at 10:54 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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?

 
At September 22, 2014 at 9:31 AM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

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?

 
At September 22, 2014 at 3:54 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remember the we pay for the ones that go belly up or bale ...... It's a co-op folks.

 
At September 22, 2014 at 4:50 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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?

 
At September 23, 2014 at 8:35 AM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

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.

 
At September 23, 2014 at 8:04 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought that other entities had written letters to someone, and our council refused to add their names.

 
At September 24, 2014 at 6:06 AM , Anonymous TERM>> said...

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.

 
At September 24, 2014 at 3:16 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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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