05-18-2012, 03:21 AM
Our single best experience with a power distributor was the Cowlitz County Public Utility District (PUD), a state-regulated, quasi-governmental agency that bought power from the Bonneville Dam authority, another governmental agency. The PUD made the very rational decision (to us, anyway) that they should plow in, for no cost to us, about 500 feet of underground feeder along the driveway from the county road to our house, because they saved a lot of money not cleaning up downed power lines during the common heavy, wet snowstorms of western Washington. The PUD was always regarded as running a service-oriented and fiscally prudent operation. No one was worried that investors were lining their pockets at the expense of the rate payers.