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I'm not so sure 808. Twenty or so years ago a man from this Island was serious about forming a private subscriber owned electric company. With all the people we have who are off grid, it might be possible to do that here in Puna. The people who are already on the grid here could form the backbone of such a cartel, and others could join as they wished. Would seem possible (though expect a fight from Helco) to co-opt the geothermal output and sell it as if it were our own. Don Jacobson still lives in my neighborhood. I can see if he still has the plans he made. By the way, when they start seeing some of the Machievelian manipulations of the feds and the Helcos of the world, maybe they can get the gist of your concerns about the British Royal Family.
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In most states, the utility companies are broken into 2 parts. There is the generation company and the distribution company. Generation is the production of the electricity. Distribution is the power lines, transformers, substations, etc. that bring power from the generation company to the consumer.
In those states, they tend to allow a consumer to purchase electricity from any of a number of providers. The distribution company gets a separate charge for maintaining the distribution - getting the power to the consumer.
Most of the providers in these situations do not actually generate electricity! They simply buy in wholesale amounts from the actual generator of electricity and resell it to their individual customers. They do all the billing to the end user and take the risk of non-payment, etc.
It is actually a little more complex than what I describe, but this should give people a better understanding of how an individual can choose their own electricity provider.
Essentially, this is what Enron did, although they did it at a pure wholesale level, buying excess capacity from multiple generators of electricity and reselling to other wholesalers.
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quote:
Originally posted by Del Pranke
It is called avoided oil costs. It is a federal program to ENCOURAGE alternative energy plans. In essence, Helco HAS to pay Puna Geothermal the same price as if the energy they are producing is made from fossil fuel. Helco doesn't really care, they are guaranteed a profit from the PUC. Puna geothermal doesn't care, they make more money.
I'm familiar with the PURPA. Where in the PPA (and all subsequent amendments) does it mention anything about the contract pricing being under PURPA? In 1993, authority over PURPA had fallen on the States to implement if necessary. There was never any need to implement PURPA since there was already an agreement to buy the power. The cost could have been anything everyone agreed upon.
Avoided cost is not a federal program, its a terminology use in energy as you pointed out. So it will appear in any energy anything talking about cost structures. Just because it was in the PURPA doesn’t mean the Act was applicable or used in this case. Avoided cost is also part of HAC. So was it the feds or was it the state? Follow the money and you’ll see whose hands were in the pot.
