Use less electricity and water

[Roverlord off road spares]

After just paying my Electricity bill, I looked at some of the saving tips but wondered.
If I owned a utility company like Electricity for example. I sell the electricity, I make money on electricity, so the more electricity I sell, the more $$$ I receive. So why would I tell my customers to use less as if people used less then I earn less.

[vnx205]

The way you would maximise your profits would be to get people to use less, but charge more per unit of electricity.

That way you get to make the same amount of money or more and you don't have to spend money upgrading the capacity of the delivery system.

That makes it a win-win situation for you as the provider but offers no real benefit to the consumer.

[CraigE]

This is the issue now in WA. Electrickery companies were moaning a few years back that they could not keep up with demand and would either need new power generation facilities an or people to switch to Solar. So we go and get solar so now they are moaning that they are not making enough profit so now want to charge more for supply irrelevant of use. Talk about cake and eat it too. Then any extra we put in during the day is not credited as units for us to use at night, but they pay 8 cents per unit and then sell it back to us at 23 c per unit at night. Talk about double standards and double dipping.
If they cannot make a profit maybe they need to look at their structure.

[ugu80]

About four or five years ago I was watching an interview with the CEO of one of the electricity companies (Origin, I think) and he stated quite simply that if people used less electricity then the electricity companies would raise the price of supply to maintain profitability. Win - win situation for them, lose - lose for us.

[crash]

After just paying my Electricity bill, I looked at some of the saving tips but wondered.
If I owned a utility company like Electricity for example. I sell the electricity, I make money on electricity, so the more electricity I sell, the more $$$ I receive. So why would I tell my customers to use less as if people used less then I earn less.

I had a similar experience a few years ago by a bank teller advising me that I would be better off using internet banking or the ATM's provided. I walked away thinking if people stopped coming into the bank you will not have a job.

[bee utey]

Energy saving tips cost the retailers virtually nothing to print, and most people already use as little or as much as they ever will. It's simply "greenwashing" and hides their true purpose of ripping everyone off.

Once electricity costs more to supply than the cost of going off grid and many people disconnect from the system, energy retailers will demand that you still pay for the privilege of having wires running past your gate.

[CraigE]

Energy saving tips cost the retailers virtually nothing to print, and most people already use as little or as much as they ever will. It's simply "greenwashing" and hides their true purpose of ripping everyone off.

Once electricity costs more to supply than the cost of going off grid and many people disconnect from the system, energy retailers will demand that you still pay for the privilege of having wires running past your gate.

Already happens in some of the newer sub divisions, once you own the block of land you must pay whether connected or not. Same with sewerage (deep drainage) and water rates.

[rover-56]

Energy saving tips cost the retailers virtually nothing to print, and most people already use as little or as much as they ever will. It's simply "greenwashing" and hides their true purpose of ripping everyone off.

Once electricity costs more to supply than the cost of going off grid and many people disconnect from the system, energy retailers will demand that you still pay for the privilege of having wires running past your gate.

That's certainly true of the sewerage system (which I don't need to use) I am still paying for the service being there on the street.

Democracy at work

Terry

[austastar]

Hi,
Yep, it happened in the States years ago, oil shortage caused brown outs and suppliers were installing free wood heaters for customers.
Yanks, being yanks, went with the flow and started getting energy efficient to the point where not enough juice was going through the meters to make a profit.

Massive power price increases resulted.

cheers

[korg20000bc]

The situation here with our water company is that they charge a huge amount for maintaining service to the property (What they do for that money is anyone's guess).
They charge very little for water so no matter what you do to save water you cannot reduce your bill to any decent level.

It gives me the poops.