Legislators Step In For Delmarva Power Customers
April 18th, 2008 by Maria EvansDemocrats and Republicans from the Delaware House and Senate are introducing legislation that would prohibit Delmarva Power and Light from charging their customers for for the costs they’re racking up while fighting to prevent having to enter into a long term contract for wind power.
SYNOPSISThis concurrent resolution recommends that the Public Service deny any request by Delmarva Power to recover from or pass-through to its ratepayers the costs it has incurred opposing the Power Purchase Agreement negotiated between Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind pursuant to the criteria established in House Bill No. 6. Â Â READ IT HERE…
 This is from a Sponsor of the legislation, Representative John Kowalko of Newark:
This resolution was crafted to reinforce my previously stated position that Delmarva Power and Light and its agents have always and will continue to put the interests of the company before that of the ratepayer. Statements made to me by President Stockbridge and VP Glen Moore at various public venues have always been consistent that they (Delmarva/Pepco) intend to pass through to the ratepayers expenses incurred in waging an obstructionist campaign against the mandates of HB6 and the best interests of their customers. They are certainly entitled to financial outlays accrued in meeting the obligations of HB6 but since that PPA was on the table December 18,2007 all subsequent expendetures should be their burden to bear.Â
Looks like it’s on!
April 19th, 2008 at 8:51 am
“…a Sponsor of the legislation, Representative John Kowalko of Newark:
This resolution was crafted to reinforce my previously stated position that Delmarva Power and Light and its agents have always and will continue to put the interests of the company before that of the ratepayer.”
I think Mr. Kowalko’s position would be different if he could - I don’t know that he can - put his constituents interest ahead of his own.
Encouraging competition is the proven way to benefit every and any party involved. Delmarva Power has benefited from limited competition, but to force it to purchase energy from another company benefiting from limited competition is not going to create lower energy prices. It’s may be that Mr. Kowalko and his peers are putting their own interests ahead of their constituents.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:07 am
GOOD!! ITS ABOUT TIME! Delmarva Power should start paying their legal fees & quit passing them off on the customers.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
kw, Delmarva Power’s own survey showed that a majority of Delawareans want this project to go forward, even after they explained it. I interviewed Majority Leader Cathcart and he just surveyed his constituents with overwhelmingly favorable results. In fact, the majority of legislators I speak with say their constituents are in favor of the project.
This deal was researched by the Delaware Public Service Commission for over a year with independent consulting firms working with them. They feel it’s the best deal for Delaware. So does DNREC. An off shore wind survey was done by the University of Delaware and the results were so positive they surprised the researchers. HCR 38, directing the Controller General to vote in favor of the wind farm on behalf of the House of Representatives passed 22-11.
Part of HB6, the one that directs DP&L to enter into long term contract(s) with Delaware based, price sustainable utilities also gave DP&L customers the ability to “opt out” of their pricing program after the 59% increase or rate adjustment or whatever you want to call it. People weren’t complaining then.
Were you?
DP&L and Senator McDowell want to look at land based wind. In fact, Delmarva Power wants to use its customer’s energy dollars to pay for developing wind farms in other states instead of bringing a little competition and new industry into the state of Delaware. And incidentally, you’ll never actually light a bulb in your house with energy from Indiana, DP&L just gets credit for buying it.
The State of Delaware went out to bid as directed by a law that passed overwhelmingly through the House with 4 “no” votes and in the Senate with one “no” vote, it was signed by the Governor that same day. The PSC did it’s job. It’s time to move it forward.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
HB6 was an attempt to redirect attention away from the fact that it was the price caps put into place by the Delaware Legislator about ten years ago, that led to the 59% increase in rates .If you owned a company and could not raise your prices for ten years , while operating cost continued to rise , what would you do after the caps came off? It has been sold as greed on the part of DP&L , also to mislead the people from directing their anger in the proper direction , which would be at their elected officials , not DP&L.
Blue Water Wind has taken advantage of timing and oppurtunity , to sell their product . Good for them. To bad their product is not a good one.
What angers me is the continuing effort to paint DP&L as evil and or greedy because they dare to protect their profits. They would be letting down their stock holders and their customers if they did not protect their profits.
Why should they be in business if not to make a profit? They are not a non profit organization , anymore than BWW is, so why should they not protect their busiess in anyway they can? What if you were in a business that installed hard wood floors and the government came it and told you , you had to invest in a company that laid carpet?
As for the number of people who are for the BWW project , well I wonder of those people how many have taken anytime to actually research wind power , or did they decide based on a thirty second spot that uses frases such as “big energy”, “at the exspence of their rate payers” , or ” after the 59% rate hikes”. These spots play on peoples natural mistrust of large companies in an attempt to create a sort of class envy.
And once you argue these people to a stand still on the economics of the project , they turn to the need for clean energy , and once you prove that the BWW project does nothing to change the landscape of pollution in the area they fall back to their tried and true of ” well we have to do something”. They don’t care if it’s the right something , just as long as they feel that DP&L , and maybe NRG, and any other big energy companies have been punished for daring to make profits that exceed the acceptable levels of these small minded socialist activist.
If the people who have spent so much time and effort to punish the power companies , had instead spent as much time in seeking better ways to use tried and true ways to generate energy we would be futher down the road to solving our needs , instead of wasting time on a project that will set us back by ten to twenty years if it is ever put into play. But maybe that is part of the plan of the socialist, to cripple or infrastructure even more creating even more victims who will run sreaming to Nanny State to wipe the blood from their little scraped knees.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 am
Frank, the Public Service Commission studied the pricing of the project for over a year with independent consultants who agreed that it was the best deal for Delaware.
Maybe you should take the time to read the December 2007 report from the PSC. Have you done that? Incidentally, DP&L has a whole section of reports from the PSC on their website, everything EXCEPT the December 2007 report…hmmm….I wonder why. Any guesses, Frank? Could it be because after over a year of study and negotiations the BWW project price was deemed to be in the public’s best interest?
My question to you is ten years down the line, when we’re paying more for power than the BWW price, will you admit it?
This has nothing to do with “punishing” anyone, it’s about cost effective energy that will give us a little business eco-system.
And Frank, one more time, if the NRG plant kept itself up to date with the latest technology, no one would complain about it.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 am
Maria , we will be paying more for energy the first day BWW goes on line because they have front loaded their expected increases in their “STABLE PRICING” so we will be paying the tenth year’s increase for ten years whether the operating cost have gone up that much or not, which will make for a lot of profit for BWW at the rate payers expence. DP&L has to get permission to raise rates , BWW will get ten years of rate increases all at once , now that seems fare to rate payers doesn’t it?By the way please tell me the one thing you believe that in ten years we won’t be paying more for . And if BWW’s prices are so great how come they could come back with a better deal evrytime it looks as if they might not get their project? Could it be they would dare to try and make a profit? As for NRG policing its self well that is just nuts, do you drive the speed limit because its the right thing to do, or because of fear of a ticket or losing you driving privaledge? Don’t blame the company if the government fails to enforce the laws they have put into place.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am
Frank, I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but the 2.5% increase is “annual” according to the PSC so BWW can’t take it all up front. You can read that in a report by the independent consultant, it’s posted on the PSC’s website. You can’t find that on Delmarva Power’s website because their site doesn’t offer their customers the ability to read any of the December 2007 reports. Ever think about why DP&L would do that, Frank?
And here’s a list of things off the top of my head that I believe will be cheaper in 10 years:
Computers
cell phones
hand held GPS
flat screen tvs
And Frank, of course BWW wants to make a profit, that’s what they’re in business for, just like DP&L. In fact, just like many other for profit companies, they submitted a proposal in response to a bid, in good faith, and won. Now it’s time for the state that initiated the bid to go forward in good faith.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
And Frank, can I blame the company if they sue to thwart the regulations imposed by the government?
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:31 am
Maria , my point was that the increases are built in before their is proven cause for them, and if the cause doesn’t materialize then the increase is profit. As for BWW being for profit , that is great, and you make my point that just like BWW , DP&L is in it for profit which is a good thing , not something to be ridiculed for.
As for what DP&L does or does not put on their web site, well I don’t imagine you will see many facts against wind power on BWW’s site either .
Maybe you should try holding BWW to the same standards you seem to want to hold traditional power companies to.
Now as for your list of things that will be cheaper in ten years, you listed all technology items which most likely will be obsolete in ten years, I doubt if new models or what ever will replace them will be cheaper. That is like saying that eight track players are cheaper today then they were twenty years ago. The question becomes , does anyone want an eight track player? But I ‘ll bet you that in ten years that people will still want power. Maria it may surprise someone from the left but this is a supply and demand market, and I guarantee you that when BWW renegotiates its contracts that the cost will go up.
And no I don’t blame NRG for fighting in court , anymore than I would blame the hardwood floor installer fighting to protect his business. Its not the company you are mad at its the system that they are working within.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Dear Frank,,
My good man — The Commercial Law of reciprocity’s in a free market society is for one a “misnomer” — To be “truely” a free market for one, requires that all comers and participants have a free and fair shot at the apple, and any impingments or hinderances by party A, to set at law things to block or prohibit party B’s, or C’s D’s etc., attempts to inject their brand of products on the “open market”, that is stymied Legally by an unfair advantage because of some Lawyer or Law or Rule or “Brand New Rules” when Co. A’s product gains an unfair position of advantage for “whatever the reason”, then they go and have Legal Authorities block B,C,D’s effectiveness to participate on the open commodities markets in disputes and regulatory obsticiles, and have them effectivily shut down or stopped! Please don’t make me list the multiple Millions of ways to block any opponet on the “free and open markets” that we all look to for whatever commodity it is we need and is availiable!
Talk about 50 way’s to leave your Lover! Man, there is any litany of way’s to screw your competitor, and have the government help you do it!
Any body ever hear of a little company called Enron? How about BG&E?
(Batltimore Gas & Electric? AT&T?? ol’e ma Bell? — Talk about protection? What a sham it-up deal that went down there!
AND—-Profits? Sure everybody has to make them, but how much is enough? 8%? 45%? 85%?? More? You Bet! They would do profit margins at around 3 to 5 Hundred percent or so, that if you can think it, and so believe it! This electric situation is Profit mania! It always has been, it always will be!
There has been small to medium grid shut downs all over this country as a quick patch can be put right in to sell “off contract” emergency supplemental power for several days at 5 or 6 times the going rate and some power house hundreds or thousands of miles makes a quick 80-150 million in “Exuberant” mark-ups in rates, and it was all passed along in the monthly electric bill!
Talk about getting harpooned— We would do just as well to become lashed to a Whale off the sea of Japan and try to dodge the “Whale-gunners harpoonings”! My guess is he would try to make the mark on us so as to rend our “fat nodules” (BIG BUCKS), out first as they are the choicest prize attached to the blubber! Yeah MAN! K/w-att = Kilo BUCKS!
Any body who operated an Electric Generating Plant for 10 years and didn’t make a profit has long gone into a business term widely known as “RECIEVERSHIP” or one form or another of “Bankrupcy”! Speak up now or hold your peace!
The Utility is a Publically traded business, they deal with the common stockmarket! They have to show a profit on their dividends or their investors sell their worthless butts for all they can get and bail on the looser! Once tarnished by year in and year out losses, there ain’t nobody picks up your stocks unless their penny stocks, and the broader market dosen’t even handle such a looser!
Frank— DP&L owned it out of the Sixties. They on paper sold it to Connective, Connective sold it back to DP&L, DP&L sold it on paper again to NRG! End of sales! Now, that plant is publically traded in shares of stock investment and the share holders have been thrown for a loss for the last 10 years, and the Plant was sold in 2002 or 03 to NRG, that means it was a looser as far back as 1998 or so when DP&L sold it, and NRG brought a “LOOSER” right off the bat and kept telling their shareholders to hang on, we cannot loose money every year? IS that what your telling us FRANK?
Iv’e heard of “stupidity” and “non-sense” but if this is the ration’al, I’ve got to go and re-look this definition up, because asinine dosent even come close!
Frank, that power company has made “Boo-koo” bucks every day the generator made one more revolution! You Nor any man on earth is going to tell me that you have an industrie that you can literally “pass the buck” right through the bill for “All of your costs and over runs” and any little costs of energy (coal costs), and the like, and YOU LOST MONEY!
FRANK— I do believe that was exactly what you were trying to convey to us in your thoughts, and if I can cut and Paste the section in this body I will do it!
Frank Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
HB6 was an attempt to redirect attention away from the fact that it was the price caps put into place by the Delaware Legislator about ten years ago, that led to the 59% increase in rates .If you owned a company and could not raise your prices for ten years , while operating cost continued to rise , what would you do after the caps came off? It has been sold as greed on the part of DP&L , also to mislead the people from directing their anger in the proper direction , which would be at their elected officials , not DP&L.
Blue Water Wind has taken advantage of timing and oppurtunity , to sell their product . Good for them. To bad their product is not a good one.
Well, there is is in so many words Frank, I goes back to what I said about profits! How much is enough? 8%?, 45%?, 80%?? Frank, surly they never lost a dime, and to say once the caps came off, what would you do?
Even with any porported basic costs, even with inflation figured in, even with the profit spread in plus terrotory, you don’t get caps off and say “KATIE–BAR THE DOOR! HERE COME 200-500% rate hikes, so just bend over and get ready!
I don’t even want to get started on that boon-doggle, Blue Water Wind!
You might as well send out a invite to any crook with a pair of good sized stones in his pocket that the Local bank is having their floors waxed late at night and they have to use a real pungent stripper to get up the old wax and the floor buffer has to open all windows and doors, including the valut doors opened so he can do a good job! Security will be handled by guard dogs tied off on local trees adjacent to the bank! Of course, there are only God fearing loyal US citizens in our midsts, no need for extra security.
As the infamous Lloyd Bensten from Texas was debating Dan Quail that famous time for the office of VP, he exclaimed, “I knew Jack Kennedy, and your no John Kennedy!
Frank, I have to tell you, I know who you are, and I’m a native Delawarian, Sussex Co. native, I know a Sussex Countian when I see and hear one, Frank, You sure don’t resemble a Sussex Countian to me! And of course, that’s just my Humble Opinion. “J.D.”