| Lower Energy Prices with New York Deregulation |
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It was sometime around the mid nineties the New York state government decided to restructure the electric industry. The idea behind the deregulation was to help both business and customers save money due to the dwindling economy and rising costs of electricity. There are so many monopolies who had their hands in the electric industry, and they could raise the cost of power whenever they wanted.
It was sometime around the mid nineties the New York state government decided to restructure the electric industry. The idea behind the deregulation was to help both business and customers save money due to the dwindling economy and rising costs of electricity. There are so many monopolies who had their hands in the electric industry, and they could raise the cost of power whenever they wanted. While deregulation is something that has been occurring within the natural gas industry since the seventies, deregulation in New York is something that took quite a while. The reason for this is that it's a lot more complicated than natural gas. Because of these complications, the restructuring would impact the cost of electricity greatly, as well as the way things work in the power industry in the years to come. So let's take a look at the deregulation in New York to try to understand it a little bit better shall we? How do you define a utility? You hear the term all the time, but what is it exactly? Well, it's something that can be touched, therefore it is tangible. A utility is something that the public relies on, and these are usually defined as water, gas, and electricity. It's very important that these utilities make it to their destination, and that means the company providing the service needs to be able to deliver the power and repair it if necessary. Finally both the state and the federal lawmakers decided that the regulation of electricity was in the favor of the general public. In order to stop the utility companies from charging unfair prices as they had been, the government permitted individual companies to sell services without being challenged within a certain area. Naturally this meant that the company could charge whatever they wanted, and people would have to pay for it if they wanted the lights to be on in their house. In spite of the safeguards regarding prices that the Public Service Commission had supposedly set up, there was really nothing said about the actual prices that there being charged. It was a very rare occasion when the PSC actually stepped in and tried to work out the problems that were going on. This wasn't good because it's not like the customer really had a choice in what to use for power! The whole idea behind deregulation in New York will help a customer to select a power company. This means that they'd be able to pick any power company they want instead of the one that's been in the area for so long. There is a chance that this will allow people to save money, considering that can choose a company offering a better rate for kilowatt hours. No matter what happens, there's always going to be a serious problem with the idea of deregulation. The major power company still has to provide the services for the area, and they still have to repair and maintain the power grid. Customers will have to pay a deliver charge on that account because the company does need to do the repairs. Though you might appear to be getting a lower price the deliver charge might actually overpower this. It's something that's never really said in the advertisements for the alternative power companies. If you plan to go with one of these companies then you'll need to look into them and see what the deliver charge is. Sad but true, you'll just have to make sure you are getting a decent deal. DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice. About the author: Jerry Dyess specializes in Texas Energy news and Texas Electricity prices. |