Posts Tagged ‘MS Utility Consumer Advocate’
What’s Wrong With Government Regulated Monopolies?
Regulated monopolies are largely protected from competition and are great for their shareholders. Not so great for their customers though. Especially if the regulator (the Public Service Commission) has its thumb on the scale for the monopoly.
Read MoreWhat’s Wrong With How Mississippi Regulates Electricity Bills?
What’s wrong with how Mississippi regulates electricity rates? The short answer: No one in the process represents only the customers – the everyday Mississippians who pay their electric bill.
Read MoreWhat Can’t Go on Forever Won’t
This version of Stein’s Law could be about lots of long running Ponzi schemes. But this is about Mississippi Power’s Kemper County Lignite Plant’s big brothers — two nuclear power plants (Vogtle) under construction in Georgia and their Southern Company daddy. And about regulatory systems that prop up an archaic business model that puts interests of utilities and their shareholders ahead of customers.
Read MoreWhen Politicians Direct Capital
What do small ratepayers in Mississippi and the New Orleans Saints have in common? Bad officiating. Bad things often happen when politicians direct capital. This is about the PSC. It’s not doing its job. And about the Mississippi Legislature which makes the rules (laws) about how the PSC works – or doesn’t work.
Read MoreGive Consumers a Full Voice in Front of the Public Service Commission – SB2393
What if you went to court and were told your attorney would have to represent both you and your opponent – even though your opponent had a whole army of his own attorneys? That’s basically the setup for the state agency that regulates how much you pay for electricity and other utilities.
Read MoreElectric Utility Varieties and Rates
What you pay on your monthly electric bill is determined by who is your supplier. The only choice for the customer is to move to an area serviced by a provider with lower rates.
Read MoreRatepayers vs. Utilities – Regulatory Structure Must Change
Entergy doesn’t want the Commission to have discretion over whether documents are either revealed to all intervenors under protection of a non-disclosure agreement or simply put into the public debate arena.
Read MoreMississippi’s PSC Faces Confidential Data Issues in the IRP Rule
The Kemper Plant was designed to maximize capital investment so as to maximize the company’s rate of return on capital from ratepayers in the form of rate hikes. Confidentiality of certain key documents played a major role in the plant clearing several early regulatory hurdles. Changing the process by which documents are kept out of the public eye will be essential to preventing another Kemper like disaster from happening again.
Read MoreBPF Motion for Leave To File Supplemental Testimony of Erik Randolph
BPF’s Supplemental Testimony by Mr. Erik Randolph was filed with the PSC on August 23rd.
Read MoreWill the PSC Implement an Integrated Resource Planning Process (IRP) for Electric Utilities?
The MS Public Service Commission is investigating implementing an integrated resource planning (IRP) process for electric utilities. As described by the PSC, IRP is “a long range planning process that requires a utility to forecast it’s future energy demand and evaluate how that demand can most efficiently and cost-effectively be met.”
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