Your analogy of the oranges is faulty. It presumes I can walk down the street to another store and buy them cheaper. The real situation is that, because Con Ed control the distribution system, I can't really deal with anyone but them.
In that case you can stop eating oranges. In other words, you can use less electricity. If you and a million other customers replaced your lights with compact fluorescent lights, and old refrigerator and other major appliances, the power company would be hurting. This is what happened in California after their fate crisis a few years ago. There is now a glut of power.
Actually, Con Edison is located in an area where it is expensive to build and operate power generators, so higher prices are reasonable. But they would make a lot more money if they would vary their charge by time of day. Many people at home can choose to do the laundry at night instead of midafternoon when power demand is at its peak. Washing machines equipped with timers would help.
The big users of electricity are corporations and factories, and if the price is unreasonable they will relocate or build private cogenerators. The use of private cogenerators in the US and Japan has increased dramatically in recent years. The power company is shooting itself in the foot by charging unreasonably high rates. In the end it will lose business.
When the industry was deregulated, I
looked into buying from other dealers. Prices were all about the
same, if not more, because of the "problem" with the distribution system I described.
It is difficult to make a truly free market for gas, electricity or gasoline with today's technology. Most of the consumer freedom of choice is on the consumption end: you can buy a more efficient refrigerator or automobile. I doubt that problem will ever be fixed. Eventually these technologies will be rendered obsolete by cold fusion or some other zero-cost small scale energy source, and the power companies will all go out of business. That will fix the problem.
There are other interesting examples of technologies that will never be fixed. The QWERTY typewriter keyboard is a classic. It is drastically suboptimal, but I expect it will be with us for as long as people use keyboards. That should be for another 30 or 40 years. Then computers will work perfectly with voice input, a mouse and a few cursor control keys and special keys. Typing will be a lost art. Typing was invented around 1880 and it will last ~200 years which is a long time for technology.
In answer to your second statement, they are supposed to come once
a month because the price ( and bill ) is calculated on a monthly basis.
I do not see why. I could not care less how often they measure it or how often they bill me. Billing once a month is traditional in the U.S. Anyway, what they are supposed to do is spelled out on the bill, and it says they only read the meter two to four times a year (I do not recall how often).
So for example, during peak summer months they charge me the peak price for an estimate ALWAYS over what I use. This results in my providing them with an interest free loan, which they ( eventually ) get around to paying sometime in the fall. If your argument held water, they would undercharge me about as often as they overcharge.
They do, in effect. They hold your money for ransom during the summer, which gives them a tiny bit more profit from the interest, then they stop holding it for ransom during winter which gives you a little back.
Anyway the amounts of money are trivial. You are probably careful to install compact fluorescent lights and other energy saving devices, but the average person who quibbles over a few dollars in lost interest is missing the point. He could save $10 a month by installing things such as compact fluorescent light bulbs and motion sensor light switches.
- Jed
