On 4/15/2012 5:28 PM, Home Guy wrote:
dpb wrote:
....

Industry experts and consumer advocates have said exactly the same
thing.

Cite(s)? (Particularly from the "experts"; certainly the "consumer
advocates" are sure to complain about anything; it's their sole function
in life).

If there weren't a payback, they certainly wouldn't be doing it
just for the funsies of having something to do.

It's political.

Many utilities got grants to do it.

Like I said - they wanted to reduce their cost to read residential
meters. ...

And, if that were all they were able to save (which I don't believe is
true for a second being in heavily involved in our local retail electric
co-op where we're doing it for that reason as well as those others
outlined previously (and no "grant" money in sight). We figure the
payback period on labor and billing errors alone will be 3 yr w/o any
other longer-term savings.

You and I can decide whether to buy gasoline at one station or another,
on one day or another, at one price or another. Gasoline has a flexible
distribution system in that the gas refined at one plant doesn't have to
be retailed by a specific gas station nor consumed by a specific
end-customer. We don't have that when it comes to electricity, and
hence the idea that time-of-use billing completes the picture of a true
competitive marketplace for electricity is a farce.

_YOU_ may not, but many areas do have that flexibility. The end-user
can call up and change his supplier at will in those areas.

And, the gasoline retail distribution market isn't as wide open as you
seem to think either; there are pretty-limited wholesale arrangements
for virtually all stations that preclude them from just buying
willy-nilly (altho if they did, it would have to be mostly spot-market
and would be higher than their longterm contracts would be).

While you can certainly pick any one of a multitude of stations in which
to fill up on any given day, it's highly unlikely you'll find any
significant price differential in any one locality--a penny or two at
most, perhaps; generally all the majors are priced together and the
independents at another level 3 or so cents under. If there's a nickel,
that's generally enough to start a short-term "run".

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