On 26/03/2021 08:56, charles wrote:
In article , Tim Streater
wrote:
On 25 Mar 2021 at 20:43:43 GMT, Chris Green wrote:

Tim Streater wrote:

I quite agree that paying efficiently by DD makes sense but that
isn't a reason for the extra 'layer' of paper pushers (or DD
pushers) between me and the actual producers of electricity.

Don't be silly. If these middlemen didn't do it, then the actual
power companies would have to do it. As it is, they just sell a few
large chunks of power to the middlemen, who set up tarriffs which
they offer to us. The middlemen also insulate us from risk due to
changes in the price *they* have to pay to get power. It's a form of
forward buying, similar to forward selling by coffee growers or other
such producers, but I imagine you don't approve of that either.

So how did it work before it was all done this way? It's not been like
this for all that long has it?

Before that AFAIK there was only one supplier of volts which was your
local electricity board. Which was nationalised and had no incentive to
cut costs.

and they didn't need to make a profit for shareholders or pay vast
directors' salaries


Or bother with customer service, like GPO telephones who made
customers remember that they should be content that the GPO
accepted them a customer.

And without a profit (actually massive losses every year) the only
money for investment was by government dictat and public borrowing.
This is why raw sewage was just dumped into the sea all around the
coast (cheaper than treating it).