Sorry I just can't resist. About twenty years ago I was the !@#$%^&*
who raised electric rates. Done the expert witness thing etc. Two
points:

1-In most NA electrical systems the energy used for street lights
comes from a hydro, coal or nuclear unit. Rarely do we need to run an
oil fired unit to cover early AM load. Sorry we can't stop buying Mid
East oil for that use.

2-Yes, there is a stark difference in price from small customers to
medium and large ones. The larger customers buy their electricity at
higher voltages and the costs of those pole mounted transformers,
distribution wires, etc. don't exist. Second, they tend to buy a
higher percentage during those lower cost back hours. Third, it costs
just slightly more to read a meter and bill a large customer so there
can be a volume difference. Fourth, customer service costs are
generally lower so there can be a volume discount, big customers don't
call in nearly as often. Fifth, problems with no pay and slow pay are
higher with residential and small commercial customers so that is
factored into the rates. And it goes on.

The PUC is supposed to examine in detail whether a class of customers
is paying more or less than their "fair share". The large customers
have their own lawyers in the process and residential customers are
usually well represented by public advocates (well funded also usually
from your electric bill). The customers that tend to get "oppressed"
are the small commercial ones. That's why you want to avoid a
separate meter for your shop.

Yes a whole neighborhood can buy in bulk under some conditions. For
example many large apartment/condo buildings in NYC do just that.
However the building (neighborhood) then has to provide individual
billing, transfomers, meters etc. If its provided by the landlord
there is no savings. Otherwise there are some but offset by costs.

Final point-In states where you can buy your own energy (like TX) big
customers are doing relatively well, but the costs of marketing to and
serving small customers chews up a lot of the savings. Unfortunately
for TX they bet on many new natural gas generating units and their
fuel costs have doubled in the last two years raising costs on the
"free market" substantially.

Howard

"Leon" wrote in message .com...
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
news:8ipkd.501$lY1.380@trndny04...

I wonder just how much oil we could save by turning out some lights.
Flying into a city airport in the wee hours I see thousands of street
lights, but don't see any traffic. Entire industrial parks are well lit
but no one working. Businesses have signs lit on their closed stores and
no on on the streets to read them. Just seems plain silly.


Oddly, we could probably save a bundle of oil and or coal but it may cost us
more for less light. A couple of years ago I went to the PUC web site to
compare electricity charges by different companies that produce electricity.
I was shocked to find that home owners pay about double the price that big
users use. IIRC some where around 7500- 10,000 kwh of usage per month the
price of electricity came in at 5 cents per kwh. I pay about 10 cents per
kwh.

I am sure there is some law against it but why couldn't a whole neighborhood
be a single customer/customer and each home owner pay for his usage of that
total billed to the neighborhood.