The Delaware Public Service Commission delayed Delmarva Power’s bid to decouple electricity sales from revenue pending greater “consumer education.”
Since 2006, Delmarva has been trying to work out a deal with regulators whereby its revenues would no longer depend on how much electricity it sells. The utility in effect would get to sell less electricity for higher prices, while consumers are forced into energy efficiency and smart meter schemes.
A Delmarva spokesman told
Smart Grid Today that,
“We certainly understand the commission’s desire for additional customer education. The decoupling rate design is very complicated. We will hold workshops and put a plan together for how we’re going to get our customers up to speed.”
Decoupling should be rejected, however, because:
- Pay more, get less. Consumers will wind up paying more for less electricity;
- Rationing. Decoupling is the first stop on the pathway to electricity rationing; and
- Anti-capitalist. Through government guaranteed revenues, decoupling undermines fundamental and traditional capitalist business practices and incentives.
You can also judge an idea by its advocates. Obama energy and environment czar Carol Browner, a
former muckety-muck with Socialist International, promotes decoupling as means of forcing consumers to use less electricity.
