The CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) profits. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants – bypassing FPL and their monopoly on electricity.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/leaked-us-power-companies-secretl…
It’s going to take time and hard work to break the monopoly power that electric utilities have enjoyed for decades just like AT&T enjoyed in telephony until Judge Green broke up MaBell in 1985.
THE JUDGE WHO’S RESHAPING THE PHONE BUSINESS Harold H. Greene made a lot of enemies brokering the breakup of AT&T. Now he’s calling the shots on ventures that could bring Ma Bell’s regional offspring around $6 billion a year. That’s making people mad too, but Greene isn’t about to back off.
April 1, 1985
https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985…
Denny Schlesinger
“It’s going to take time and hard work to break the monopoly power that electric utilities have enjoyed for decades just like AT&T enjoyed in telephony until Judge Green broke up MaBell in 1985.”
That monopoly was broken into 7 or 8 pieces - the Baby Bells, spun off Western Electric/Bell Labs. Later the Baby Bells spun of the white pages business and other things.
The Baby Bells retained the monopoly on local service. You could only get your local phone from one of the.
Judge Green basically de-monopolized the ‘long distance business’.
A good part of that was state regulators, who demanded that ‘businesses’ subsidize local service so folks could have ‘cheap basic service’ and business would be gouged 50-100% on long distance calls to pay for it. All that changed when alternative local providers like MCI could now provide LD service.
Well,it turns out that the cellular revolution, then the internet revolution, entirely changed the market. With Skype, you could call just about anywhere for pennies a minute. Cellular plans over five years included long distance as part of the basic per month charge.
The long distance market slowly evaporated except for business and that was cutthroat and the Baby Bells could also provide. Cable /fiber to the home by Comcast and others included basic/long distance service cheaply.
Soon, MCI went BK along with most other LD providers. Cellular became the giant in the room long with ‘internet providers’ who would also supply local phone service, but more and more just had cellular phones and often no home phones.
Now, you can as a homeowner put up solar panels and provide some/all of your electricity - but with interconnect to the power company. Obviously the sun doesn’t shine at night, and sometimes for days when it rains day after day after day. Batteries to withstand days of no sun are far off the the future to be totally independent. Winter sun is often inadequate to meet a home’s need.
So this particular issue is landlords wanting to provide power to multiple tenants… but of course, the local power company will be called on to provide the rest of the power those folks need. If they have separate meters that gets to be a problem.
You now need a new interconnect point, some way of ‘sharing power’ when the solar panels are inadequate (some from solar, some from the grid) in real time on a large scale. Don’t think such and animal exists yet. You also then become a ‘power producer’ for multiple customers and maybe face legal requirements and registration and annual reports - also filing ‘rates’ for electricity per KWH, etc.
t.
That monopoly was broken into 7 or 8 pieces - the Baby Bells, spun off Western Electric/Bell Labs. Later the Baby Bells spun of the white pages business and other things.
The Baby Bells retained the monopoly on local service. You could only get your local phone from one of the.
You got to start somewhere and AT&T was the head of the snake and that’s where you need to aim at. Like I said, “It’s going to take time and hard work to break the monopoly power of electric utilities.”
The break up of AT&T resulted from the complaints of new providers in the long distance business. Similarly, the IBM consent decree resulted from the complaints of wanna be competitors in the leasing business. Now there are new entrants in the electricity producing market which is setting in motion the trust busters. Car dealers are being challenged, electric utilities are being challenged. “The game’s afoot” said Sherlock Holmes!
Denny Schlesinger
Commercial and industrial customers still need the power company. Residential might cost more to maintain than its worth.
Power companies might be eager to let it go.
Ditto the phone company. Glad to go cellular rather than maintain pairs of copper to each customer. The money is in data not voice.
Denny:“Now there are new entrants in the electricity producing market which is setting in motion the trust busters. Car dealers are being challenged, electric utilities are being challenged. “The game’s afoot” said Sherlock Holmes!”
“New Producers” in the power market likely will be tightly regulated by STATE regulators who oversea rate increases, set maximum ‘profit’ margins, and want reliability built in.
Some fly by night power producer…or should I say, ‘power by day only’ power producers are likely to run into a wall of state regulation.
Apartment owners tried to ‘monopolize’ the TV market. The only ‘service’ you could get in some apartment buildings was ‘from the owner’ and consisted only of channels they chose to provide at whatever rates they chose to provide. Then along came the internet and small dishes …and that monopoly faded. Now you got your TV via the web. or a small satellite dish on your small balcony. Most apartment owners throwed in the towel and let other providers provide internet in the building…as people demanded faster and faster speeds and they didn’t have the money and skills to upgrade year after year after year.
t.