IS IT TRUE? Part 2 September 1, 2011
IS IT TRUE that Mole #11 is telling us that the Administration arm of the Evansville Police Department is trying to petition the safety board to raise the number of deputy chiefs from 2 to 3?…that this is in anticipation of the current chief and assistant chief being removed after the new mayor is elected?…that the thing that is suspicious about this action if it materializes is that a case was made and approved a few years back to “trim the fat” off the department when they had too many deputy chiefs?…that at that time they went from 4 to 2 under the guise of rightsizing and saving taxpayer money?…that this may be a prime example of the top brass trying to keep their positions by making “end of administration†changes before the new Mayor of Evansville takes the reins?…that if 3 deputy chiefs is the right number that this action should have been taken already when the Weinzapfel Administration was in charge of the budget?…that the City County Observer urges extreme diligence on the part of all public boards and elected officials in the next 4 months as unnecessary changes or expansions may be made for purposes other than making Evansville a better place to live?
IS IT TRUE that we are waiting for the 3rd Ward candidates for Evansville City Council and the at-large candidates to make their position known on the malaise that is going on in the 3rd Ward with respect to sewers collapsing, unmitigated toxic piles of rubble at 600 Franklin Street, garbage all over Garvin Park, and the newly refurbished fountain at Garvin Park having no water in it?…that remaining mute when there is low hanging fruit to be had is not becoming of a candidate for office?…that we also have a report of an accident with injuries that occurred on the bike path due to debris removal being ignored?…that an article and pictures will be published in a couple of days?
IS IT TRUE that Memphis Light, Gas, and Water commissioned a study on the cost of utilities in regions served by approximately 50 different utilities for the year 2010?…that Vectren Corporation that serves 141,000 customers in SW Indiana was one of the utilities that was included in the survey?…that the water and sewer providers for this area did not participate so a complete picture of our utility cost comparison is not possible in the study?…that the comparison of electricity for a number of monthly uses as well as gas are ranked from the cheapest to the most expensive?…that the rates used were prior to the recent increase that Vectren was granted but that we do not have knowledge of any other increases either so we will go with the 2010 numbers?…that Evansville/Vectren ranks 39th out of 44 electrical utilities that were surveyed for a typical use of 1,000 kWh per month?…that the lowest cost place Jackson, MS comes in at about half price of Vectren?…that the other local places in the top ten are Louisville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Peoria, and Lincoln?…that all of these are roughly half the price of Vectren’s electricity and that all are competitors with Evansville for economic development?…that if Henderson was on the list they would have been #1?…that Henderson is our biggest and most capable competitor for projects?
IS IT TRUE that in the same study the price of residential gas was also included and that Vectren scored much better?…that Vectren ranked 8th out of 33 gas utilities studied for the cost of a typical months use of natural gas?…that of the 7 cities with better gas pricing that only Huntsville, AL is a comparable and competitive city to Evansville?…that of the 7 that offer better gas prices that only 3 are significantly better and that they are from warm climates where gas has limited demand?…that the price of gas is not an issue in El Paso, Los Angeles, or Austin because for the most part it is only used for cooking and to knock the chill off when occasionally gets below 40 degrees?
If you make the assumption that each state has a single (1) Regulatory Commission for setting rates, you would expect the states having multiple cities in this study to be tightly grouped. For Electricity, here are some examples of clustering for 1,000 units:
Missouri:
# 2 St. Louis
# 4 Springfield
Nebraska:
# 5 Lincoln
# 11 Omaha
Tennessee:
# 22 Memphis
# 23 Knoxville
# 24 Chattanooga
# 27 Jackson
# 28 Nashville
Florida:
# 29 Kissimmee
# 32 Clewiston
# 33 Orlando
# 37 Jacksonvlle
Illinois:
# 10 Peoria
#13 Springfield
# 20 Decatur
# 35 Chicago
Indiana:
# 8 Indianapolis
# 39 Evansville
Observations:
1) As expected, tight clustering of the Cities within a State, except for ILLINOIS and INDIANA;
2) ILLINOIS: has # 10, 13, and 20 in a fairly tight cluster (all are Ameren companies), and then flys off the map with # 35 (Chicago) which is Commonwealth Edison. Could this mean that Ameren is a more efficient provider, or are the Chicago citizens getting clobbered by Com Ed ?; (# 10 Peoria is $ 56 per 1,000 units; while Chicago is $ 123 per 1,000 units, or more than TWICE what plays in Peoria); and
3) INDIANA: Look at Indianapolis (Indianapolis Power & Light) at # 8 ($ 85 per 1,000 units). Evansville and our friends at Vectren are # 39 and a cool $ 135 per 1,000. Like the Illinois comparison of Ameren vs. Com Ed, is IPL just a far better producer than Vectren, or is the greed of Vectren > IPL’s re: management salaries, etc. ?
I would welcome any insight from someone on operating efficiencies of IPL over Vectren. Finally, you know how EVV is always said to be “Little Chicago” ? Not any more, baby, Chicago may be a major league city but at # 35 ($ 123 per 1,000 units) our little burg has surpassed them, EVV is # 39 and $ 135 per 1,000. That should put a little swagger in our step !
I suspect it has to do with assets more than efficiency. The higher fixed cost, the more they can charge.
I think that the root cause of our problem with Vectren’s rates is the high delinquency rate in the winter and spring of every year. Those of us who are somehow able to pay the exorbinate rates they charge get stuck covering the losses Vectren incurs from providing electricity and natural gas to people who can’t afford to pay, but can’t be disconnected due to nonpayment.
Let’s face it, we live in Indiana’s biggest ghetto.
Not to be argumentative, but I didn’t know that Vectren provided free utilities to customers? although there are assistance programs like CAPE for low income families, I’ve never heard of customers being able to just not pay and keep the lights on. I can’t believe they are not compensated in some way by some agency or that at the end of the season they are delinquent in that Vectren just doesn’t cut them off until payment is made. Seems that I’m missing something here.
BTW I think Gary has us beat ghetto-wise but I don’t want to go there to find out. 🙂
Evansville has its problems but I do not believe it is Indiana’s biggest ghetto. Not even close!
Lon, don’t fret, Dr. John makes lots of “exorbinate” statements.
Dr. John: it’s the other way around. Assistance programs like CAPE are funded by government agencies. Tax dollars paid in help to fund programs like CAPE. The money expended by CAPE and other “energy assistance” groups is paid directly to the Utility (Vectren). Therefore, our tax dollars are helping Vectren keep their Bad Debt rate very low. Thus, the search to explain Vectren’s rates continues . . . . .
The Biscuit
Enoch, do you happen to know if they count Executive Compensation as a fixed cost ? If so, we should raise the pitchforks to” help them” lower fixed costs ?
Back in earlier times in this country a lot of municipalities owned the distribution network for dispersing electrical power to its citizens.
To the extent that competing providers of electrical power were available, they were able to take advantage of lower costs. Of course, back then they did not have the GRID SYSTEM we have nowadays.
So now we have a plethora of providers of electrical power available through the grid system and the bottleneck that prevents us from taking advantage of lower rates is the privately owned local distribution network. i.e. the poles and transmission lines.
Either Vectren is not purchasing electrical power from the cheapest provider, or they are way out of line on their charges to distribute that electrical power.
I was just charged 14.88 cents per KWh for my residential usage in August. The 2000 projections from the EPA for electric providers that met EPA’s emission requirements were a rate of between .6 and .7 cents per KWh for 2007. It is difficult to believe that rate could have doubled in the 4 years since 2007.
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Press…..
“Either Vectren is not purchasing electrical power from the cheapest provider, or they are way out of line on their charges to distribute that electrical power.”
Or they (Vectren) are just charging what they have been allowed to charge because the regulatory commission like most everything else in our land is corrupt. I thought it was interesting that Tomes said that he hadn’t been in office no time before a lobbyist for Vectren stopped by to pay a visit.
JMHO
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