Temperatures around New York City are getting steamy and so are tempers at electric rate hikes exceeding 45 percent over last summer, depending on one's energy provider. Some blame competition, but is too much competition to blame? Or too little?
In a free market, competition thrives on satisfying an increasing demand by increasing a commodity's supply. When that happens, the price stabilizes. Why, then, have electric prices risen in New York?
While electric generation has opened to competition within the last few years and even that door remains ajar electric transmission has not. As a result, all consumers businesses and households alike remain captive to anti-competitive pricing practices rather than to free market forces. In addition, robust competition is necessary to enhance infrastructure over the long term, so that "beige outs" during mere 80 degree weather might never recur.
"At a time when industry restructuring requires utilities and energy services companies to compete for customers, innovative companies must seize the opportunity to develop long-range solutions to ease highly volatile energy prices and alleviate the overburdened electric grid," says Gregory L. Wortham, vice president and chief operating officer of 1st Rochdale Cooperative Group, Ltd. "This means introducing new technologies, embracing renewable fuels and serving the consumer as a strategic energy partner."
1st Rochdale is the only electric cooperative taking part in the Retail Choice Program within the five boroughs of New York City and Westchester County. One of the fastest growing energy services companies in the New York metropolitan area, 1st Rochdale offers customers an array of cost-saving measures: purchasing power far in advance of summertime (under current and foreseeable market conditions); offering comprehensive energy management strategies; distributed generation; renewable fuels; photovoltaic (solar) power; and other environmentally responsible technologies aimed at delivering utmost reliability and value.
'NEGAWATT'
In order to earn customer satisfaction in a competitive marketplace, 1st Rochdale helps consumers reduce their energy consumption. By providing comprehensive energy management solutions, 1st Rochdale has helped consumers make their homes and businesses more energy-efficient. Of course, to help a household or business lower its energy bill is to earn its lasting loyalty. 1st Rochdale encourages consumers to rack up "negawatts," rather than megawatts. A "negawatt" is the megawatt a consumer doesn't use, which is the greenest and least expensive megawatt of all.
SOLAR POWER
For a growing number of facility planners and building contractors in search of cost-saving energy efficiencies, the sun has become the power source of choice. Thanks to recent advances in silicon technology, manufacturers now integrate durable Thin Film or "Amorphous Silicon" directly into building materials, including roofing, windows and siding. As a result, there are no mounting systems to purchase or install. Residents of Sacramento, California for example, have reduced their reliance on fossil and nuclear fuels and improved the reliability of their power grid ever since that city embraced solar power on a grand scale several years ago. Sacramento enjoys roughly the same amount of sunshine as many Eastern cities including New York.
RENEWABLE FUELS
While demand for electric power rises each year, supply is limited in many
parts of the country because local utility grids can carry only so much. To meet rising customer demand, 1st Rochdale increases the energy supply with clean, cost-effective, renewable fuels. One way is through generating power directly at the point of consumption with solar power and distributed generators in or atop the building. Excess capacity can feed back into to the electric grid, rendering it less vulnerable to power outages during peak demand. The sun's power is thus not only environmentally responsible and energy-efficient, it is also economically efficient for business facilities and household customers.
For additional information on 1st Rochdale Cooperative Group and its fullrange of energy programs -- including those of Twin Pines Fuels Corp., a subsidiary providing heating oil and natural gas and other energy products to consumers across 14 states, stretching from Maine to Virginia -- please visit http://www.1stRochdaleNYC.net.