On Thu, Jan 18, 2001 at 03:48:58PM -0800, Mathew Butler wrote:
Los Angeles rates have stayed the same, and they're not having any problems. (It's a public utility, and thus wasn't forced into competition at the same rate as the private companies.)
This all proves that if you're looking for a place to put a data center, you need to keep this in mind: X amount of power takes Y amount of money to produce. You can either pay it to a state-sponsored monopoly, or you can pay it to a private company competing freely, or you can force artificially low prices through pseudo-private companies operating under cap that generates Y minus N amount of income, and watch X minus N amount of power be generated. No amount of legislation will make Y minus N amount of money produce X amount of power. No company that is truly competing will charge Y minus N, because they make more money if they charge Y.