We talked with Audrey Zibelman, Chair of the New York Public Service Commission
Should We Lift the Curtain?
Nov. 28, 2016: On Thanksgiving Day, the Wall Street Journal reported on the power plant construction accident in China that day. At least sixty-seven workers tragically died.
Per the WSJ article by Chun Han Wong, cooling tower scaffolding collapsed at the two-thousand megawatt expansion of the Ganneng Fengcheng coal power plant.
The article goes on to discuss, more generally, coal plant construction in China:
Nov. 22, 2016: It feels like electric utility service is less costly than it was. This feeling, a reality, is backed up by Consumer Price Index trends.
The Labor Department has been tracking the prices of the goods and services that consumers typically buy, including electric service, since 1913. It’s interesting, though not too relevant to today, that electric service costs 4.6 times what it did in 1913, while consumer goods and services overall cost 23.9 times what they did back then. Comparing 2015 to 1913 annualized.
Electricity is far cheaper now.
Late last week, the Labor Department published October’s Consumer Price Index. The underlying detail shows consumer price trends for electric and natural gas utility service nationally and regionally.
Nationally, the overall CPI for all goods and services was up 1.6 percent over the last twelve months.
As is usual these days, the CPI for electric service lagged the overall CPI. CPI-Electricity was up 0.4 percent over the twelve months.
Nov. 17, 2016: Yesterday, the Labor Department published October’s producer price index for numerous goods and services.
You’re likely most interested in what’s happened to the price of turkey. Thanksgiving is just a week away. Great news! Turkey’s price is down 16.6 percent from last year.
Suppose you’re also interested in electricity and natural gas price trends.
The PPI for residential electricity is up 0.2 percent from October 2015. For commercial electricity, it’s up 0.5 percent.
Nov. 16, 2016: This week it’s been the center of the universe. No, not Trump Tower. La Quinta of course, California’s host town for the NARUC Annual Meeting.
NARUC’s Winter Meeting in February and Summer Meeting in July are enormous gatherings of utility regulators and their fandom. But the Annual Meeting each November is the epic festival of regulation’s rock stars.