InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/series/power-to-the-people/)
D. Maurice KreisPower to the People is a new column by D. Maurice Kreis, New Hampshire’s Consumer Advocate. Kreis and his staff of four represent the interests of residential utility customers before the NH Public Utilities Commission and elsewhere.
Electricity is really important – it’s an essential commodity these days, and it has grown notably expensive over the past couple of years. Ergo, the annual election at the Electric Co-op is important.
It is not because of my fondness for my late grandmother’s chopped herring, though Marcel Proust would surely appreciate how vividly the memory lingers of that particular sweet and sour delight.
Remember the time a famous architect secretly designed a public housing project, and then blew the place up because the complex was not built to his specifications?
All of these activities require flaggers who can direct traffic so the utility workers can do their pruning and digging. The objective is to keep the utility workers, and those passing by, as safe as possible.
As New Hampshire emerges from a long winter of ratepayer discontent, the hunt for blameworthy characters continues. Here are some nominations.
I’m sorry if that sounds insulting to the many people with whom I am in regular contact at the state’s regulated electric, gas, and water utilities.
Electric consumers are on default service if they do not – as 81 percent of Eversource customers don’t – exercise their right to buy power from a non-utility supplier.
By signing on to the Zellem Report, the three PUC commissioners have now fatally compromised their impartiality and, I respectfully suggest, must disqualify themselves from ruling on the Triennial Energy Efficiency Plan the utilities are scheduled to file in July.
Second, when real-time prices soar to these heights it means something is wrong with the bulk power transmission system and there is danger of rolling blackouts or, worse, an uncontrolled system failure.
What a year 2022 has been for the state’s beleaguered electric customers. Rates soared to astronomical levels – and now, you might conclude, our four utilities even managed to ruin Christmas for thousands and thousands of people.