APCO is the devil. Mine has went up through budget billing nearly $90/mo since June.
I don't understand how folks think the power company is "The Devil." When they are providing a very important service, they are publicly regulated, they have to pay out the ass for an incredible amount of infrastructure, fuel, constant regulations trying to put them out of business, and at the same time under constant pressure to keep their rates low. The price of energy has gone up waaaaayyy less than the current rate of inflation.
Plus it was government regulation that made the energy companies give up on coal and now just like we knew it would we are at the mercy of the natural gas companies and they can charge whatever they want for fuel.
So if you want to blame some entity, blame ever tightening government regulations on carbon output. That's why prices have gone up. The energy companies are just caught in between.
My cell phone bill is higher than my power bill and the cell phone companies hardly have to pay for any infrastructure, no fuel costs, very little personnel costs, and what do I get for all that money... Oh... I get to put up with spam callers.
I am only speaking from my opinion. They are regulated of course, but for the most part they can do what they want a charge what they want. They are guaranteed a profit by AL state law, period.
Any rate increase has to be approved by the Public Service Commission. The PSC is voted in by the rate payers.
The reason the power company needs to be a publicly regulated company that is allowed to make a profit is because of this:
1. There needs to be a sufficient amount of reserve power output capability.
2. Reserve capability means that when there are heat waves or freezing temperatures that could knock part of the generation capacity offline, there has to be a plant that is idling that can quickly come online to make up the difference.
3. Reserve power does not make a profit while it is just sitting there waiting for an emergency. (It would be like you having a spare truck in case yours breaks down.)
4. States where power companies are not regulated, and it's just a free for all with lots of different power utilities competing with each other struggling to make a dime, they don't have any reserve power. You know why? Because it's not profitable.
5. This is why states like California and Texas that don't have regulated power, can and frequently do have massive blackouts during things like forest fires, heat waves, snow and ice storms, a power plant goes down unexpectedly, etc...
6. The only time your power goes out in Alabama is when the power has been cut to your house or your neighborhood, by an ice storm or a tornado or a hurricane. Pretty rare, but when it does happen it is restored by the linemen pretty quickly all things considered.
