In the Houston area their are people who are stealing electricity by directly connecting power plates and extension cords on power lines. 

These people actually climb the poles and hook their cables directly into the power line trying not to get electrified in the process.  Are energy rates really getting so high that people are resorting to risking their lives.  This is just amazing to me. 

Power pirates steal $3k of electricity from woman 02:13 PM CST on Monday, January 22, 2007 By Lee McGuire / 11 News Click to watch video A man trying to keep warm in the Fifth Ward may have accidentally set fire to his own feet. KHOU Someone climbed this utility pole and tied an extension cord directly into the power line. When police arrived to help out, a much larger problem appeared. Police tried to untangle a troubling trend of people pirating power and harming others in the process. Every time CenterPoint Energy sends a technician to a certain northeast Houston neighborhood, someone else loses their electricity — and for good reason. Police said neighbors have been illegally tapping into the power lines of this rundown one bedroom home, and the $3,000 electric bill is now too much for Earline Harris to pay. “Especially when you’re on a fixed income like I am, and I don’t get but one check a month,” she said. Harris had wondered why her lights had been flickering lately. What the yellow power cords snaking around her house were for. The nearby fire that a police dashboard camera caught on Tuesday answered all her questions and gave police a new look into an old crime that’s taken an aggressive turn. “They’re in her backyard tapping into her electrical line, causing her bill to go up, and it’s not fair,” HPD Officer Pat Siddons said. Siddons said electricity theft used to be as simple as someone tapping into a power meter. But in this case, someone also climbed a utility pole and tied an extension cord directly into the power line. “They use some innovative ways to do it that are very, very dangerous, and we’re surprised that we don’t get more calls about people getting electrocuted,” Officer Siddons said. Here the man burned his own feet when he plugged a hotplate into that line. The hotplate exploded and his mattress caught fire. CenterPoint cut off the power and gave Harris a waiver for part of the bill. But five days later, officers are back, and so is the problem. “It’s unbelievable because this exact extension cord on Tuesday was going to the house on the right,” Officer Siddons said. “And now it’s going to another house.” The trail leads officers to a rental property. No one answered the door but we were watched from the window, as CenterPoint cut yet another home out of an illegal grid. The fines for stealing electricity can run into the thousands of dollars. Failure to pay those fines usually means jail time.

TXU for instance would be your “POLR”

For those of you who wonder what happens when an electric company goes bankrupt and your concerned about losing service, here is an article to alleviate this fear.

Safety-net Electric Rates Fall in Houston area
PUC, TXU Agree on new “Provider of Last Resort” Terms

Contact:
Terry Hadley 512-936-7135
Pager: 512-322-1457

Tuesday, November 20, 2001 –An agreement between the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and a TXU affiliate known as Assurance Energy reduces previously announced rates and fees for guaranteed back-up electric service in the Houston area and south Texas when retail competition begins Jan. 1, 2002.

Residential customers of investor-owned utility affiliates will enjoy a six-percent rate cut, adjusted for fuel prices, when retail competition begins on Jan. 1, 2002. Customers who choose a competing retail electric provider (REP) may enjoy even larger cost savings. However, it is necessary for the PUC to designate a “provider of last resort” (POLR) to serve as a safety net if a customer’s REP cancels electric service.

“I commend Assurance Energy for agreeing to lower its POLR rates and fees,” said PUC Chairman Max Yzaguirre. “This is good news for the Houston area and south Texas, and reflects the lower natural gas price environment that currently exists.”

The previous agreement was negotiated early this year when the price for natural gas, a major fuel for generating electricity, reached historical highs. Currently, natural gas prices are substantially lower. While the original agreement resulted in a residential rate of 12.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for summer months and 9.5 cents per kWh for non-summer months, the renegotiations resulted in rates of 9.5 cents per kWh for summer months and 7.5 cents per kWh for non-summer months. These rates do not include non-bypassable transmission costs.

Under the Texas electric restructuring law, a POLR is required to:

Assure continued service.�
Offer a standard retail service package for each customer class at a fixed, non-discountable rate.�
Respond to customer inquiries and follow applicable customer protection rules.
Provide the same benefits for low-income customers as other providers.
POLR service is relatively high-priced due planning costs and uncertainty in the number of customers and electricity load. This service is intended to be temporary and used only under infrequent circumstances if a REP is unwilling or unable to provide service, or if a REP terminates a customer for non-payment. Customers will have at least 10 days notice to shop for another REP before being switched to the POLR. If the customer is unable to locate a new provider within 10 days, then the POLR can provide service during the time that the customer is shopping.

Assurance Energy will serve as POLR for residential customers for at least six months. The PUC may adjust the rate if fuel prices change significantly.

POLR customers covered by the agreement with Assurance Energy are residential and small non-residential customers (electricity demand up to one megawatt) currently served by Reliant/ HL&P, Texas New Mexico Power, Central Power and Light, Sharyland and West Texas Utilities, along with large non-residential customers (demand greater than one megawatt) currently served by TXU.

The PUC encourages competition and customer choice while ensuring electric and telephone operations, services and rates are fair and reasonable.

All PUC News Releases are available at www.puc.state.tx.us

Last Updated: 02/03/03

What are the real facts concerning a possible failed energy deregulation process in the United States?

Facts among each deregulated state in the United States vary. Because the facts vary it is important to read them all and find the inconsistencies and make sense of it all.

The question is: Does Electricity Deregulation help a state or hurt it?

Many say it hurts it and for good reason. Did you know there has yet to be a single state that has seen a positive competitive rate price after deregulation that looked better then where electric rates were at prior to deregulation. Why is this?

Phenominal Growth

We are seeing a phenominal growth in the consumption of energy by all sources of energy generation. This is one contributor to a coincidental spike in electricity prices around the same time energy consumption has never been in more demand. This chart show where energy generation has come from and gone too at the present.

Need more generation plants

Natural Gas as well as most other generation fuels have added more generation plants and produced more energy and the demand has requested it. The problem is that we are now becoming a cleaner country and many states no longer allow for coal production at any larger scale then where it is at. Natural gas remains the cleaner energy generation source. Because Natural Gas is hard to move around the country and keep adequate supplies in storage it remains very volatile in price. The price spikes happened about the same time the states deregulated. Without a good bearing on Natural Gas prices it has caused electricity providers who have to insure they do not go under by pricing their energy product at an unprofitable rate sometimes price higher then is called for.

Whose fault is it?

The electric providers cannot avoid this at times because it means investor dollars and ultimately whether or not they will be able to stay in business. When companies were regulated by the government they could have government money pumped into the company if it started to go under due to prices rising beyond their ability to maintain the generation facility.

Case Study on Generation Plants

As you can see, when Texas deregulated electricity in 2002 was also around the same time natural gas volatility caused some large price spikes. This in turn had a big affect on electricity prices in many parts of the country. If the future goes as we have seen in the past the up and coming affordable energy of nuclear will soon surpass natural gas as the generation fuel of choice.

Rough time with the deregulation process

Most states have had a rough time with deregulation but this way of thought may just be because of frustration with energy costs which caused people to blame the monopoly providers which spurred on a positive notion to deregulate which then backfired when prices did not get better. These prices being worse off then before caused people to go to blaming the deregulation process instead of the prior monopolies when we should all now know it has more to do with the slow growth and progress of energy generation and consumption.