Who Loves JEA?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Possibly.  Can that be proven?

This link was provided by BT earlier in the thread, the quarterly financials give you a good overall picture.

http://www.jea.com/about/pub/index.asp

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Go read some of ChrisW's genius articles on deregulation of the electric industry and let me know how that went.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

What argument?

That JEA can and will charge delinquent (residential) accounts an additional deposit?

That JEA's base rate is one of the lowest in the state?

That I don't think that JEA is some big conspiracy theory?

I haven't argues so much as disproved others' theories with facts gleaned from the web. 

You still haven't told me what a fair price for electricity is.  You still haven't backed up any of your name-dropping posts with a solid fact.  Your theories are just that.  I'm sorry if the financial side of it bores you and is too reality based, that you have to repeatedly go back to name calling and talking down, but numbers are facts and heresay is,well, heresay.   My thoughts on the matter have been backed by public accounting records.  You can't reasonably argue that.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

You have served to point out exactly that the advertised rates and claims of the JEA are false, as you are actively telling people what their bills should be, and yet they are higher.  The JEA claims a low rate, which you yourself have demonstrated is not possible to get unless you order (and pay for) a special meter which tracks the time at which energy is consumed.

Their advertised rate is not the one you get with the TOD meter, they advertise the .06 - the base rate for all residential leveraged service. 

You have not provided a clear reason why the additional profits have not been applied to a general lowering of the rates instead of a steady and repeated series of rate hikes, nor have you justified why a board of government board of directors should be allowed to accumulate a billion dollar investment pool to be deployed for the benefit of a group other than the taxpayers who own the utility.

As I'm still actually working on this.  The cost of service has increased and so has the cost of running the business.  Fuel costs skyrocketed compared to our rate increases.  I am still plundering through financial docs to get to the bottom of it.  Yes, our rates increased about 4% more than their costs, but why?   I'm still working that part.  The other side of it, the pool of money, I probably won't find out much on.  I have no clue how much a company that size requires in liquid assets to maintain their credit ratings.  I have no clue what they need for a rainy day.  I am trying to figure out how/if that amount has offset their increases.  This takes time and I'm not done.

In fact, you don't even seem to be aware of what the basic criticism of the JEA actually is.  You have proven this in the above referenced post, in which you seem to be fundamentally incapable of understanding that a Publicly owned Utility is not supposed to behave as a private corporation.

Why?  Why shouldn't some parts of government be self-sustaining?  I took Chris' comment and started researching deregulation of energy, and it has been a catastophe in every case.  Nutshell version, the local company that was in place still sets the base rate that the other proveder mark-up from there, so you end up fundamentally with an oligopoly controlled by a govt ran monopoly.  Talk about shady.

More laughably, you also seem to think that you are defending Private enterprise against the 'socialists'.

A more sensible person would be embarrassed to find out that they are defending a government entity with a monopoly, considering.

The JEA was granted a monopoly based on its agreement to abide by certain principle which benefited its owners, which are the taxpayers of duval county.  This fact has been blithely ignored by you.

And keeping reserves and not running the company in the hole, and by showing net worth, they keep their bond ratings up which allows them to expand without raising their prices in the sake of expansion.  You keep saying that I'm blind to the facts, but I think tha you're just being naive to the reality.  Who does it benefit in the long run if they gave us a 3% reduction on services?  What do they do next year when fuel costs go up 25% instead of their typical 8%-9%?  You're going to end up with a situation that we have in the insurance industry - no new rate increases and then BAM - we're hitting all policy holders up for an additional 40% this year becaue we had an extra hurricane.  That's not good for anyone at anytime.

Your argument, if you can be said to have one, seems to revolve around the idea that this government body should be allowed to function like a very predatory private institution.

What makes your argument fail, is that you simply cannot tell the difference between the two.

In this case, they are one in the same.  That's not an argument, it's just the way it is.

[ChriswUfGator]

Ok there, Blogdad Bob...



"There is NOTHING wrong at JEA..."

[Timkin]

[uptowngirl]

This is my new fav thread, they are one and the same....just like Egypt is a democracy AND a totalitarian state, I mean they did get to mark a ballet right?!

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I'll tell you what, Billy S., maybe anonymity is better for blogs.  Let's drop the charade and quit belittling everything that's posted on a subject that you apparently have no knack for - business acumen and finances - both of which are being discussed here.  There's no need for rumors and untruths.  Actual research and a little reality check would do you some good.  I'm actually pretty good at researching, BTW. 

[uptowngirl]

On initial look, from Dec. '07 to June '10, I have found some things:

The rates increased 23.3% for 1000 kwh. [cue the fatalists]

but,

Their Operating expenses during the same time increased 19.4%

and

Their Fuel costs (part of their operating expense) increased 35.8% over the same period, so they did cut back somewhere, but I didn't crunch all the numbers to find out.

But like any good statistician, I've thrown you the ones that support my take on this - everyone's costs have gone up in the last few years, and IMO, JEA hasn't stuck it to us.  They've increased our prices as their costs increase.

One thing that you should note, is that they set their price for the year.  So someone has to SWAG it based on what their crystal ball tells them the market is going to do for the next 12 months.

I would be terribly curious......

What has JEA's  ACTUAL (NECESSARY) operating cost increases been from 07 -Present? ( I am not asking to factor in  Pay Raises and Bonuses ,but they of course DO factor into the increase.)

Would COMPLETELY AGREE the cost of EVERYTHING has gone up.   I still maintain.. If your cable gets ridiculously high , you have alternative choices, you can make CUTS .  Same is true for Telephone , or use of your Automobile, Cuts can be made to reduce expenses.  To a tiny (very tiny)degree  use of electricity can save a couple of bucks.

Bottom line.. I live in the same house I lived in in 2006. Now it has a more efficient A/C Heating System than when I first moved in... Changing that out  reduced the monthly bill... my electric AVERAGE during Spring /Summer /Fall  Rarely cost me 120.00 /month.  Cold Weather and the use of heating , as for everyone raised this somewhat but ,even so I never (until this year) had a heating bill that EXCEEDED 200.00 /month.  This past month, my light bill was a shade over $300.00 yet there is still just me and I still use the same average ( actually just a little less kwh than one year ago)  

My opinion is the increase has a little to do with fuel cost, some to do with taxes and MUCH to do with some of the higher-end salaries at JEA.  If someone would like to , or has a way to break down JEA's actual costs  I am open to listening .. Until then, I maintain they are a R I P O F F ! ! !

Wasn't the reason the bill was much cheaper back then because the previous CEO did some tinkering with the rates and used up all the reserve cash till it ran out?  Something like JEA was operating at a loss for a few years because the previous CEO was afraid to raise rates.  

I think someone here mentioned something about that.

Afraid to raise rates to cover increased salaries maybe. Where did that money go? straight into their pockets. While fuel costs have increased, no doubt about it- coal is the cheapest fuel to produce electricity and our rates are just not that much lower than other areas using better, but more expensive fuel options.

[tufsu1]

Ok there, Blogdad Bob...



"There is NOTHING wrong at JEA..."

wait..so are you now insinuating that redneck and I are the same person 

[Lunican]

Anyway, for January I paid 14.8 cents per kWh to JEA and 10.1 cents per kWh to ComEd.

So electricity in Chicago is significantly cheaper than Jax despite all of the irrelevant comments. These aren't estimates... they are actual bills side by side including all taxes, charges, and convenience fees.

[Lunican]

So you may qualify for some riders, but they also didn't figure in their taxes (I mean your taxes), which means that you're probably paying more there.  Those are just facts.

I don't really understand your post. I used less electricity in Jacksonville and was billed more.

JEA: 329kWh = $48.71
ComEd: 426kWh = $46.55

[ChriswUfGator]

It's the same story even within florida, FP&L is significantly cheaper, so is GRU and basically every other company.

[jaxbeachguy]

When the power is out and the JEA truck pulls up -- everybody!

[tufsu1]

It's the same story even within florida, FP&L is significantly cheaper, so is GRU and basically every other company.

not true...data shows that JEA is pretty much in the middle when it comes to utility costs in Florida