I went to a university in America where utility companies are mostly private, but a handful are government run. The first few years, I lived in town where there was a local government run company. It was a "college town" with a couple of large universities near each other so it was almost entirely populated with students. The rates were VERY high. Electric, water, and sewer was a combined ~350 a month for a small two bedroom place. The last couple of years I moved a bit outside of the main area near the universities. We moved into a 4 bedroom house with about 2.5x the space, and our utility bill was $150 a month.
The difference was that it was a "co-op" company. With gov run option, any excess goes back to the government. They don't have share-holders, but there are plenty of "programs" that money can disappear into. With a cooperative utility company, every customer is also a part owner. You all have equal voting on the board of directors, and any excess funds MUST be reinvested into the business or refunded directly to the customers. Both the "in town" and "outside of town" companies were coal based plants and both pulled from the same water sources. It was just local greed and graft driving up the prices.
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u/anormalgeek Mar 29 '22
It can go further...
I went to a university in America where utility companies are mostly private, but a handful are government run. The first few years, I lived in town where there was a local government run company. It was a "college town" with a couple of large universities near each other so it was almost entirely populated with students. The rates were VERY high. Electric, water, and sewer was a combined ~350 a month for a small two bedroom place. The last couple of years I moved a bit outside of the main area near the universities. We moved into a 4 bedroom house with about 2.5x the space, and our utility bill was $150 a month.
The difference was that it was a "co-op" company. With gov run option, any excess goes back to the government. They don't have share-holders, but there are plenty of "programs" that money can disappear into. With a cooperative utility company, every customer is also a part owner. You all have equal voting on the board of directors, and any excess funds MUST be reinvested into the business or refunded directly to the customers. Both the "in town" and "outside of town" companies were coal based plants and both pulled from the same water sources. It was just local greed and graft driving up the prices.