Electric Costs by State

Over the past year, Delaware has experienced one of the highest increases in electrical power costs to commercial customers. So much so, that to get a new business to even consider moving in, we had to allow them to build their own power plant because our electricity is just “too” expensive.

The sole reason Delaware ranks so high is that our Public Service Commission rolls over and approves everything Delmarva asks, no matter how ridiculous…. The laws of supply and demand, do not apply here.

Currently they are considering a huge increase and Delmarva Power even says its reason, is to stretch their increase in profits over a wider stretch of time. Instead of getting hit with a sudden charge because Delmarva Power desires higher profits at some point in the future, they wish now to stretch that increase over a wider time span. Not that they need to pay for anything already spent. That is done. But they want you to now pay for their profits in advance of what they predict they will have 10-20 years up the road… Is this mad? No, it isn’t when you have a Public Service Commission that rubber stamps everything you ask for.

(If your boss ALWAYS granted every request you made) would you be ticked in the head to ask for a million dollars a year? Of course not. You’d be insane, NOT to do it!

So here is their argument. The customers should pay us all this extra profit now, and that way, the corporate entitiy won’t have to charge you as much for their steep growth in profit over the next 10-20 years….

Yep. That is their sole argument, and to all intents and purposes, the Public Service commission is going to rubber stamp that request and pass the bill to you.

No business will want to invest in a state that penalizes its users of electricity.

The price per kwh to commercial users in Delaware jumped from $9.85 to $10.41 (5.68%).… The price to industrial users in Delaware jumped from $7.70 to $8.46.(9.8%).. For the curious, residential costs actually dropped 13.91 to 13.38 cents per kwh. (-3.8%)

Costs Electric 2013 Delineated

If as a data center business you were to use 200 MWh of power, that percentage of increase alone would have cost you (.56/kwh X 1000 kwh/MWh X 200 MWh = $112,000) of extra money EVERY SINGLE HOUR!. Put bluntly, Delmarva Power’s rate increases are costing Delaware its jobs.

What if you moved to PA? YOUR RATES DROPPED 2 CENTS PER COMMERCIAL AND 19 CENTS INDUSTRIAL. How about expensive New York? YOUR RATES DROPPED 57 CENTS IN COMMERCIAL AND 61 IN COMMERCIAL! Surely New Jersey went up you ask? INSTEAD OF DELAWARE’S CLIMB OF 56 CENTS, NEW JERSEY SQUEAKED UP 1 CENT IN COMMERCIAL AND 29 CENTS IN INDUSTRIAL! To round out the Middle Atlantic, Maryland and Virgina both dropped their commercial rates as well from 2012 to 2013….

Delaware’s costs are the 15th highest in the nation.

If you are paying $112,000 more dollars in Delaware PER HOUR,… there is no tax offset that can come even close to matching that expense.

Which is why Delaware is now ranked at the bottom of job growth and business environment.

In catering to one’s friends within the inner social circle of Wilmington, we have chased away all other new business investors.

PSC is holding a public hearing next Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., at the University of Delaware’s Arsht Hall, 2600 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington. This topic will be discussed.

Just curious, would you invest in a state that allows its power to increase costing you $112,000 of extra money per hour?

I would think not. Unless of course you could build your own power plant, and cut out the middle man who uses his monopoly to outlandishly sky-jack his prices…. Then, and only then, does moving into Delaware become commercially feasible….

One should certainly hope the Public Service Commission understands that what it chooses or does not choose to do, creates huge ripples that then race across Delaware’s economy.