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RuinTrajectory t1_j1dzjpj wrote

Reply to comment by Guygan in Gotta love Kennebunk Light & Power. I submitted an online report. Truck arrived in 20 minutes. Power back on within an hour by Guygan

Scale and logistics. If people think state owned power would have better response times without an increase in labor cost, essentially getting something from nothing, they are using magical thinking. Not saying you can't want better from CMP or large scale power distribution in general, but you do indeed get what you pay for.

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chronosaurus88 t1_j1e6umd wrote

Take the profit motive out and invest it in labor and burying lines as opposed to Iberdrolas bloated executives and shareholders.

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Tankbean t1_j1f0wgz wrote

Why upgrade our 1960s infrastructure. It works so well. /s

Just an article today that people can't grid tie their solar because it would overload the grid. WTF year do we live in? I see this being an issue in a really sunny populated state, but Maine's has the population of a decent sized city and we're not exactly getting 12 hours of direct sunlight everyday.

Sitting here with a generator running the pellet stove and fridge. They'll be "assessing" the outage until tomorrow. Greedy corporate fucks. Fuck CMP.

We should all install wood stoves and take CMP to small claims court to pay for them as they wouldn't be needed if their grid wasn't utter shit.

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guethlema t1_j1ih52k wrote

Lmao I have 3 jobs delayed right now because there are no electricians.

This is a result of unions and apprentice programs getting gutted in the years following Reagan, not CMP specific.

The cost of putting lines underground is literally order of magnitude 10x the cost of maintaining overhead for, what, 2-5 days a year without power for rural people?

If CMP became public, doubled their staff, and burried lines we would have the most expensive utility in the country for the benefit of a handful of days a year off service.

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RuinTrajectory t1_j1e7ydl wrote

Exchange profit motive for bureaucracy and debt. I can't speak to how efficient the state is, but I was a federal employee for several years and the amount of inefficiency, bloat, and useless personnel that were basically impossible to fire was mindblowing.

13.5 billion is the number I've seen floated around. MPUC still sets the standard offer rates, we potentially save on distribution costs and potentially pay a higher tax burden as a result of budgeting in payment for the infrastructure. I see a lot of room for unintended consequences. I also see no reason there would be a positive change in reliability or response times without increasing the labor pool involved.

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IronThumbs t1_j1ftzih wrote

The state has nothing to do with consumer-owned utility.

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cepheus42 t1_j1g8ewh wrote

> Exchange profit motive for bureaucracy and debt

No. Exchange profit motive AND bureaucracy AND debt. All three of those are already provided by CMP, as any nitwit could tell you.

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ecco-domenica t1_j1fj3sp wrote

>state owned power

you mean consumer owned power. It won't be owned or run by the state. It will be owned by the consumers. Will probaly be run by the same people working for it now. And the profits won't be going to Spain.

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ecco-domenica t1_j1gox8d wrote

But shouldn't scale and logistics work just the opposite way? You've got a small company that charges less and is getting more done with fewer resources than a large company that is charging more to accomplish less with more resources.

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guethlema t1_j1igp6q wrote

You're getting downvoted because people hate CMP, not because you're wrong.

CMP has fucked up, and also the time to repair is a direct function of "Trees * service area / total customers". That variable doesn't change if it's run as a co-op.

And if it's run as a co-op, reminder that Paul LePage would have been able to appoint people to run (gut) the company over the last decade.

And before we start stomping our feet about hiring more electric workers to do the work, ask anyone in construction if they have enough electricians to complete their job.

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