http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18759520

“most households pay £1 per day for an unlimited supply”

On a metered supply, water costs me less than 20p a day.

A spokesman for Welsh Water said the supplier was “investing heavily in protecting resources, replacing old pipes and mains, and greatly reducing leakage”.

Not to mention fitting meters free on request.

What’s not to like about the not-for-profit business model?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/13/welsh-water-dwr-cymru-investment

For the provision of mains water and sewerage I pay £15.50 a month – a bargain.

For telecoms the bill is £25. It should be less, but the land line is still not LLU.

For electricity £26. They’ll be paying me when my solar is installed.

Gas is £39. It was £33 last year, but the ‘retailer’ increased my direct debit without notifying me of the change. I worked in the gas industry for twenty years, the first ten under public ownership. By any criteria, privatization was a retrograde move, a massive cultural change in the wrong direction.

Both gas and electricity are ‘supplied’ by SSE. Don’t make me laugh. This is a prime example of ‘free’ market failure, where profit always takes precedence over customer service. Hugh Outhred is right, because these so-called markets, in energy and finance, are not free in any sense of the word. The complexity of their structure is designed by the players, for the players.

A functional, vertically integrated electricity industry would be able to plan. long-term, for the most efficient and logical provision of grid infrastructure and energy storage. Then the introduction of widely distributed renewables to displace (centralized) fossil fuels could be organized entirely on the basis of an evaluation of the most practical and appropriate science-led technology. Markets will never embrace R&D.

Maybe better to live in apartments/condos and pool resources to go off grid.

Look at you Energy Bill (I’ll use mine as a example)
My gas and electric are delivered by Duke.
Gas: We cook and heat with gas so I include summer and winter
Fixed Delivery charge $25.33
Delivery Riders $8.65
Usage-Based charge (delivery) $0.59 (18 CCF)   $1.64 (50 CCF)
Gas Recovery (gas cost)             $7.54 (18 CCF) $18.80 (50 CCF)
Notice how even if I don’t use the gas, I still pay ~$34/month

Electric (I use Dominion as my providor)
Duke Delivery Fixed ~$14
Distribution $0.002212/kWh 
Distribution Riders ~12 for 900kWh ~22 for 1700kWh
Cost of power $0.0564/kWh
 
So distribution is about over 40% of the cost for electric and even more for gas. And that doesn’t count the cost of running the lines to my home, that is hidden in the home cost.

Yes I know 900-1700kWh/month the house is a pig 

There are strong parallels with telecoms but also differences.

Video traffic over the Internet (e.g. youtube, netflix, peer to peer) is what is driving investment and evolution in telecoms networks. Bandwidth demand continues to grow by about 50% per year.  Telcos are trying to deliver more bits where energy providers despite what they might like are not trying to deliver ever more power. The energy per bit is declining but not rapidly enough.

Over the top Internet services is the main threat and engine of innovation. 

There’ll be a continued separation between services and the physical infrastructure used to provide them. This is driven by competition and regulation. It’s easier to separate in telecoms.

The core parts of telcos that run the physical infrastructure are likely to evolve in a more predictable fashion, continually putting in higher bandwidth equipment and rolling out more fiber. They will become more wholesale orientated. Their retail arms if they retain them will increasingly create their products based on the wholesale offerings.

Driven by the need for cost savings Mobile operators will share their access networks and separate deeper into the core to the retail brands. Mobile and fixed operators will also share their core networks better.

I wouldn’t bet on telephone numbers dying just yet but the technology will transform.