there absolutely is for most utilities like water, sewer, electricity. residential vs commercial vs industrial. you can usually see the distinct rates on the energy company’s website and find out just how in the bag for industry/commerce your utility is!
here, not only do the ‘big’ customers get a break on the per-unit charges, but the fixed monthly account charge (cost for the hookup or the meter, before the usage related charges) is also a much smaller percentage of the total bill than it is for the small residential customer. for me, half the year that line item is higher than the whole rest of the bill (usage + taxes, etc).
yeah, i think that has held true for me everywhere i’ve lived. the dogma is that industry/commerce rate discounts attract employers aka eCoNoMiC aCtiViTy while their consistent volume of usage makes up for the discount.
maybe there’s some logic to the idea that a smaller group of high volume clients is easier to provide administrative support (connect/disconnect/outages/billing/communication) and infrastructure than a massive group of distinct low volume clients, and maybe i can get with that when it comes to things like waste disposal and sewage… but when it comes to energy, especially fossil fuel energy and a scarcity of renewable capacity, i think electricty usage should be graduated: the more you use, the more your rates go up and marking those extra revenues for increasing renewable/non-fossil fuel capacity until there isn’t scarcity. and definitely certain “industries” and “commercial” clients should pay penalties if they are for-profit and Part of the Problem.
these are all very milquetoast social democratic reforms, so of course they cannot even be mentioned in our free liberal democracy marketplace of ideas.
there absolutely is for most utilities like water, sewer, electricity. residential vs commercial vs industrial. you can usually see the distinct rates on the energy company’s website and find out just how in the bag for industry/commerce your utility is!
here, not only do the ‘big’ customers get a break on the per-unit charges, but the fixed monthly account charge (cost for the hookup or the meter, before the usage related charges) is also a much smaller percentage of the total bill than it is for the small residential customer. for me, half the year that line item is higher than the whole rest of the bill (usage + taxes, etc).
yeah, i think that has held true for me everywhere i’ve lived. the dogma is that industry/commerce rate discounts attract employers aka eCoNoMiC aCtiViTy while their consistent volume of usage makes up for the discount.
maybe there’s some logic to the idea that a smaller group of high volume clients is easier to provide administrative support (connect/disconnect/outages/billing/communication) and infrastructure than a massive group of distinct low volume clients, and maybe i can get with that when it comes to things like waste disposal and sewage… but when it comes to energy, especially fossil fuel energy and a scarcity of renewable capacity, i think electricty usage should be graduated: the more you use, the more your rates go up and marking those extra revenues for increasing renewable/non-fossil fuel capacity until there isn’t scarcity. and definitely certain “industries” and “commercial” clients should pay penalties if they are for-profit and Part of the Problem.
these are all very milquetoast social democratic reforms, so of course they cannot even be mentioned in our free liberal democracy marketplace of ideas.