Are you ready for higher electric bills?

So yesterday, the Chron had a front-page story that raised the point that since Hurricane Rita, Texas has done nothing to require utility companies to improve their infrastructure, as Florida did after Hurricane Wilma. Doing so might have mitigated some of the power outages that a large portion of folks are still experiencing. But there would have been a cost to such an action, which naturally would have been passed along to the consumer, which prompted a lot of resistance from the utilities. They expressed their concerns thusly:

"So the decision comes down, for a ratepayer: Do you want to pay a significant amount of extra money to mitigate an outage that might take two or three weeks and that occurs infrequently?" said Entergy Texas Chief Executive Joe Domino.

Now keep that quote in mind as you read this:

If Hurricane Rita is any guide, Houston-area customers could be paying higher electricity bills for years to cover the cost of repairing the battered Gulf Coast power grid in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

The reason: Under deregulation, ratepayers are responsible for the expense of maintaining and expanding the power grid in Texas.

In a phone interview Sunday, Entergy Texas CEO Joe Domino said Rita repairs cost his company hundreds of millions of dollars. After the 2005 storm ripped East Texas, the Public Utility Commission of Texas greenlighted a $381 million systemwide rate increase to pay for the fixes in the company's grid, which generally runs to the north and east of Houston.

The increase amounted to $3.85 for the average 1,000-kilowatt customer tacked on to each month's bill over the course of 15 years -- or roughly $700 overall. Many households use much more power, meaning their increase is higher.

"The more you use, the more you pay," Entergy spokesman Dan Daugherty said, adding that industrial users pay far more to fix the grid than residential customers.

[...]

Terry Hadley, a spokesman for the PUC, said any rate increase would be deliberated by the commission, a process that usually takes six months. A quicker result is possible if the companies agree to a lower settlement figure, securitizing their damage costs with bonds that carry reduced interest because they are backed by cash flows from specific assets, such as transmission lines.

In the case of Entergy's rate hike petition to the PUC after Rita, the company had been asking for $561 million worth of increases but the PUC agreed to grant $381 million of them, Hadley said.

"Damage costs from this event should be higher. The PUC will deal with whatever those numbers are when there's a formal application," he said.

So apparently we're all going to be paying anyway (CenterPoint didn't raise rates after Rita, but will be doing so this time around). It'll be mitigated somewhat by the utilities issuing bonds, which will be securitized by their expected greater revenue from that rate increase, but rates will go up nonetheless. So here's my question: If we're gonna be picking up the tab for this anyway, wouldn't it be nice to know that we'd be getting a better infrastructure, one that might be able to handle the next hurricane with a smaller loss of power, out of it? At the very least, wouldn't it be nice to know how much that option might cost us so we could make an informed decision about it? How could we possibly be any worse off with that?

Here's an update on school closings and reopenings in the area; HISD's information is here. That wailing sound you hear is coming from my neighborhood, where the moms have just realized that Travis Elementary is still closed.

Today ought to be an interesting day for commuters, since I figure today is the first day that nearly everyone will actually be commuting as usual. Still a lot of traffic lights out, which will make entering and exiting the freeways in certain locations a heap of joy. Most HOV lanes are still out of service, though at least the I-45 HOV lane will be open, as will the light rail line. But the city curfew is still in place, "until further notice", so don't head out to work too early.

I'm assuming we'll see a lot of trash getting picked up today. Here's what to expect:

Beginning Monday, September 22, 2008, the Solid Waste Management Department will divert all of its normal heavy trash operations to storm debris collections. Therefore, the normal heavy trash schedule has been suspended. "We want to stay out of the way of the contractors who are here to tackle the enormous storm debris work load," said Solid Waste Management Department Director Harry J. Hayes. "Our department will work one of the 16 debris zones to expedite storm clean up," added Hayes. DRC, the City of Houston's private storm debris hauler has 346 trucks deployed to debris zones to assist City of Houston crews with storm debris removal.

The Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) will proceed with normal garbage and yard trimmings collection operations on Monday, September 22, 2008. The Curbside Recycling crews are assisting the Yard Trimmings crews with vegetative storm debris collection and, therefore, will not be collecting the recyclable materials from the green bins. Curbside Recycling is suspended until further notice.

That's fine. Getting that debris off the streets is top priority.

The girls go back to school today, so we're returning to what passes for normal around here. What's your status?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 22, 2008 to Hurricane Katrina