Above is a copy of an article in this months NewsMax magazine. I would think since private has a bottom line, Public would probably be a better choice, As long as it's run efficiently without the normal government waste and corruption.
I don't think that Public would be a better choice, since the public wants to take it over because of "climate change," which they are somehow going to address while lowering costs and increasing supply. My regional co-op does a good job, but they are getting too much into solar. You can't cut down co2-absorbing trees and destroy critter habitat for something that's mostly for show (people can buy shares in the solar farms) and really believe that you are doing good.
I have to admit, Potomac Edison, which we have in Frederick MD, is top notch in my book. In 30 years living here, I never remember losing power for more than an hour or two. We even bought a generator when a hurricane was going to hit us and not a flicker. Also, their rates have been remarkably stable. We have lower bills now than when we moved in, probably due to LED conversion and our new HVAC system.
Ours is private but regulated by the PUC (Pennsylvania Utility Commission). Best of both worlds I guess.
I find it interesting that Virginia also regulates all utilities, even co-ops. What do they think we're gonna do...gouge ourselves??? A couple of years ago, my co-op ran fiber to every single home on the system, regardless of how remote. They did this primarily for high-speed internet, with the subordinate benefit of using the fiber to monitor the entire system. When they ran the fiber cables, they had to replace some of the shorter poles to meet Code, which states that the lowest cable on a pole must be "X" feet above the ground, and the power lines must be "X" feet above the communication line. So since they had to replace a number of short poles before installing the fiber, they inspected all of the poles and replaced any that looked like they were nearing end-of-life (most often they were splitting where the transformer bracket mounting bolts went through.) So the entire infrastructure just got an upgrade, and the specific location of outages and other issues now self-reports. We had bad storms come through January of 2022, and something like 97% of the county lost power for days. I didn't. In fact, I stopped watching the news some time ago and was completely unaware of the crisis until others mentioned it when I finally dug out. And I'm 1/2 mile off of the paved road, supplied by a line run through a path cut in the woods for me and my 2 neighbors. Yeh, I got no complaints...except all those solar farms.
What about nuclear power? Can we get it safe Enough? Aircraft carriers and Nuclear submarines have been using nuclear reactors for years. I remember being told of these marvelous ships had reactors that could power a small city, and were relatively small in size. Read what I found on the internet, Why do you think? Imagine if it could be done safely and economically. How big are nuclear reactors on aircraft carriers? Reactor sizes range up to ~500 MWt (about 165 MWe) in the larger submarines and Aircraft Carrier.0 Nuclear-Powered Ships Could Run for a Long Time Nuclear reactors could allow these same ships to run longer and on less fuel. Existing nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers use highly enriched uranium and light-water reactor systems to run for 30 years or more How long can a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier go without refueling 20 years As a result of nuclear power, the ships are capable of operating for over 20 years without refueling and are predicted to have a service life of over 50 years. They are categorized as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and are numbered with consecutive hull numbers between CVN-68 and CVN-77. Many container and tanker ships require up to 50 megawatt systems, which is enough energy to power around 50,000 homes. This requires a lot of bunker fuel and constant refueling that can lead to high operating costs.Apr 13, 2023
I don't believe that nuclear is that unsafe. The issue is what to do with the waste...which is a funny word for something that still has a significant amount of energy in it. They don't have the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in their shorts.