As our electric utility asks for a rate increase, let’s first ask that it stop blatant waste.
Westar, our state-regulated electric utility, is asking for a rate increase. As part of any increase, we ought to insist that the utility do a better job of controlling blatant waste.
Streetlights burning unnecessarily in the middle day in downtown Wichita is an ongoing problem. See In Wichita, wasting electricity a chronic problem and Waste in Wichita, the seen and probably unseen for examples.
The problem may not be solved soon. No one has much motivation to solve the problem. The city pays Westar a fixed fee for each streetlight. The use of electricity is not metered, at least as far as the city’s bill is concerned. So if the city notices the lights wasting electricity during the middle of the day, well, it’s of no cost to the city. The city is concerned that working with Westar to turn off street lights during the day may not be cost-effective, according to Ken Evans, the city’s director of strategic communications. That’s the attitude he expressed in a recent City of Wichita Facebook dialog with citizens. But the city has run a campaign asking people to turn off appliances like microwave ovens and alarm clocks when not in use. This saves a vanishingly small amount of electricity, and at a large cost in convenience.
Westar, on the other hand, is a highly-regulated utility that operates much like a governmental agency. How strong is the profit motive to Westar? Not strong, it seems. Most individuals or private business firms would seek to reduce the waste that Westar seems unconcerned about.
But before granting Westar a rate increase, its regulators ought to insist that the utility work to control blatant waste. This may be the only way to get attention to this problem.