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Most of the energy we use is to change temperature. Heating, air conditioning, cooking, and refrigeration make up almost all of your electrical and gas bill. The amount of energy you need for light, music, TV, computers, and even laundry is tiny by comparison.

For most of human history, you had to get that energy delivered to your house. Firewood, ice, candles, lamp oil, coal. And because you had to go out and get it (or arrange for its delivery) yourself, you had choices. If you don't like Johnson's Firewood Company, you can go buy from Smith Firewood Incorporated. Sellers have to compete for customers, and you get the best price. Capitalism 最高!

Then around 150 years ago, companies started sending energy directly into your house with gas pipes and electrical wires. But the energy company owns all the pipes and wires. If you want to stop using Johnson's Electric Company and switch to Smith Energy Incorporated, they have to take out the wire that brings electricity in from the Johnson power plant and put in a new wire that goes to the Smith power plant. If you get power from Smith and your neighbor gets power from Johnson and your other neighbor gets power from O'Malley, it's a mess of wires and pipes and construction and accidents waiting to happen.

It was a mess.

To solve this problem, cities and states sold the right to sell electricity and gas to certain areas. This whole neighborhood now has to get their power from Johnson's Electric Company, so there's only one set of wires to bring electricity in. But because the people in the neighborhood don't have a choice, Johnson's can charge whatever they want and the people have to pay it. Theoretically, the power companies place bids to the government so there would be some competition, but the process was pretty easy to corrupt and the energy companies were able to get powerful monopolies. Capitalism 最低!

To solve this problem, some countries adopted "common carrier" laws, based on older maritime shipping laws. Under common carrier laws, one energy company owns all the wires and pipes, but if somebody wants to buy electricity from a different company, they still have to deliver it. Common carrier laws are also why I can call anyone with a phone number even if they have a different phone company, and it's the legal foundation for net neutrality rules.

My electricity comes from Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E). Part of my bill is for "electricity" and another part is for "delivery". I can choose to buy the electricity from some other company, but BG&E owns the wires to my house, so I still have to pay them for the delivery. And BG&E can't charge me a different delivery fee whether I buy my electricity from them or someone else. BG&E makes most of their electricity from natural gas and coal, which, as we all know, is not good for the environment. So I've been interested in switching my energy supply company.

Next time: Going Solar Part 2: Solar Energy World

Thanks for reading!