Who 'owns' our Power Grids?

[SnoopDog]

And, who 'owns' the power lines coming to our homes?

Somebody had to pay for them - somebody has to own them?

I would appreciate any assistance and insight on this question.

Thanks.

[conscious evolution]

1. We paid for them.

The power companies own them.

[SnoopDog]

3. We, meaning tax payers paid for power lines????

Then did our government 'give' them to the private power companies?

I tried to find this info - where or how do you know this?

[conscious evolution]

6. Both as taxpayers and as rate payers.

Remember the Rural Electrification Act? The Tennessee Valley Authority?
Both were goverment projects paid for by taxpayers.Same thing with a lot of hydroelectric damns around the country.Built on taxpayer dime.
My father,who worked for the Army Corps of Engineers designing and building hydro damns and power plants,told me the once that the goverment used to charge power companies for power they got from the goverment but that during reagons time in office they just handed the hydro electric plants over to the power companies.
I have to imagine it was the same with the power distribution and transmission lines criss crossing the country.

[SnoopDog]

10. Yes I remember reading about them but

I am not aware of the transfer of ownership...

Obviously, I am trying to determine if our power grid is owned legally by the 'people'... And if we paid for them and we now do not own them - well that really sucks...

It would be nice to restore the power grid ownership back to the people...

[RC]

2. The lines going to you home are owned by the power company to the meter..

After that it is your responsibility.
Who owns the grid? Depends on where.

[remoulade]

4. Edison and Westinghouse figured out how to charge for electricity.

Other people 'discovered' oil, gold, diamonds, iron.............and so forth. They determined, correctly, that they could extract, produce, refine, package and market a commodity that people were willing to buy and that's what they did. Some people think all that stuff should be free to anybody who wants it, and to a large extent it is even now...to whoever's able to find and extract/deliver it. I could drill my own water and gas wells on my own property and get it for free...but I'd just rather pay somebody a little bit instead of investing a small fortune to do it.

[SnoopDog]

5. Not sure what you mean...

All I am trying to figure out is who paid for the power grid and who owns them....

Do you know?

[remoulade]

9. The people/companies who built them own them.

They mostly paid for them. With some tax breaks, of course, like most every other industry that has added to the infrastructure.
\

[Mr Rabble]

7. Mostly owned by private corporations. And yes, we did pay for them.

As with almost everything in our economy, the electrical infrastructure was initially paid for by US taxpayers. Once the bugs were worked out and the engineering process became refined, it was mostly given away to private power.
Now very profitable, the electric grid is totally privately owned (as far as I know). :)

Pick any sector of our economy and you find the same thing. Internet, computers, passenger commercial airplanes,

There is a real likelihood that at some point the taxpayers may be compelled to buy back the "troubled" infrastructure at enormous profit to the private corporations.
Then, once we make sure that the stuff works again, it will be given back to private power.

Rinse repeat.

[SnoopDog]

8. Thanks.... I assume this applies to the power lines coming into our homes...

Right?

Another question - the electric companies share the 'telephone polls' with the phone companies and cable companies... Who owns the 'telephone polls'?

[remoulade]

11. Almost without exception the electric utilities own the POLES.

They 'rent' space on them to phone and cable companies who need to string wires around.

[conscious evolution]

12. The power companies own the poles also.

A friend learned this the hard way.
He smashed his car into a pole in an accident and broke it.The power company sent him a bill to replace it.

[tnlefty]

13. I don't know how it works for others...but I have an electrical

cooperative that receives (buys) power from TVA. The cooperative is responsible for substations, besides the huge ones that TVA has, transmission and distribution lines, the poles are owned and maintained by the cooperative. The cooperative is also responsible for the meter on a residence or business, unless it's been tampered with, but not for the step down going into a residence as that is the responsibility of the electrician who wired the house and the permanent power won't be converted without a final inspection.

Oh, the phone company and the cable companies have been trying to get out of paying their rent on the poles, so I say cut them off and let them have their own.

[SnoopDog]

14. I am on a cooperative electric system as well....

Which leads me to believe that, since the rate payers own the cooperative - we also own the distribution system...

At least the part that services the cooperative rate payers....

[tnlefty]

16. I suppose that I'm at a loss to fully understand your question.

"The grid" as it services me I tried to explain. A 'national' grid I would like to be educated on, because I don't understand what it would entail.

But I will say that as far as my local coop is concerned very few rate payers (anyone who has a power meter) knows who their local, elected board member is, nor do they even know that the locals are elected.

[ContinentalOp]

15. If the power companies own the poles, why aren't they paying me rent...

for the big ugly pole they have planted on MY property?