1) New proposal for Vehicle to Vehicle communications to reduce accidents. Some very interesting info. I found after having read only a small fraction.
“As another source of information about the driving environment, moreover, the agency also believes that V2V can be fused with existing radar- and camera-based systems to provide even greater crash avoidance capability than either approach alone.” Pg. 10
and under the health concerns, it makes this important admission, on page 199 and from 191, they speak about general concerns and the resistance to smeters.
“Currently, the FCC publishes a very helpful guide on “Wireless Devices and Health Concerns,”214 in which the Commission states, “While there is no federally developed national standard for safe levels of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) energy, many federal agencies have addressed this important issue.” The Commission acknowledges the efforts the interagency working group, its members, and their ongoing monitoring and investigating issues related to RF exposure.”
2) If anyone sees a meter reader (reading legacy or a smeter with the transmitter turned off), would you please ask if you could take a photo of the handheld computer he uses? If you can’t take a photo, could you please ask what the make and model of it is? And send to me at dsnoble@shaw.ca with “Handheld computer” on the subject line. Thank you.
Letters:
From: ERIK ANDERSEN
Date: December 11, 2016
Subject: Re: bchydro
Dear R——-;
By traditional methods of financial measurements BC Hydro has been headed into insolvency since the beginning of this century. In 2005, sales of what BC Hydro produces and sells, GWhrs, has remained almost constant at 49,450 GWhrs per year. Those hours are sold to three category of customers, residential, light industrial and heavy industrial. Across this time span sales to others, which is an add on, varies but seems relatively stable at about 1,700 GWhrs. So on the demand side there has been virtually no increase in demand in about 11 years. Suppression of demand would have occurred because of an increase in rates of about 40%. Population has increased in BC by about 1% per year in the time-frame which means per capita consumption of electricity has been in decline as elsewhere in the world.
In 2005, BC Hydro reported its total assets were $15,792 million of which $155 million were regulatory assets (a category of warehoused money due from customers). Total liabilities were shown to be $10,475 million.
By 2016, BC Hydro reported its total assets stood at $30,034 million of which $5,808 million were regulatory assets. The practically minded reader would probably not refer to this amount as an asset, but rather as a liability since these stand as yet to be collected from customers. Total liabilities for 2016 were reported as $21,199 million to which the practical person would add the $6 billion yet to be collected.
Next is total revenues. In 2005, total revenues were reported as $3,725 million and by 2016, they were $5,657 million.
So to summarise, BC Hydro navigated 11 years of operations by selling no new electricity to its traditional in-province customers which meant a per-capita a decline across the time period. There is no reason to think this trend is about to change. BC Hydro reported using almost 100% more assets to produce and deliver the same quantity of product over a period of about 10 years. If the reasonable person was to call the unpaid debt of nearly $6 billion a liability, liabilities would have increased by another $6 billion making total liabilities in 2016 about $27 billion and assets of about $24 billion. BC Hydro has managed to increase its assets by 50% in the period and it liabilities by 160%. Not a great optic, rate of asset increase only at about one third the rate of increase of liabilities.
While that was happening, BC Hydro’s revenues increased at a rate of about 52% or in line with total assets but at a third of the rate of increasing liabilities.
As is always the case, the real solvency test is the rate of cash in-flow as opposed to cash burn rate, positive or negative. In 2005, BC Hydro did its business with using $3.7 billion of income to service its operations that included $10.5 billion in liabilities. This was a ratio of revenues to total liabilities of .35. By 2016, this ratio had slipped to .255. If that was not bad enough, BC Hydro does not disclose a total of about $50 billion it owes to independent power producers. If this were to be brought into the calculation, as it should be, it would mean a ratio of .08. If debts are sacred then that means BC Hydro has only 8% of its total annual income to pay for operations, which is so ridiculous and validates the statement that to stay in business it must borrow increasing amounts until borrowing is no longer an option.
In my mind, BC Hydro is insolvent and has been for almost 10 years. Continuing operations is only being maintained because it operates a monopoly that is backed by the province’s treasury and array of publicly owned assets. There is no evidence that economies of scale, that should have been identified, were ever found by the boards and managements of BC Hydro. I have previously concluded that either the managers at BC Hydro were grossly incompetent or possibly even deliberately so. I have referred to them as financial illiterates but maybe something harsher should be used.
Season best from Erik
ps Should you compare the BC Hydro record with the experiences of John Perkins, you can see the punitive to the public design that is not accidental. Site C further compounds the gross financial errors already made and yet to be paid for.
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TIPS:
The wood cook stove we purchased 4 years ago (Pioneer Maid by Meal Time Stoves) is made by the Amish in Ontario. You can cook on top, bake in the oven, warm or thaw food on the top shelf or closet, heat water (water jacket or coil) and keep your home toasty warm. It is ULA/CSA approved. I highly recommend their stoves. Why pay for a stove that only heats when you can have so much more?
http://www.mealtimestoves.on.ca/category/margin-gem-copy.html
http://www.mealtimestoves.on.ca/the-history-of-supertime-stoves.html