Mea And Another 50 Million?

[Mission]

Not very entertaining if it is a circus, is it?

[Fatty]

£120m and now another £50 m. That's over £5000 per Manx household! Who is doing their financial planning - Coco the clown?

 

It's a joke. Where is their business plan? Why weren't these shortfalls in their finances anticipated months ago? It's all basic stuff in running a company and yet they seem to be just blundering from crisis to crisis.

 

This is really worth a VERY good look. Something smells very bad indeed.

 

I mean, are they running a business or a circus?

 

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<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So, if it were a private company, would it still be trading or would it have gone bust by now? I wonder how much of this mess with the MEA is down to the original deal with Eron before its demise?

 

With a 5% rise ABOVE inflation, this would put power prices up by about 10%, and the same sort of increase next year... Where do i find out more on that wind generator? It would be interesting to see what output they have, and if there's any way to use the MEA as a 'back up' to the wind power i'd have (if i bought one)

 

As to a circus... Coco left, didn't he? That Lewis fella is running it now, yes?

 

[FCMR]

ARE THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT TO TAKE OVER THE MEA COMPLETELY AND WIPE OUT THE DEPTS

[Paul H]

ARE THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT TO TAKE OVER THE MEA COMPLETELY AND WIPE OUT THE DEPTS  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I won't give you odds on that one

[Rog]

With a small community some common services, especially essential services, should be provided by on a not for profit basis

 

Private industry is by definition a ‘for profit’ system.

 

On that basis alone the argument against government ownership of power, water, and waste disposal is indefensible.

 

Contracting out services by competitive tender should not be ruled out but the delivery of such essential services should most certainly not be a monopoly of the worst possible kind which is what seems the be happening right now.

 

Furthermore cross subsidies should be an option and infrastructure investment should be undertaken as a national matter and not dealt with on the ‘charge where the cost falls’ basis.

 

Once again - where are Mec Vannin in this critical and vital matter? They are supposed to be the Manx National Party – why are they not actually taking the lead and doing something useful for once instead of as usual pontificating and achieving zilch.

 

Nice guys no doubt, but utterly blo*dy useless..

[FCMR]

Is this the new name

 

I.O.M.E.B.

[manxman8180]

I can certainly see a situation where the amount of autonomy currently enjoyed by the MEA (or whatever it will be called) is severely reduced.

 

It is more than likely that a first step would be to change it to become more like the Water Board or OFT, FSC, which despite being statuatory boards (similar to the MEA) have a political master. Therefore, (you would hope!) bringing greater accountability.

 

Although, recent situations may raise some doubt whether that would make any difference.

 

But it is something that would need Tynwald approval with potential changes to the constitution and Electricity Acts???

 

 

 

 

Edit=Typos

[ans]

It is more than likely that a first step would be to change it to become more like the Water Board or OFT, FSC, which despite being  statuatory boards (similar to the MEA) have a political master.  Therefore, (you would hope!) bringing greater accountability.

 

That's how it used to be, isn't it? When it was the good ole' Electricity Board.

 

Where do i find out more on that wind generator? It would be interesting to see what output they have, and if there's any way to use the MEA as a 'back up' to the wind power i'd have (if i bought one)

 

Having talked to the guy a bit about it, he tells me that it provides enough power to fully light his house and run small appliances. The oven/tumble dryer etc is a bit of a drain though and is still plugged into the main ring. He has both systems running in parallel and the savings are huge apparently. He also stores unused energy in a set of large batteries and estimates he's got enough to run his house lighting and small appliances for 10-14 days if his power went off completely.

 

He's a bit of an electronics nut though and does really know his stuff. I'm not sure how easy it would be for someone of lesser experience. Hell, I'm certified in electronic engineering and I struggle to get my head around some of the stuff he's talking about.

[P.K.]

I can certainly see a situation where the amount of autonomy currently enjoyed by the MEA (or whatever it will be called) is severely reduced.

 

It is more than likely that a first step would be to change it to become more like the Water Board or OFT, FSC, which despite being  statuatory boards (similar to the MEA) have a political master.  Therefore, (you would hope!) bringing greater accountability.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The accountability bit poses the interesting question of how was £120m borrowed using gov (ie it's your dosh on the line) guarantees without anyone in gov (allegedly) knowing anything about it? It's a great deal of money but it raised barely a ripple. Looks to me like the Lodge Buddies in action.

 

As to the gov taking over MEA to "wipe out the debts" there is no such thing as The Bank of Tynwald. The only money they have is yours, not theirs. Why should the 30,000 odd Manx households pay for MEA mismanagement?

 

The whole thing stinks.

 

-

[Rog]

Maybe The Island needs a latter day Castro figure who will simply nationalise those things that should be nationalised in the first place and to hell woth debts.

[manxman8180]

The accountability bit poses the interesting question of how was £120m borrowed using gov (ie it's your dosh on the line) guarantees without anyone in gov (allegedly) knowing anything about it? It's a great deal of money but it raised barely a ripple. Looks to me like the Lodge Buddies in action.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Damn right it does, yeah.

 

But, of course, without a political head (i.e. Chairman of the board being ??? MHK) the government can fudge and squirm around the issue by saying that the MEA is autonomous in aspects of it's financial management.

 

It needs clarity. It either belongs to Government or it doesn't. It can't have all of the benefits (i.e. practically unlimited, 100% secured borrowing) without the audited, accountability that should go hand in hand.

 

Unfortunately, however, thanks to all of us (i.e. the customer) they are in a strong position to gain these finances, as being the sole electricity provider (protected by legislation of course) to 80 odd thousand people and with the ultimate backing of the government they make a very attractive debtor.

[Static]

And where the hell is Mike Profitt now?

 

I see he "profitted" by £63000 extra a year when they set-up that other compnay to look at wind generation. (might have my figure slightly out there but working from memory and wound up about this).

 

So who is to blame? Surely this can be pinned on someone? Profitt was boasting a couple of years ago about how he was bringing prices down big-time.

 

And then when you read down the article "bills will rise by at least 5 per cent above inflation – and that excludes any surcharges sparked by high fuel prices and is dependent on doubling the growth in demand."

 

How the hell do they think they are going to double demand! For F****s sake!

[kite]

I read that and thought they couldnt possibly really mean doubling demand, could they? theres no way is there!

[Fatty]

I read that and thought they couldnt possibly really mean doubling demand, could they? theres no way is there!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think they mean doubling the amount of increase in electricity demand, i.e. if it was expect to grown by 2%, a growth of 4% would be double. (i think that's what they mean)

 

On another note, i walked past the big green house yesterday with my dog, the big set of doors was open, there didn't appear to be much running in there, although there was a lot of worker type bods running around. And, judging by the smoke from the chimney, they had diesel generators running.

 

As to the old I.O.M.E.B. i can't remember exact figures, but wasn't electricity even more expensive then? i seem to remember the cost of the unit being in double figures, pence wise. Anyone with a better memory remember what it used to cost??

[crumlin]

£50 million that might just cover the cost to replace those new gas turbines, are the MEA about to change the gas turbines to bigger DIESEL engines due to the gas turbines not being able to cope, its rumoured that the manufacturer of the gas turbines have told the MEA that they need bigger engines.