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Comment by cmonagle | Hacker News Reader

> This looks like the national electricity model in Quebec, where the public absorbs risk and the private part of the private-public partnership absorbs profits. Just the best!

I'm not super sure what you're referring to, Hydro Quebec's (often significant) profits are returned as dividends to the government. This year was $3.4 billion[0], and while I'm sure they have private contractors, but I can't imagine they're raking in anywhere near that.

0. https://globalnews.ca/news/9503363/hydro-quebec-record-finan...

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I'll have to look into it - it seems a little odd that we keep raising electricity costs if we are racking in more profits than ever.

This is an old opinion that I haven't revisited in a couple years, thanks for the link

HQ sells it, basically, at-cost locally. The cost does go up, inflation and all that. The remainder that is exported above-cost is just profit for HQ, which is turned into further expansion and returns to the provincial budget. There are good economic reasons to not go further and start outright subsidizing the cost of electricity. it would just turn those export profits - which could be spent on anything - into things that use electricity locally, which is less general and exchangeable.

Thanks - just read a couple articles, and price increases at this time are because we are overproducing electricity until some contracts take effect with the US - I'm seeing that all the comments about it being a private-public partnership had to do with gas exploitation rights being sold to extranational companies.

The company is publicly owned - I was totally wrong and am very proud of HQ now!

Especially their work in battery research!

Sure, but under that logic why supply power locally at all? They can just export all the electricity and use that money on anything. If the citizens need heat, they can just burn wood.

To be fair to HQ most of the electricity is hydro so they are dependent on the hydrological cycle. Outsourcing those profits into a high quality economy (advanced manufacturing etc) with good jobs subsidized by cheap electricity actually has some merit to it.

However exporting those profits to neighboring states might not be as valuable unless they are looking for currency hedge + contracted power arrangements.

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