Wanted to create a thread for tracking specifically US utilities as an investment. Here it is 2020 and we STILL hear "investors flock to utilities" as a safe haven during risk-off times.
In 2011 German renewables installs really began to ramp, and all the utilities that relied on selling peak supply went bankrupt within a few years. Shuttering half their nuclear was a factor, but mostly it was cheap renewables having "grid priority" and displacing the major profit source for utils, peaker supply. A couple years later, all the major German utilities exited bankruptcy as proper grid services operators and their production was carved off into separate entities.
Obviously we live in America where corporate utilities have far greater priority than ratepayers or distributed renewables producers. But that will likely change at some point, and the change should be quite abrupt.
With a Bernie administration on the horizon and lord knows who potentially running the DoE and FERC, we should keep an eye on the utilities sector because it's likely the "least safe haven" from here on out.
In 2011 German renewables installs really began to ramp, and all the utilities that relied on selling peak supply went bankrupt within a few years. Shuttering half their nuclear was a factor, but mostly it was cheap renewables having "grid priority" and displacing the major profit source for utils, peaker supply. A couple years later, all the major German utilities exited bankruptcy as proper grid services operators and their production was carved off into separate entities.
Obviously we live in America where corporate utilities have far greater priority than ratepayers or distributed renewables producers. But that will likely change at some point, and the change should be quite abrupt.
With a Bernie administration on the horizon and lord knows who potentially running the DoE and FERC, we should keep an eye on the utilities sector because it's likely the "least safe haven" from here on out.
