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Our L,G&E (Louisville Gas and Electric) company – Friend or Foe to the customer

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Louisville Gas and Electric Company. Its been around for a long time. Its also went thru a lot of different owners. Its history is quite remarkable. L,G&E was first formed in 1838 by a group of private investors. It was called Louisville Gas and Water Company. It eventually dropped the water business and in 1890, its charter was amended allowing it to sell , manufacture and distribute electricity.  In 1945 the company successfully fought a takeover by the City of Louisville  and won with the help of some of the aldermen. In the year 2000, it was acquired by a British Company called Powergen,Plc. In 2002, Powergen sold the company to E.ON out of Dusseldorf, Germany. In 2010, E.ON sold L,G&E to PPL (Pennsylvania Power and Light) Corporation out of Allentown, PA. You can see that it has went thru several owners.

L,G&E used to be our friend.  We  at, Aire-Com of KY, used to have a very good relationship with some of the upper level management people in the 1980-1990′s and they were very helpful to us all. Now, its like the other large corporations in the world that are totally profit driven by management that have no connections to the people here in Louisville, KY that it serves. It used to be that if the electric went out, L,G&E had the people and resources to get us up and running very quickly. Now, it takes a few days to bring in outsiders to make the repairs and L,G&E’s people escort them around our city to keep them from getting lost. They paid their most experienced people out in the field to take an early retirement several years ago and we were left with a lot of young and untrained personnel to take their places. I miss the old L,G&E with a heart for our community.  Sadly, because of its commitments to their shareholders and not to our community, it will probably never return.

And that is where my complaint lies. I’ve just noticed that L,G&E will send a L,G&E technician to your house to determine if you should have your cooling system cleaned and serviced.  It will only cost you $35.00, but then it will cost you $50.00 for a contractor to come out and clean and service your system.  a total of $150.00 if you are a commercial customer. Now this adds up to $85.00 and if you called the contractor direct, the prices normally run $49.00 to $89.00.  Now, for your fee of $50.00, the contractor usually has to add more services and parts to break even on the call.  If they also want to make a profit, then they will have to charge even more.  However, if you call the contractor directly, then he does not have to involve L,G&E and its quite possible that you’ll get better service  at less  cost. L,G&E  and other utilities across the U.S. have tried to get into the heating and cooling business several times over the last 20 years and it seems that they always fail and you, “The consumer” pays the price.  And you must remember, L,G&E does not do anything that they will knowingly lose money on.  Think twice before you let their unlicensed technicians come to your home to tell you that you should get your systems cleaned and serviced.  If you still think you need someone to tell you the obvious, then call up a cooling contractor and ask him if he will tell you whether you should get your system serviced and ask him if he will underbid L,G&E and tell you this for $30.00. I’m sure that they all will be happy to help you save your money.

Now, my biggest complaint is with the thermostats and boxes that they use to shut off your cooling system in the heat of the day. They call it energy conservation and pay you $5.00 a month to let them do it to you. Now, those thermostats and boxes they provide are not free to them. They have to pay for them and for the labor to install them.  And again, I want you to remember that companies that are in business to make money will not knowingly do anything that they will lose money on. Now, you see many different people in their advertisements talking about how much money they get ($20.00 a year) for using the boxes or thermostats. They are not L,G&E employees and you never see the people from L,G&E telling you that it will actually save you money.  If it would save you money, then L,G&E would have proof of that and they would be advertising proven savings by installing the devices. The systems work by shutting off your cooling system for 15 minutes a day during the hottest periods of the day. If your AC is sized correctly for your house, then it will run a lot more to catch up with the temperature that you want, than if it had been allowed to run without interference from L,G&E. In doing this, it will cost you a lot more than the $5.00 a month that you get over the cooling season. I’ve seen customers call and ask to have the systems removed. L,G&E will tell them OK, but it usually takes 5-6 calls before they will remove the devices. They drag their feet because they want to make as much money from these devices as possible.  I’ve also seen their installers install the boxes on the cooling coils of the outside unit. This blocks some of the airflow and increases your utility usage, along with being able to help cause damage to your AC system.

You now know my opinions on L,G&E as far as being our friend and helping us save money.  Its up to you to decide whether or not you wish to utilize these specific services. If you think its a wise move, then I’d suggest buying stock in PPL. Its a guaranteed way to make money.


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