Actually, more and more municipalities are buying back their grids and making them public. It’s a slow movement but more places see that’s its better to put their utilities in public hands. There are some 30 some odd small cities and counties in the voting process as of earlier this year. I read an article about it... can’t remember where. I think a mix in the chain is really good. Some parts private, some public. The problem is management. Where private does excel better than public is foresight as long as the numbers justify it. Gov doesn’t like admitting problems until they happen. Private will circumvent a problem if the catastrophe is more expensive than the fix. Usually, not always. But no one celebrates a plane landing, except for the passengers. We all just talk about the crashes.
They’re the poster child situation why municipalities “should” convert to public grid. I quote should just because I don’t have a big dog in the fight, but I do somewhat agree. There’s a lot of interesting stories on the subject that should be researched.