Utility deregulation: Free-market savings or risky bet?

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6 thoughts on “Utility deregulation: Free-market savings or risky bet?

  1. Spot market pricing for electricity in Texas caused an economic disaster for electric customers when the Texas power grid had massive failures due unplanned for cold weather conditions .

    1. Also a disaster in California, leading to the recall of the governor there. Google “2000–2001 California electricity crisis”.

      The Wikipedia article includes this caution: “According to a 2007 study of Department of Energy data by Power in the Public Interest, retail electricity prices rose much more from 1999 to 2007 in states that adopted deregulation than in those that did not.”

  2. Ohio did this many years ago. I don’t hear people bragging about electricity prices there. I think this needs some more study to figure out who really benefits. I suspect this is coming from a specialty industry lobbying group and this will not be good for retail users and integrated electrical utilities.

  3. Is this a typo: “The utility managing that service area would have to distribute the purchased electricity through its transmission lines with no added fees.” The distribution utility provides transmission (and maybe distribution) service so there has to be a fee to cover the cost of those facilities.

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