Blog entry June 2010

The percentage of retail electricity customers switching to competitive energy suppliers increased in the first quarter of 2010, according to new state-level data compiled by Restructuring Today. 
 
Reports from Ohio, Connecticut, and Maine combined with similar growth in four other key markets across the country highlight how competitive markets are delivering lower-cost, competitively priced electricity to consumers.
 

While Congress and the Obama administration consider how to reduce greenhouse emissions and stimulate clean energy innovation, COMPETE urges all stakeholders involved in climate legislation talks to remember the power of a market-based approach.
 
Established results tell the tale – competitive markets offer the best path forward to achieve America’s energy needs and environmental objectives. In the Northeast, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which spans parts of two organized competitive electricity markets, is the first mandatory, market-based CO2 emissions reduction program in the U.S. – and it has been working successfully for several years.
 
By phasing in an approach to emissions reductions, set against an established cap, RGGI has provided predictable market signals, regulatory certainty businesses can operate against, and much-needed revenue for participating states. Best of all, the system is supported by the consumers it serves.

America’s march toward a clean energy future through competitive markets got a big boost today when the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed the nominations of Phillip Moeller and Cheryl LaFleur to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
 
FERC has responsibility as the consumer watchdog for our national energy infrastructure and future, and for the past two decades or more has pursued a market-based policy agenda in the public interest. Both Moeller and LaFleur are exceptional additions to the Commission, and both Commissioners possess a wealth of experience and a keen understanding of FERC’s long-standing policies supporting competition in electricity markets.
 

The percentage of customers shopping for alternative energy suppliers has grown in four key restructured markets, according to recently released data from state regulators.
 
These new numbers compiled from earlier this year, combined with “astounding” shopping rates in Pennsylvania’s PPL Electric Utilities service territory, are the latest evidence of competition delivering lower-cost competitively priced electricity to consumers.
 

Electricity competition is at an important crossroads in Pennsylvania. Six months ago, rate caps expired in one Pennsylvania utility’s service area, and six months from now rate caps expire in the rest of the state. For the first time, the state’s entire retail market will be open to competitive forces.
 
But already, the success of competition is clear. Wholesale electricity prices are decreasing, and hundreds of thousands of consumers are switching power suppliers to obtain lower-cost electricity than is available from their incumbent utility suppliers.
 

Clean energy resources, including demand response and energy efficiency, made up nearly three-fourths of new capacity additions in PJM Interconnection’s recently completed Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) auction. This new announcement continues the phenomenal growth of clean energy and demand response technology in the nation’s largest competitive wholesale electric market.
 

Regulators, environmental groups, technology innovators and customers are increasingly converging on the fact that market forces can empower consumers to manage increases in energy costs and stimulate the technological innovations required for America to transition to a clean energy economy.  The latest voice in this growi

Consumers in New England strongly support the power of competitive markets to stimulate investment in clean energy and combat global warming, an annual survey by the New England Energy Alliance (NEAA) demonstrates.
 

Legislators in Michigan have stood up for their constituents by introducing legislation to ease limitations on the number of consumers in the state who can purchase power from competitive power suppliers. The bipartisan companion bills introduced by Senator Wayne Kuipers and Representative Roy Schmidt would raise the state’s limit on retail choice from 10 percent to 25 percent of the utility’s total electricity demand.

This legislation comes on the heels of a petition by scores of Michigan businesses, including many COMPETE members, to lift the limitation on electricity choice.