Connecticut Consumers Taking Full Advantage of Competitive Market

Consumers have increased their participation in Connecticut’s competitive electricity market and are enjoying even greater economic benefits, recent announcements make abundantly clear. The state’s consumers scored a recent victory when Governor Rell vetoed a bill that would have rolled back competition in the state’s market, and now they are making the most of their opportunity to choose to purchase from competitive power suppliers.
 
Switching rates among consumers is up across all sectors of the state’s electricity market, reports Restructuring Today. Power shopping for June 2010 in the Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) territory increased to 50 percent of commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and more than 25 percent of residential customers. Shopping was just as robust in the United Illuminating (UI) territory in June, where 48 percent of C&I customers and 30 percent of residential customers purchased their power from a competitive power supplier. The statistics in UI’s territory are even more impressive when considering that switching levels were at 20 percent of residential customers and 41 percent of C&I customers in January 2010.
 
These healthy switching rates reflect a robust competitive market that is clearly having a positive economic impact. Consumers in the CL&P territory recently learned their electricity rates would drop 4 percent beginning in January 2011. This announcement continued a downward trend in rates for the utility territory. Competition in electricity is forcing prices lower as utilities compete to provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost in order to win and retain customers.
 
Empowered by competition, Connecticut consumers are now taking market participation into their own hands in entirely new ways. One resident, researching ways to lower the electricity bills for her home and business, found so many competitive options that she launched a website to aggregate information to educate others on the state’s competitive power suppliers. 
 
COMPETE applauds the continued growth of Connecticut’s competitive market. Competition among the state’s market participants attracts more consumers every month, and underlines the economic benefits of a well-structured market. We encourage other states and jurisdictions to take stock of the economic, environmental and consumer benefits an open competitive market can provide. 

Joel Malina | July 28, 2010