Switching

Across the country, residents and businesses are continuing to exercise their ability to choose their electricity provider. Electricity shopping in competitive markets ensures providers are more innovative and efficient in their efforts to attract customers. As a result, consumers have access to the highest quality service at the most competitive prices. 
 

Several major competitive power suppliers have recently entered Maryland’s electricity markets, and the resulting competition is driving switching rates higher among consumers – a trend noted in a recent COMPETE report on the success of retail electricity markets.
 
These developments come fast on the heels of similar upward switching trends in other Mid-Atlantic states, and happen as lower energy prices present opportunities for consumers to lower their costs.
 

A new statewide poll conducted by The Fairleigh Dickinson University shows most New Jersey consumers would switch electricity providers in the state’s competitive market if they could save 10 percent or more on the electricity generation portion of their utility bill. The poll, conducted among nearly 700 residents who participate in household financial decisions, found 64 percent of residents are very likely or somewhat likely to choose a new supplier if the economic benefits were adequate.
 

Competition in Texas has created economic and environmental benefits for consumers, the Texas Tribune reports in an article examining the results of the state’s competitive retail market. The COMPETE Coalition applauds the Tribune for correctly identifying many successes of Texas’ competitive electricity market.
 
COMPETE closely follows electricity developments across the country and agrees with many observers that the Texas market is without question one of restructuring’s biggest success stories, providing consumers a robust choice of competitive power suppliers. “From 2002 to mid-2009, 86 percent of customers made at least one observable switch, whether between providers or to a different plan offered by the same provider,” the Texas Tribune reported.
 

The Prairie State’s competitive electricity market, already one of the nation’s most successful, is making progress toward fuller retail competition. The 2010 Annual Report from the Illinois Commerce Commission’s (ICC) Office of Retail Market Development finds customers are now shopping across every commercial and industrial customer electrical market segment, and takes an optimistic view that competition is poised to make great inroads in the residential sector.