Washington D.C.

Competitive retail electricity markets in the U.S. and Canada are thriving and evolving while providing an ever-widening range of innovative products and services, the findings of the Annual Baseline Assessment of Choice in Canada and the U.S. (ABACCUS) show. While competition is providing added value for consumers through innovative product offerings, the annual assessment by the Distributed Energy Financial Group also found that average electricity prices are declining in states with successful retail markets.
 
Consumers in the dozen states with successful retail power markets are becoming more sophisticated, and energy suppliers are adopting increasingly innovative products and services to provide customer value, the ABACCUS report finds. Competitive providers are using telecommunications technology to give customers online and mobile access to their account information, which helps them better manage their usage and costs.
 

The COMPETE Coalition has reached yet another milestone in its membership growth, surpassing the 600-member mark in October.  COMPETE has added more than 70 new members in 2011, demonstrating diverse support for the innovation and economic and environmental benefits wrought by competition in electricity markets.

Electricity customers, suppliers, generators, transmission providers, trade associations, environmental organizations, innovative technology and service providers, and economic development corporations make up COMPETE's highly diverse membership roster.
COMPETE’s newest members include technology innovators, renewable energy producers, competitive services providers and, of course, energy consumers.

Among COMPETE’s new members this year are:

• National drug store chain Rite-Aid, based in Camp Hill, Pa.;

Policy Statement Underscores How Markets Provide Best Platform for Technology Innovation
 
Washington, D.C. – Competitive markets provide the best path forward for technology innovations that lead to a modernized and more efficient smart grid, a new policy statement from the COMPETE Coalition demonstrates. The document underscores for policymakers how competitive markets for electricity offer the best platform for electricity customers to benefit from emerging energy-management and energy-efficiency smart grid technologies.

Jonathan Lesser, president of Continental Economics, discusses a new white paper, written on behalf of the COMPETE Coalition, that focuses on the impact of competitive electricity markets on economic growth.
http://www.eenews.net/tv/video_guide/1399?page=1&sort_type=date

Former Secretary of the Department of Energy and Transportation and COMPETE Co-Chair Federico Peña talked to Martin Rosenberg of EnergyBiz on his vision for electricity competition.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
February 24, 2011
Contact: Ralph Posner
(202) 828-8844
ralph.posner@fleishman.com