Illinois

Illinois state lawmakers protected the state’s electricity consumers this week by rejecting legislation that would have subsidized construction of a $3.5 billion power plant.
 
Had it passed, the Taylorville Energy Center (TEC) subsidy bill would have threatened jobs by dramatically increasing consumer prices. TEC sponsors had proposed subsidizing the plant’s construction by requiring electric distribution companies to buy power from the plant for 30 years at above-market prices. These distribution customers would then have had to pass this additional cost along to their customers.
 

Competitive electricity markets are driving innovation, stimulating new investment, and delivering customer choice across North America, concludes the 2010 Annual Baseline Assessment of Choice in Canada and the United States (ABACCUS).
 

A new study sponsored by COMPETE reveals the volume of electricity sales by competitive non-utility suppliers has doubled since 2003 in the continental United States, and competitive suppliers are increasingly offering innovative products and services allowing competition based on more than just price.
 
The report compiles national statistics and in-depth analysis of several states (New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington D.C.) that have opened their retail electricity markets to competition.
 

Competitive electricity markets will stimulate plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) technology, facilitate integration of PHEVs with the power grid, and unlock consumer benefits. This message emerged during a conference sponsored by COMPETE and the University of Illinois-Springfield that explored the future of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and the smart grid.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Year in Review 2009 report detailed how despite the economic downturn installed solar power capacity climbed past 2,000 megawatts (MW), enough to power a city of 350,000 homes. The top two states in 2009 and cumulative installed capacity were states with competitive power markets.
 

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.
 

Electricity prices are falling dramatically in organized competitive markets, particularly when compared with states that stayed with a monopoly-protected utility industry. But these facts are ignored in the most recent attack on electricity competition from the American Public Power Association (APPA).

APPA’s report groups competitive states in the same category as states with monopoly regulation, so it’s a murky picture if comparing competitive states with monopoly states is the goal. Besides, comparing retail rates on a state-by-state basis is a flawed way to assess the benefits of multi-state regional competitive wholesale power markets.

Price differentials in electricity have always existed – one reason why competitive states opted to restructure in the first place. For example, Illinois and Pennsylvania, two highly competitive states APPA mischaracterizes as regulated, had rates well above the national average prior to restructuring.  But consumers in those states now enjoy rates well below the national average.