Steve Elsea

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.
 

Retail competition in Pennsylvania is benefitting consumers, said several members of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission this week at a public hearing. Chairman Jim Cawley, Commissioner Wayne Gardner, and Commissioner Robert Powelson made their supportive comments before the PA Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee.

Commissioner Powelson dispelled tired arguments made by critics that consumers can’t make informed decisions and won’t respond to market signals, by submitting the PJM independent market monitor’s 2009 State of the Market Report into the hearing record. The report found PJM electricity markets competitive for the ninth year in a row, with wholesale electricity prices dropping over 40 percent from 2008.