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Electricity provider switching is the ability of power consumers to have an option to choose their electricity provider in a deregulated electricity market as permitted by a state public utilities governing body.
The Australian market has been somewhat deregulated, but still sees consumers provided with a narrow band of choices.
Electricity is deregulated in two Canadian provinces: Ontario and Alberta. Both markets showed price spikes in the first year of deregulation, but then settled down into a volatile but reasonably stable environment. Alberta's market is dominated by fossil fuel generation and as such reacts more closely to the price of natural gas. Ontario's generation mix is about 50% nuclear. [1]
The consumer has the choice between buying from their local utility (Local Distribution Company - LDC) or from one of the deregulated suppliers. There is a large range of contract options from a variable price to 1,3 or 5 year fixed prices. Electricity provider switching is difficult once the consumer is in one of these contracts, unless they are close to the end of a fixed price contract. However, as of January 2010 there is a maximum termination penalty allowed. [2]
A very important element in switching electricity providers in Ontario is understanding the Global Adjustment. [3] This is an adjustment for some commitments government agencies have made on your behalf. It is included in the LDC Regulated Price Plan, but is an additional line item if a contract is signed.
The consumer has the choice between buying from their local utility (Local Distribution Company - LDC) or from a deregulated suppliers. There are however many fewer of these in Alberta. Electricity provider switching is difficult once the consumer is in one of these contracts, unless they are close to the end of a fixed price contract.
There is a price comparison service operation in Canada.
In France, electricity market is totally deregulated and consumers have the choice between the historical formerly state-owned provider EDF and several new private providers like Direct Énergie.
Electricity supply has also been deregulated in the United Kingdom.
In deregulated markets such as Texas and Maryland, the state government may require the incumbent utility energy provider to allow for unlimited competition within the marketplace, where the consumer is free to choose any electricity provider. Electricity provider switching allows consumers to compare rates and services of different retail providers, and enroll in different contract types (such as fixed-price contracts, indexed, and hybrid). Switching is only practical if a customer is either buying from a utility, willing to pay an early termination fee, or is at the end of a contract with a provider.[ citation needed ]
Certain U.S. states allow for consumer choice in electricity providers, with Texas being the most-widely watched deregulatory scheme. Many other states are surveying the Texas deregulatory model in order to use its design as a model for the imposition of free market forces within such other power markets. [4]
As of 2019, 19 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have "either full or partial retail choice." [5] Along with aforementioned Maryland and Texas, electricity deregulation is current in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Seven additional U.S. states began the process of electricity deregulation but have suspended efforts: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming. [6]
In 2019, Arizona's regulatory agency (Arizona Corporation Commission) considered implementing retail electricity deregulation. The proposal was opposed by Arizona Public Service Co. (APS), an electric utility that provides electricity to 2.7 million people. APS said it was opposed because the change would "not be in the best interest of customers" because it would create issues surrounding reliability, "conflicts . . . with existing law," and clean energy implementation difficulties. [5]
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a result of new trends in economic thinking about the inefficiencies of government regulation, and the risk that regulatory agencies would be controlled by the regulated industry to its benefit, and thereby hurt consumers and the wider economy. Economic regulations were promoted during the Gilded Age, in which progressive reforms were claimed as necessary to limit externalities like corporate abuse, unsafe child labor, monopolization, pollution, and to mitigate boom and bust cycles. Around the late 1970s, such reforms were deemed burdensome on economic growth and many politicians espousing neoliberalism started promoting deregulation.
A public utility company is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service. Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to statewide government monopolies.
Electricity retailing is the final sale of electricity from generation to the end-use consumer. This is the fourth major step in the electricity delivery process, which also includes generation, transmission and distribution.
In a broad sense, an electricity market is a system that facilitates the exchange of electricity-related goods and services.
The 2000–2001 California electricity crisis, also known as the Western U.S. energy crisis of 2000 and 2001, was a situation in which the U.S. state of California had a shortage of electricity supply caused by market manipulations and capped retail electricity prices. The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts, one of the state's largest energy companies collapsed, and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis's standing.
Energy Future Holdings Corporation is an electric utility company headquartered in Energy Plaza in Downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The majority of the company's power generation is through coal and nuclear power plants. From 1998 to 2007, the company was known as TXU Corporation until its $45 billion leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. That purchase was the largest leveraged buyout in history. As of 2019, TXU Energy is a subsidiary of publicly traded Vistra Energy.
Net metering is an electricity billing mechanism that allows consumers who generate some or all of their own electricity to use that electricity anytime, instead of when it is generated. This is particularly important with renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which are non-dispatchable. Monthly net metering allows consumers to use solar power generated during the day at night, or wind from a windy day later in the month. Annual net metering rolls over a net kilowatt-hour (kWh) credit to the following month, allowing solar power that was generated in July to be used in December, or wind power from March in August.
Direct Energy LP is a North American retailer of energy and energy services. The company was founded in Toronto in 1986 and now has more than four million customers in Canada and the United States. Direct Energy is a subsidiary of NRG Energy.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) is an American organization that operates Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the state's electric load. ERCOT is the first independent system operator (ISO) in the United States. ERCOT works with the Texas Reliability Entity (TRE), one of six regional entities within the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that coordinate to improve reliability of the bulk power grid.
A regional transmission organization (RTO) in the United States is an electric power transmission system operator (TSO) that coordinates, controls, and monitors a multi-state electric grid. The transfer of electricity between states is considered interstate commerce, and electric grids spanning multiple states are therefore regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The voluntary creation of RTOs was initiated by FERC Order No. 2000, issued on December 20, 1999. The purpose of the RTO is to promote economic efficiency, reliability, and non-discriminatory practices while reducing government oversight.
The Texas electricity market is deregulated, meaning that there is competition in the generation and distribution of electricity. Power generators in the Texas Interconnection, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, participate in an energy-only electricity market and are compensated only for the electricity they produce. The wholesale generation market was deregulated in 1995 and the distribution market in 1999, with Texas Senate Bill 7. This replaced the prior system in which power was generated and consumed locally by the same utility with one in which retail providers contracted with generators across the state.
Gexa Energy, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a retail electricity provider which sells electricity service to residential and commercial customers in all deregulated markets in Texas.
Texas Genco was a power generation company that came about as part of the deregulated Texas electricity market and owned numerous power plants in the Houston area that serve area power needs. The Company was created in 2001 as part of the Texas electricity market deregulation. Incumbent utilities were required to separate their business functions into a retail electric provider (REP), a transmission and distribution service provider (TDSP), and a wholesale generator.
Just Energy Group Inc. is a Canadian-based natural gas and electricity retailer operating in Canadian and American markets across North America.
Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), also known as Community Choice Energy, municipal aggregation, governmental aggregation, electricity aggregation, and community aggregation, is an alternative to the investor-owned utility energy supply system in which local entities in the United States aggregate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts. The CCA chooses the power generation source on behalf of the consumers.
Maryland Electric Deregulation is the result of a bill passed in 1999 by the Maryland General Assembly. This bill changed the entire face of the Maryland utility industry.
Through the 1996 Electric Utilities Act the Alberta's deregulated electricity market began.
An electric utility informally called the Power company is a company in the electric power industry that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries.
Champion Energy Services, LLC is a retail electricity provider (REP) based in Houston, Texas. Champion Energy currently serves residential, governmental, commercial and industrial customers in deregulated electric energy markets in Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York; governmental, commercial and industrial customers in Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C.; and natural gas customers in Illinois. The company is a subsidiary of Calpine.
Reliant Energy is an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. It serves the state of Texas.
