Competition and Consumer Protection Perspectives on Electric Power Regulatory Reform: Focus on Retail Competition.

摘要

In the 1990's, both the federal government and the states sought to spur competition in electricity generation and retail marketing services; the transmission and distribution of electricity remains, and is expected to remain, regulated. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has overseen, and continues to regulate, changes at the wholesale level designed to facilitate competitive wholesale sales of electricity generation; some of these changes involve regulating transmission in ways that allow electricity to be transmitted from distant generators. Various states - 24 in all - similarly have decided to move toward competition in electricity supply at the retail level. Using different methods, and working with different time frames, the states developed plans that will eventually allow all customers - from large industrial customers to individual households - to choose their supplier of electricity services.