Abstract: The prospect of electricity deregulation is still not widely recognized, despite the fact that intrepid adventurers in some states (including New Hampshire) have begun to explore new ground, implementing pilot programs to see what a competitive retail electricity market might look like. Some of the pilots are for all customer classes, some are for larger customers only. Some are statewide, some are for customers within a given utility`s {open_quotes}service territory{close_quotes} (for the generation side of the business, a term soon to be consigned to the dustbin of history). The goals for the pilots are many but usually include one or more of the following (1) to determine the level of interest among customers and suppliers for competitively provided retail electricity, (2) to determine whether all customers will benefit from competition, (3) to estimate the financial impact on utilities of opening up the market, and (4) to help regulators determine what they will have to pay attention to in more competitive markets. Some people don`t like the idea of a pilot because they think it will produce prices lower than those in a fully competitive market, leading to false expectations. Others say that the opportunity to learn about marketing, power transfers,more » customer reactions, billing techniques, etc., is too good a chance to pass up. And still others argue that pilots are simply a delaying tactic to put off real competition. In truth though, most of the utilities involved in pilots say they are pleased to have the change to experience retail competition now, hoping the lessons they learn will provide them with an advantage if and when the retail frontier becomes more crowded.« less
Publication Year: 1997
Publication Date: 1997-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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