R Street Institute Releases First State-By-State Electricity Competition Scorecard

Report Ranks Texas Top in the Country; Alabama Comes in Dead Last.

WASHINGTON (May 22) – Today, the R Street Institute, a pro-market, limited government think tank, released a new scorecard assessing and grading each state’s competitive electricity markets by examining factors such as retail choice and the degree to which individual states are fostering competition. The report also highlights policy solutions that have been successfully implemented at the state level to enhance competition.

The State-By-State Scorecard on Electricity Competition provides specific details about each state’s retail electricity offerings and suggests strategies each state could implement to further improve its retail electricity competition.

State Grades:

Note: We have omitted Nebraska—which is served entirely by public power utilities—from this scorecard. We have, however, included the District of Columbia, which is served by an IOU.

Statement from Kent Chandler, Resident Senior Fellow in Energy and Environment Policy, R Street Institute:

“Consumers demand choices and alternatives, and the provision of electricity shouldn’t be an exception to that expectation. Advancing competition and choice in electricity and giving consumers the tools and data that they need to make informed decisions is a moral and economic imperative. If America wants affordable electricity and to win the global advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence race, states across the country must grapple with traditional monopolies and red tape in this sector to ensure all customers benefit from well-implemented retail choice that meaningfully empowers them to make their own energy decisions, while ensuring remaining regulation keeps utilities in check.”

To develop the scorecard, the authors identified a key set of factors that guided their research and recommendations, including:

• State approaches to customer choice and competitive foundations;
• The role and treatment of rate-regulated monopolies;
• Alternatives within a traditionally regulated utility system;
• Wholesale competition and regional transmission organizations;
• Price caps and limits on product differentiation;
• Smart meters and metering data;
• Customer education and access;
• Regulatory staffing and retail market oversight;
• State utility consumer advocates; and
• Complaint filing and resolution, among others.

To read more about each state’s offerings and the methodology behind the scorecard, click here.

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