News & Events

27
Sep

RESA Says Latest Data Affirms Billions Of Savings Under Retail Choice

The Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA) today said that updated 2020 data shows continued increases in costs to states with monopoly electricity suppliers, and the savings available under restructuring.

RESA’s latest update on the findings include the latest figures collected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

RESA said that, “Since 2008, the EIA data shows that customers in monopoly states have experienced a 21.1% increase in rates. This contrasts sharply with the pricing decrease realized in the competitive states of 7.4% over this same period.”

“In fact, over this time period, all customers in the monopoly states could have saved half a trillion dollars ($503B) if those states had followed the same price trajectory as exhibited by the competitive states,” RESA said.

“By major customer class, the savings in the monopoly states would have cumulatively been $167.2 billion for residential customers, $208 billion for commercial customers and $125.4 billion for industrial customers,” RESA said.

“Meanwhile, the 14 competitive states and jurisdictions saved an estimated $343B during this time by avoiding the price trajectory exhibited in the monopoly states. These data points highlight the improved price performance that competitive energy markets enjoy,” RESA said.

RESA said that the data shows that since 2008 the competitive residential retail energy provided by retail energy suppliers has nearly doubled. Retail energy suppliers now serve nearly 16 million residential customers in the competitive states across the country, RESA said.

“Meanwhile, commercial and industrial energy provided by competitive retail suppliers has grown to a level exceeding 87% across the competitive state’s footprint. This means that nearly three million commercial and industrial customers have selected a competitive retail supplier rather than utility tariffed supply within the competitive states and jurisdictions,” RESA said.

“In this same period, the average energy pricing for all sectors in monopoly states increased 17.0%, while in competitive jurisdictions the average pricing decreased by 4.0%,” RESA said.

“These affirming trends in both shopping activity and price performance have been observed for more than a decade due to competitive markets’ superior service and pricing,” RESA said.

Link to RESA report