Retail Choice Rides Again: A Mixed Market in The Lone Star State

Texas wins raves from the big players for its rules and systems, but the small consumer, as in other states, sees little reason to switch.

Six months into the opening of the restructured Texas electric market, industry players are generally pleased with the results, but the jury is still out, as the state's vaunted system design has shown some cracks, and consumers still see little reason to switch their energy supplier.

It's true, of course, that Texas has won raves for putting much of the metering, switching, and data management software in the hands of ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which acts as independent system operator for the Texas grid and regional market.

And Texas comes out ahead in most comparisons with Illinois, the other major state also pushing electricity competition in the post-Enron, post-California era.

Texas can count numerous retail electric providers (REPs), as alternative power suppliers are called in Texas. Those REPs are vying to sell the electricity commodity to the residential and small commercial sector, as well as to larger commercial and industrial (C&I) customers.