{"id":4984,"date":"2012-01-25T09:27:35","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T15:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=4984"},"modified":"2013-11-15T20:36:43","modified_gmt":"2013-11-16T02:36:43","slug":"electric-deregulation-turns-ten-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/25\/electric-deregulation-turns-ten-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric Deregulation Turns Ten in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Flickr user Sharon Drummond\/Creative Commons<\/p>

Deregulation turns ten years old in Texas this year.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anniversaries are horrible things to forget, so here\u2019s one that you might have let slip by. This month marks ten years of de-regulation in the Texas electricity market.<\/p>\n

But it hasn\u2019t all been smooth sailing for rate payers since then, according to one new study.<\/a><\/p>\n\n

A typical electric customer paid $3,000 in added costs over the last ten years because of deregulation, according to a history commissioned by the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power<\/a>. The report estimates that Texans spent $11 billion cumulatively because of higher rates.<\/p>\n

Here’s a table from the report that shows exactly that:<\/p>\n

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Graphic Couresy of the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power<\/p>

A graph from the TCAP report showing average residential electricity prices inside and outside deregulated areas of Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n

Geoffrey Gay, lead counsel to the Coalition, says one of the reasons is the way retail electric providers operate in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a system where we have numerous, hundreds maybe, of retail electrical providers who really add no value to this system. By law they can\u2019t own wires. They don\u2019t own the distribution system, they don\u2019t own the meter. By law they can\u2019t own any distribution sources. So they are truly an unnecessary intermediary,” said Gay.<\/p>\n

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