Did deregulating the electricity supply in Texas help to lower the prices, as promised (Greenville: how much, purchase)

[FaceInTheCrowd]

Relatively speaking? How's that going?

[Lee W.]

Electricity prices go up, never down.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by FaceInTheCrowd

Relatively speaking? How's that going?

Nope. Proponents will argue that deregulation has slowed the rate of price increases, but the only real bright spot of the process has been watching KK&R take massive losses on their overinflated purchase of TXU.

[Philip T]

It is a FAR LARGER mess than most folks follow.

Even here in Texas, The Great Recession did arrive.

Right on top of the nutcase "JR Ewing" business schemes.

Overall power use went down, while generation capacity continued to build.

High Natural Gas Prices is what most of the business models were built on, and Frack-Land has turned that upside down.

At this point the largest operators who were deep into cooking all this up, are practically bankrupt and selling junk bonds on the international market just to meet their interest payments.

[cheryjohns]

No

[lonestar2007]

No, it did not.

[jbiggs]

Deregulating any large company does nothing to help competition and fair pricing to the consumer. All deregulation does is to line the politicians pockets who voted for deregulation!

Prices for electricity continue to increase but now that it is deregulated the electric service providers just give you a different excuse for their price gouging!

[jimboburnsy]

I think that the impact of deregulation is overblown and poorly understood. It hasn't really changed much of anything.

The average price of electricity per kWh was $0.08 in 1999. It is $0.108 now. With the rate of inflation over the last few years the adjusted price may actually be lower now, but certainly no more expensive.

Texas' power generation infrastructure means that we are exposed to commodity price fluctuations. Regulated power would probably not have been able to protect anyone from $14 natural gas.

[tstone]

So how much is it in co-op/regulated areas vs deregulated?

My deregulated rate is 9.2 for the next 12 months, but the all-in rate is closer to 9.7 cents. It went down; over the past 12 months it about 9.9 all-in. I could get lower but I've been burned in the past by a fly-by-night scam operation.

[Philip T]

Originally Posted by tstone

So how much is it in co-op/regulated areas vs deregulated?

My deregulated rate is 9.2 for the next 12 months, but the all-in rate is closer to 9.7 cents. It went down; over the past 12 months it about 9.9 all-in. I could get lower but I've been burned in the past by a fly-by-night scam operation.

Numbers I see vary from some low numbers in East Texas (Upshur Rural Electric and Greenville -- around 6 to 7 cents) up towards North Texas (Grayson Collin Electric -- over 10 cents). But that is just random recent experience.

Dunno if anyone has a regularly updated statewide survey, but if so I would like to see it.

Anyone considering the "Free Nights" plan by TXU?

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