Retail Competition in the Electric Utility Industry

CEI: A Case StudyIn Attempts To Monopolize By Regulated Utlities, 30 CLEV.ST.L. REV. 5 (1981) (claiming advantages of retail competition).2. Although this form of competition is considered unusual in the electric utility industry, no reliable statistics quantify the extent of the competition.Notable examples of door-to-door competition are found in the cities of Cleveland, Ohio, and Lubbock, Texas.3. Meeks, Concentration in the Electric Power Indust: The Impact ofAntitrust Poliy, 72 COLUM.L. REV.64, 94 (1972).4. Most investor-owned utilities engage in efforts to attract new industry to their service area.Some economists have argued that electric rates have little impact in attracting customers to a utility's service area.But see Pace, Relevant Markets and the Nature of Competition in the Electric Util'ty Indust, 16 ANTrrRUST BULL.725 (1971).However, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff took the opposite approach in testimony filed in Minnesota Power & Light Co. in Docket No. ER78-425 (FERC 1978).5.Even critics of yardstick competition recognize that performance comparisons may provide an effective means of applying pressure on electric utilities to improve performance.Pace, supra note 4, at 764-65; Stelzer, Testimony before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Consumers Power Co. (Midland Plant, Units 1 and 2) in Docket Nos.50-329A and 50-330A (NRC), cited at 6 NRC 892, 982 (1977).