Why should competition be introduced?

Allowing "wholesale competition" among suppliers of electricity to the utilities that sell to end users has contributed to an estimated 36 percent decline without compromising reliability, according to an analysis by Boston Pacific Co. The success of wholesale competition has demonstrated convincingly that building and operating power plants can and should be a competitive business. Unfortunately, retail customers don't yet have the same power to choose that utilities do. They can only buy electricity from monopoly suppliers. They have to rely on regulators instead of market forces to get them the best deal. If customers could choose their power suppliers, power companies would work harder and smarter to attract and keep customers—resulting in lower prices and better services for consumers. It is important to realize, as well, that customers want choice. Over 70 percent of consumers surveyed by the Americans for Affordable Electricity, a coalition of groups that support giving customers the power to choose their electricity supplier, said they would prefer to have a choice when buying electricity. Customers understand that competition drives down the cost of any product they buy—whether it's an automobile, a computer, or electricity.