Competitive Procurement of Retail Electricity Supply: Recent Trends in State Policies and Utility Practices

摘要

Over the past two decades, electric distribution utilities have increasingly relied on competitive procurements as a means to obtain power supply for their retail customers. In many states, regulators now rely on such procurements as an important tool to help ensure that utilities provide cost-effective retail services. Today, more than 40 percent of U.S. states (or jurisdictions) have formal regulations or guidance that requires or encourages utilities to use competitive processes. Although the use of competitive procurements to obtain supply for retail customers is not new, many of the requirements affecting when and how competitive procurements are to be used have either been newly enacted or substantively revised in recent years. We have developed criteria for evaluating procurements, reviewed various procurement methods, and identified recent trends in state policies and utility practices. In this paper, we describe lessons learned and where possible best practices for designing and implementing competitive procurements in different regulatory contexts and industry settings. Competitive procurements can provide utilities with a way of obtaining electricity supply that has the best fit to customers needs at the best possible terms.