March 26, 2008

Ask Taff Tschamler at KEMA.   He reports once a year or so to clients -- thus he has to know all the details.  His tally shows that 10% of the power industry has opened to markets.  That's up from 9% a year ago -- but what amazes him is Texas where the price of natural gas has doubled or tripled yet the retail price of electricity hasn't reflected the rise.  Tschamler is the guru of the retail competitive markets.  He's saying that the price in Texas is now lower than before competition began although the stuff it's made from has gone up.   The market for electricity was put at 480 twh.  That's terawatt hours total in the US.  In fact, the US market that's open is larger than the UK market and the latter is completely open.