Texas Deregulation

Houston Chronicle:

The state's much-touted total deregulation of electric utilities leaves millions of Texas households exactly where they were before — with only one utility company and one rate to choose from.

Customers primarily of the state's largest power companies — Houston-based Reliant Energy, Dallas-based TXU Corp., and Direct Energy, in sparsely populated areas of north Texas and the Coastal Bend — can take advantage of the utility deregulation that was "completed" Jan. 1.

But that leaves as many as 40 percent on the outside of the state's plan to try to lower electric rates in a state with rates among the highest in the nation.