Rising market concentration in Texas’s retail electricity market

Has retail competition reduced residential electricity prices in Texas?

“…However, some aspects of a competitive retail market may place upward pressure on prices. Increased prices may result if some retailers possess market power (MacKay and Mercadal, 2020), a particular concern following mergers of large retailers (Brown et al, 2020b).…”

Private risk and social resilience in liberalized electricity markets

“…Reforms that would improve reliability by reducing revenue shortfalls might therefore also increase market concentration, amplifying the trend toward retail market concentration over the past several years. 41…”

Market Structure, Risk Preferences, and Forward Contracting Incentives*

“…In many jurisdictions—including Alberta (Brown and Eckert [2018b]), Texas (Brown et al . [2020]), and Australia (Australian Energy Market Commission [2020])—retail consumers purchase electricity from a small group of suppliers (who are the buyers in our model). Furthermore, industry experts have noted that relatively few buyers of electricity sign forward contracts with long time horizons (Joskow [2019]; Wolak [2022]).…”