Big business is a myth
How could small, startup utilities and grids compete with, or perhaps OUTCOMPETE legacy utilities and RTOs? Speed and innovation will be necessary qualities of these startup utilities while the legacy utilities and RTOs
haven't been speedy or innovative in a century. Moreover, because the existence of the legacy utilities and RTOs is guaranteed by legislation, they don't have a natural limit on their size. The logic is captured in the linked piece: "...transaction costs and diminishing marginal returns show us that companies have a natural upper limit on corporate size. If a company becomes too big and bureaucratic, a smaller and nimbler competitor with lower transaction costs can gain ground in the market." State policy makers concerned about the strength of their future economy need to open the door to smaller and nimbler competitors. "Consumer Regulated Electricity" or CRE provides a simple framework for doing just that.
The linked piece goes on to highlight how all ratepayers in a state can benefit from the existence of "CRE Utilities. Imagine replacing "FedEx" with "CRE Utilities" and "the US Postal Service" with "legacy grids and RTOs" in the following sentence: "Just as FedEx’s market entry in the 1970s caused a bulky and inefficient US Postal Service to improve its service for customers, transaction costs naturally regulate the size of big companies." Now imagine a world where FedEx never happened. That's the electricity sector unless we allow change to happen.
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