Last year, when I first began systematically re-organizing our finances, one of the first things I did was check out other electric companies. Our electric bill was so high, even after a major weatherizing project. We settled on Champion Electric with home offices in Houston Texas. I certainly don't regret the move! They cut our bill by at least 1/3. They have good customer service and have been a good, reliable provider. Our electric bill is not nearly the big deal that it used to be and we are way better off financially. I highly recommend this company.
That's the good thing when there is competition. Unless the entities decide to cartelize the market and maintain similar rates, the consumer will be able to enjoy the benefits of favourable charges and incentives as the electricity entities jockey for market share as opposed to monopolies where the consumers are mostly exploited.
Man, I wish we had the option to use a different electric company, but only one services my area, so we're stuck with them... probably forever. Which means they like to take advantage of people because they know we have no other option but to use them.
That's the issue in my city: there's not enough electric companies so no one's actually competing for anyone's business. There's simply a single electric company (quasi-government in nature) and it has the monopoly of all our energy bills. I don't know how this all began, but ever since I was born, this has already been the prevalent reality. Hopefully this will change soon and we can have as many choices before us.
Thats quite encouraging. In my abountry, there is a monopolistic parastatal that enjoys state funding and its stranglehold on the provision of electricity is hard to break. This has resulted in the cost of electricity remaining high though connection fees have greatly reduced. I think that ultimately, the best option is generating your own renewable electricity.