Deregulation Drives Higher Electricity Retail Prices
Ohio State University’s Energy Markets and Policy Group (2026) analyzed a decade of Ohio retail offers and nearly 15 years of default-service auctions and finds retail deregulation introduced middlemen instead of competition. They report 72.1% of open-market offers exceeded utilities’ default rates, and auctions with fewer bidders produced significantly higher consumer markups, suggesting deregulation often increases bills and reduces price transparency.
Key Points
- 1Finds 72.1% of open-market electricity offers in Ohio exceeded utility default rates
- 2Shows suppliers set prices relative to utility default outcomes, not wholesale generation fundamentals
- 3Indicates increasing auction bidders lowers consumer markups; three additional bidders cut rates 18–23%
Scoring Rationale
Strong, quantified university research with clear policy implications; limited geographic focus (Ohio) reduces generalizability scope.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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