Updated: ABACCUS Report Ranks Best Retail Electric Markets

Distributed Energy Financial Group LLC (DEFG) has released its 2014 Annual Baseline Assessment of Choice in Canada and the United States (ABACCUS), which identifies the states that have the most active retail electricity markets in North America.

Related Story Today: ABACCUS Report: "Little Concern" for Retail Providers from "Death Spiral" Facing Traditional Utility Model, If Providers Offer Value-Add to Customers (Commodity-Only Suppliers Face Pressure)

The 2014 ABACCUS Residential Scores and Rank are:

                       2014     2014     Prior 
                      Score     Rank     Rank
Texas                   92        1        1
Alberta                 71        2        2
Pennsylvania            64        3        3
New York                61        4        4
Connecticut             55        5        5
Maryland                53        6        6
Maine                   52        7        9
Illinois                51        8        7
Massachusetts           49        9       11
Ohio                    49        9        8
New Jersey              46       11       12
Ontario                 45       12       10
District of Columbia    41       13       13
Delaware                36       14       14
New Hampshire           36       14       15
Rhode Island            31       16       16
California              29       17       17
Michigan                27       18       18

The ABACCUS scores and rankings are based on:

• Market structure, relating to the rights and responsibilities of the market participants

• Default service, relating to the design of the regulated retail electric service that is available during a transition period, and the impact of default service on competitive retail markets

• Transactions, relating to the day-to-day interactions where market participants buy and sell electricity and conduct business with one another

• Facilitation, relating to policies and rules that encourage retail energy providers as they interact with retail consumers and T&D utilities

• Performance, relating to outcomes which indicate whether the market has performed well

The 2014 ABACCUS Commercial/Industrial scores and rank, as well as the full report, can be found on DEFG's website (click here).

"Consumer-driven innovation and product differentiation should be the goal of restructuring; innovation indicates a shift from pure commodity sales to a vibrant retail energy services market," the ABACCUS report says.

Competitive retail energy providers in North America offer new products and services to 17.2 million households in North America, the ABACCUS report said.

According to the ABACCUS report, the number of residential customers taking competitive electric service is as follows:

Texas            5,854,000
Illinois         3,077,000
Ohio             2,106,000
Pennsylvania     1,877,000
New York         1,389,000
Connecticut        605,000
Alberta            542,000
New Jersey         536,000
Maryland           524,000
Massachusetts      399,000
Maine              214,000

As a percent of customers, the ABACCUS report lists residential migration to competitive electric service as follows:

Texas                     100.0%
Illinois                   68.5%
Ohio                       50.2%
Connecticut                43.5%
Alberta                    40.0%
Pennsylvania               37.7%
Maine                      28.0%
Maryland                   26.1%
New York                   24.0%
Massachusetts              16.9%
New Jersey                 16.0%
District of Columbia       14.6%