Senate committee debates letting large industrial customers choose third‑party power suppliers; no action taken

Members of a state Senate committee and energy industry witnesses debated whether to allow large commercial and industrial electricity customers to buy power from third‑party suppliers during a committee hearing; the panel took no formal action.

The issue is urgent to some lawmakers because large users say energy costs affect jobs and investment, while utilities and some senators warned any change could shift costs or risks onto residential ratepayers and the grid. Rob Gibbs, director of government affairs for the Southeast at NRG Energy, told the committee “competition works,” citing examples from other states and urging carefully written enabling legislation.

Gibbs said NRG is “one of the largest third‑party suppliers” and described the firm’s footprint: about 8,000,000 retail customers and roughly 16,000 megawatts of generation across technologies. He told senators that in states with retail competition for large customers, switching rates for commercial and industrial load range from about 62% to 97% and that Ohio research showed large users saved nearly $7 billion since early 2019. Gibbs said stranded‑cost recovery mechanisms exist in other states — for example, a state public service commission (PSC) can authorize surcharges or recoveries aimed at…