The journey of having the power to choose.

A Texas resident living in the utility area where electricity rates are deregulated has to have come across the Power to choose Texas website. This site of Power to choose is operated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The site in question has been a significant contributor to the success of retail deregulation in Texas and the source of much confusion for Texas residents looking to compare electric rates and choose an electricity provider. The confusion basically stems from the various duplicate sites that make use of the notion of power to choose to further their own propaganda. These sites are not the government-related ones and are formed by third party retailers that partake in commission which makes the customers actually pay more than less.

The history

The Public utility commission of Texas had the brilliant idea to create an online resource and marketplace to compare residential electricity rates. This premonition or idea stemmed after Texas deregulated in 2002 with senate bill 7. The reason for such a step was so that they could promote electricity deregulation and ensure the success of deregulation by spreading knowledge and, by doing so it allowed for educating people. Being able to choose a specially crafted electricity payment and generation plan is a small part of the endeavor which started as the Tagline “The power is yours. Use it” has evolved into what it is today.

The site gradually mutated into an important educational resource for electricity transactions. Gradually it became famous for being able to compare electricity rates in Texas. Till 2011 retailers still had to list the particular government-affiliated website on all residential electricity bills. This allowed for gaining credibility and generating awareness for the site. In the year of 2012, PowerToChoose.org was completely revamped. After the renovation, it started looking like how it looks today, aesthetically. After this was done, an intense marketing strategy was followed which aimed to revive the brand awareness. This allowed them to reach every Texan household and was able to become the priority site to shop for electricity from all around Texas.