With Connecticut Electricity Competition, Calls for Consumer Protections

This survey of registered voters ages 50+ in Connecticut was conducted to gauge their experiences with the deregulated electric supply market and attitudes toward various proposals to strengthen consumer protections.

Survey findings reveal concerns about costs going up, low use of third party suppliers, and widespread support for stronger consumer protections.

Background

Since 2000, the market for electricity supply in Connecticut has been deregulated, allowing third-party companies to compete to supply electricity to residential customers. Residential customers may choose to receive their electric service from one of these third-party suppliers rather than receiving the standard electric service provided through the state of Connecticut’s regulated delivery companies. The state's deregulated electricity supply market offers consumers more options but also presents risks because third-party electricity suppliers are not required to comply with the same regulations that guide the business practices of Connecticut’s two electric delivery companies. 

Concerns About Costs Going Up, Yet Low Response to Offers of Lower Rates

• Three in four  (75%) Connecticut voters ages 50 and older are concerned about their electricity costs going up. 
  
  
• Six in ten (61%) have received competitive offers of lower rates within the past year but only one in seven (14%) have actually switched electric suppliers in the past year. 
  
  
• Just under three in ten (28%) currently use third-party suppliers even though the electricity supply market in Connecticut has been deregulated for 20 years.
  
  
• Roughly one in three (32%) do not understand the process for switching suppliers, which may be one reason for the relatively low use of third-party suppliers. The desire for stronger consumer protections may be another reason.

Widespread Support for Stronger Consumer Protections

• More than eight in ten (84%) Connecticut voters ages 50 and older agree that Connecticut should do more to protect customers of third-party electric suppliers. In particular, support is high for protections related to automatic enrollment and automatic re-enrollment.
  
  
• More than eight in ten (82%) would support legislation requiring third-party suppliers to ensure that rates charged to re-enrolled customers never exceed the rates charged for the state’s standard supply plan throughout the entire contract period.
  
  
• Close to nine in ten voters (87%) oppose the automatic re-enrollment of customers by third-party suppliers without prior written consent, and just as many oppose allowing towns to automatically enroll town residents with a third-party supplier without prior written consent. 
  
  
• Nine in ten (90%) say that it is important to continue requiring Connecticut’s two electric delivery companies to offer a standard supply plan priced at the lowest reasonable rate. 
  
  
• When asked if they would prefer to see the third-party market eliminated, kept as is, or kept but with stronger consumer protections, voters ages 50 and older (71%) overwhelmingly express a preference for keeping the third-party market but implementing stronger consumer protections. 

Methodology

This AARP Connecticut state survey was conducted from November 21 through December 5, 2019, except for Thanksgiving Day (November 28, 2019).  Alan Newman Research administered the survey by telephone on behalf of AARP.  Forty percent of the respondents completed the survey on cell phones. The final sample included 1,015 Connecticut registered voters ages 50 and older and excluded respondents who live in zip codes covered by electric cooperatives. The total sample of 1,015 respondents as well as the sample of 979 electricity customers yield a maximum statistical error of ±3.1% at the 95% level of confidence.

For more information on the survey, contact S. Kathi Brown at 202-434-6296 or skbrown@aarp.org.  For more information on this issue at AARP, please contact John Erlingheuser at 860-548-3165 or jerlingheuser@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact Mike Humes 860-548-3164 or mhumes@aarp.org.