Supermajority supports requiring monopolies to participate in wholesale electricity market

A supermajority of South Carolina’s general election voters overwhelmingly supports modernization of the state’s energy grid and a move away from the currently siloed monopoly-driven power systems.

In a poll of 600 registered general election voters, 80 percent of those surveyed favored moving away from the current monopolistic system to one that encourages competition and allows multiple energy providers to sell electricity.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said the state should require power company monopolies to participate in a regional wholesale energy market that would bring greater efficiencies and long-term reliability to meet the state’s growing energy needs, all the while offering hundreds of millions in cost savings for consumers.

More than two-thirds of the country’s power demand is managed by regional wholesale energy markets, the Southeast being the main exception. These systems allow utilities to trade electricity across a large geographic area, ensuring power is generated and reliably delivered at the lowest possible cost.

Cost savings for South Carolinians was a major finding of the 2023 Brattle Group study, South Carolina Electricity Market Reform Measures Study, conducted in conjunction with the state’s major power monopolies. The study found that South Carolina’s participation in a regional wholesale market could save electricity ratepayers up to $360 million a year.

“South Carolina voters across the political spectrum see the need for the state to require establishment of a wholesale energy market,” said Katie Southworth, the Clean Energy Buyers Association’s (CEBA’s) deputy director of market and policy innovation for the Southeast. “The current system of monopolies locks in higher rates with fewer options for addressing threats to long-term grid reliability. Voters say South Carolina law should be changed to encourage modernization and competition, allowing multiple energy providers to generate and sell electricity that could be cheaper and more reliable.”

The poll comes at a time when policy leaders in both chambers of the South Carolina General Assembly are warning of a looming energy “crisis” because of rapid population growth and increasing demands for energy from commercial and industrial users. A legislative study group has been working throughout the legislative off-session to explore ways to address the state’s looming energy supply issues. A wholesale electricity market is among the options being considered.

The poll of 600 registered general election voters, conducted December 15-17, 2024 by BK Strategies, was commissioned by CEBA. The poll was conducted through a combination of landline and cell phone interviews, with a margin of error of 4% and a 95% confidence level.

CEBA’s more than 400 members comprise one-fifth of the Fortune 500, represent $20 trillion in market capitalization, and include institutional energy customers of every type and size, including corporate and industrial companies, universities, and cities.

For more information and further results of our poll of South Carolina voters, visit www.SCReliableEnergy.com.