Appears to be unnecessarily complicated, boring, and confusing
From April 2016 consumers in Japan have been able to choose their electricity provider, smashing the previous monopolies and opening up exciting new options. Cheaper, greener, better.
Or so it was supposed to go. For many people though, nothing has really changed.
You can find comparison sites online, but the options are complicated. Many new providers bundle services so that you have to get your internet and electricity together, or get a credit card to go with your power, to get the best prices. Pricing is opaque, and the comparison sites often show different prices to the individual provider sites.
It’s all a bit of a mess, really.
When I first heard about electricity deregulation I was pretty excited. We use oil heaters in our flat (no fumes or kerosene involved) which means our electricity bills in the winter are high. I was hoping that deregulation would give us a chance to lower the bills and also get our power from renewable sources.
The thing is, each time I look into changing, I can’t seem to get excited enough to actually take action. We’re still getting our electricity from Tohoku Electric Power Company.
Has anyone actually changed providers? How is that working our for you?
There are comparison sites that allows the consumer to look for better alternatives to the current power monopolies.
But to be honest, the plans offered by these new entrants are just not compelling enough to even consider locking oneself into a 2 year contract with them.
Chances are we might end up in a chicken and egg situation. Consumers want much lower pricings, new entrants want economies of scale to lower prices, and the vested interests doing their best to limit competition.
…until we get one disrupter that will force a change in the status quo. Happened for example in France when mobile carrier “Free” started selling monthly plans for 50% of the price of the competition. Within 6 months, the “old” monopolies had aligned their prices, after decades of overpricing š
One can dream…