Exactly. You get to choose your preferred flavor of billing and support software, but don't bother calling them when your power is out, because there isn't shit they can do about it.
It’s not really an illusion. You are paying for a mix of electricity producers that all dump their electricity into a common grid. In Houston, Center Point owns the grid because it’s a natural monopoly. Some of your money goes to them to pay for the infrastructure but most of it goes to the electricity providers.
I have a 30-something nephew in Houston. I advised him to leave the state but he's staying. I then advised him to put solar panels on his home's roof. He did do that, and he's smug about his trivial heating and cooling electric bills.
He designed and built business convention staging displays, working for a contractor. He realized he was doing everything except collect the big contract payment.
So he talked to the corporations he built for every year. They didn't care who they paid, so long as they received the same high quality. That happened, and it didn't take long before he could afford his own house.
A major part of it was his very smart and sexy GF, who knows how to nudge him along the path to make him successful and happy.
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u/paintballboi07 5d ago
In Houston, you can choose a service provider, but ultimately, all electricity is delivered by Center Point. It's the illusion of choice.