The Connecticut state legislature has voted for a bill to restructure the state’s electricity industry, allowing consumers to choose their power suppliers, Dow Jones reports.
The House of Represen- tatives passed the bill by a 126 to 17 tally, and the Senate passed it 27 to 7.
The bill breaks Northeast Utilities and United Illum-inating Co. apart, opening the electricity generating business to competition.
The utilities will continue to operate as regulated transmission and distribution monopolies in their native service areas.
Power marketeers will be able to compete for approximately one third of residential commercial and industrial customers in the poorer cities from 1 January 2000.
The rest of the state will then be open to competition from 1 July 2000.