More than 2 mil retail power users switch to new entrants

How about a list of these companies and cost comparisons for kilowatt hours?

There are online comparison sites, but the plans are quite opaque and difficult to compare (like cellphone plans). I couldn't find a compelling reason to switch.

Ideally I would like to choose electricity from renewables, but I haven't found that option either.

If I recall, there was also a debate before this launched about whether companies would be allowed to throw in 'free' gifts (like an iPad or beer tickets etc). Of course, the freebies and bundled plans are just designed to make it impossible to accurately compare prices across the various providers. I'm not sure what ended up being decided but I'm sure they found other ways to make it confusing.

It is sort of a step in the right direction, but in the UK it lead to four big suppliers not competing with one another and actively trying to keep the small players down. Of course it does not help having a toothless regulator who seems content to maintain the status quo.

It makes sense that most of the switchers are in TEPCOs domain. For decades, people in Tokyo have forced their needs on surrounding prefectures, such as Fukushima, to give Tokyo dwellers cheap power. Now those people want to stigmatize Fukushima, and reject TEPCO as they run away and fail to pay for their fair share of cleaning up after TEPCO. Swell!

Probably, TEPCO has had to raise rates to pay for solar that people are installing. It has to pay to clean up Fukushima to everyone else's desires and standards. And it has to pay for higher fuel prices because it cannot use its reactors. Who wants to pay for that?

Anyhoo. I don't know anyone who has changed providers. It just is not worth it to me, certainly. I have posted before that I think that businesses are probably switching because of various factors that affect demand and supply during the day.

There are some brutal ironies that people should appreciate. Low cost energy providers can generate at lower cost because they use coal. So as you punish TEPCO and save some pennies, you can do your part in ruining the environment. Also, as far as I know, the other providers are not REQUIRED in any way to purchase energy you generate from roof mounted solar systems. And that goes for businesses too. So cheaper electricity is a strong DISINCENTIVE against renewable energy generation. Whether you like utilities or not, it has been utilities administering the development of solar power in Japan.

I am pretty indifferent to deregulation. Can these companies generate more cheaply than utilties in the long run? I doubt it. Can they produce a better service record for customers? Probably not. Can people save money? Well, yeah, but according to their business model, the only way to profit is to take benefits from customers, so.... how is the customer going to win in that scenario? I have done analyses of price-setting using oligarchic models, and I see them carving out markets, but eventually doing their pricing according to the utilities anyway.

I am on Tepco & got a quote from Softbank but the difference was just a couple of yen. Going to try others next.