Since the 1990s, many regions have broken up the generation and distribution of electric power to provide a more competitive electricity market. While such markets can be abusively manipulated with consequent adverse price and reliability impact to consumers, generally competitive production of electrical energy leads to worthwhile improvements in efficiency. However, transmission and distribution are harder problems since returns on investment are not as easy to find.
George is moving cities, and wants to find an area to set up his new bitcoin mining operation. He is looking to find an area with cheap power to set up his devices. St. Louis has one giant power company to choose from called Veris Power, and Chicago has several different power companies in the area. He has narrowed his city choices down to those two.
Will St. Louis more than likely have higher or lower power costs than Chicago?