Which is why Griddy exists in the first place. Those financial instruments aren't free and add a cost to the service.

I think the right regulatory approach this case would be to require the purchaser to manage their risk so that you can shop around like we do with other insurances. So if you go with a retail electric company you don't have to worry since you're not the purchaser.

But most electricity retailers just set a fixed price for electricity completely disconnected from the actual costs. I'm specifically wondering if it's possible to allow for wholesale purchasing, but set a cap at something like $10 or $100/kwhr - still crazy high, but keeping obscene rates away. Maybe let the customer choose what level of cap they want.