In a sense, restructuring portends re-aggregation. Local utilities historically have aggregated all customer classes within a geographic area. Restructuring will allow marketers to untangle these groups and re-aggregate them on some other basis.

Small consumers may suffer in this process. Presumably, power marketers will aggressively pursue the most attractive large customers in an area while leaving small fry to fend for themselves, a practice dubbed "cherry picking" during utility rural electrification efforts in the 1930s. To tempt large users with the best deals, marketers will match the "cheapest to serve" customers with the "cheapest to produce" generation; remaining customers will be relegated to a high-cost pool served by the higher-cost generation. The danger to the environment is equally obvious, as it may be confined to the support of a few public-minded citizens.

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