Condemned to the NO PROFIT ZONE?

I have posted a comment to the article "Condemned to the Fourth Quartile?" by Matt Chwalowski, Principal Consultant, PA Consulting.

Matt,

I believe Edward Read is pointing out a hard reality: "one quater of all utilities will always be in the fourth quartile." The question should be, In which quartile is the utility industry, compared to the remainder of the economy? Can benchmarking help identifiy which industries are in the NO PROFIT ZONE? Is the utility industry in the PROFIT ZONE because they are taking customers for a ride? Is competition needed in the industry? Should Electricity Without Price Controls be considered as a new paradigm of the electricity industry?