I wonder if it makes sense to separate the generation of power from the sale of power to consumers (and of course there is a separate transmission/distribution

I wonder if it makes sense to separate the generation of power from the sale of power to consumers (and of course there is a separate transmission/distribution network as well). The transmission/distribution network is natural monopoly so that needs to be regulated. Generation of power can be free, to allow different techniques to optimize. However, the companies that sell power to consumers should be regulated. There can be many of those companies but each company should be required to have a plan in how to provide power even in adverse conditions (and with significant penalties if they fail). Then those power companies can contract enough generation capacity to have redundancy and sell the excess capacity to industry.