With gasoline, you can wait and shop around; if a station tries to gouge you you can see if you can get a lower price down the block. The power grid has to be balanced on a continuous basis, and if it's out of balance, the grid operator has to obtain power immediately.
The power grid requires careful management. Call that "regulation" if you like, but it isn't optional.
Note that Reagan's first act as President was to repeal all oil and gas price and distribution controls, and the gas lines evaporated literally overnight. Yes, I was there and remember it :-) We've had a number of oil crises since, but no gas lines.
Many places that enable spot price electricity contacts for consumers have other kinds of contacts available too. Consumers who choose spot do it if they trust it's on average a win. There are also hybrid models where there is a price ceiling or other hedge.
1. Consumer electric rates were set by law
2. Utilities were obliged by law to provide whatever electricity consumers demanded at that rate
This meant that utilities had no choice but pay whatever Enron demanded and resell to consumers at a massive loss. This ridiculous catastrophe was entirely a construction of the electric regulatory framework.
It doesn't have any resemblance to what I proposed. What I propose is more akin to how gas pump prices vary every day. Note that there are no laws setting the price or distribution of gas. When there were (back in the 70's) the result was LOOOONG gas lines. The Enron fiasco and the gas line fiasco are prime examples of what happens when government tries to centrally plan pricing and distribution.