Can I switch my electricity supplier?
In most of the country, no: one utility delivers and supplies your power and the commission sets the whole price. In 14 states and the District of Columbia you can choose who supplies the electricity while the local utility still delivers it. The difference matters because a rate case in a choice state changes only the delivery part, and the supply part is the one you can shop.
Where you can switch
Electricity supply choice for households: <a href="/ct">Connecticut</a>, <a href="/de">Delaware</a>, <a href="/dc">District of Columbia</a>, <a href="/il">Illinois</a>, <a href="/me">Maine</a>, <a href="/md">Maryland</a>, <a href="/ma">Massachusetts</a>, <a href="/nh">New Hampshire</a>, <a href="/nj">New Jersey</a>, <a href="/ny">New York</a>, <a href="/oh">Ohio</a>, <a href="/pa">Pennsylvania</a>, <a href="/ri">Rhode Island</a>, <a href="/tx">Texas</a>. Natural gas choice: <a href="/dc">District of Columbia</a>, <a href="/ga">Georgia</a>, <a href="/il">Illinois</a>, <a href="/md">Maryland</a>, <a href="/mi">Michigan</a>, <a href="/nj">New Jersey</a>, <a href="/ny">New York</a>, <a href="/oh">Ohio</a>, <a href="/pa">Pennsylvania</a>. A few other states allow it for large businesses only, and California suspended residential choice more than two decades ago. Michigan caps it at a small share of load, so in practice most Michigan homes cannot switch.
What actually changes
Only the supply line. Delivery charges, the customer charge and riders stay with your utility and stay regulated, and your utility still reads the meter, sends the bill and fixes outages. If a supplier promises to cut "your bill" in half, it is talking about the supply line, which is typically a third to a half of the total.
The number to beat
Your utility publishes a default supply price for customers who do not choose, called the price to compare, standard offer or basic service depending on the state. That is the only number an offer needs to beat. It changes on a schedule (June and December in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, twice a year in most other choice states), and the capacity-driven increases of 2025 and 2026 landed here, which is why offers below the default became common in PJM states again.
Three traps
Variable rates. An introductory price that can change monthly after a few months, sometimes to well above the default. Fixed-term, fixed-price offers are the safe kind. Early termination fees. Check the fee before signing anything longer than a year. Renewal. Many fixed contracts roll into a variable rate when they end, so put the end date in your calendar. Door-to-door and phone sales are where most of the complaints on state commission dockets come from; the state comparison sites list the same offers without the pressure.
Texas is different
In most of Texas there is no default utility supply at all: every household picks a retail provider, and the wires company (Oncor, CenterPoint and others) charges delivery on top. The state's official comparison site is Power to Choose. The wires companies still file rate cases with the Public Utility Commission, and those are tracked here under Texas.
What this site does with it
On utility and state pages in choice states we say that the supply part can be shopped, and where we link to a comparison service we may earn a referral fee, which is disclosed next to the link and does not change the price you are offered. We do not sell or rank suppliers.