Over the last few years many states have changed the regulations in the energy industry to create competition between energy suppliers. Before deregulation, gas and electric energy providers had a monopoly by controlling both the power generation and distribution channels for delivery thereby setting the price.
Energy suppliers, working with Energy Service Companies or ESCO’s, now have the ability to provide a variety of choices for service and rates. Now the production of energy is separate from the distribution so the customer can choose which supplier they wish to buy their energy from. The neighborhood utility company still provides the energy distribution over their lines and pipelines.
From the customer’s perspective nothing will change. There will be no interruption of services, their current utility provide still maintains service and bills the customer’s account. It is possible that the customer may receive a separate bill from the energy provider instead of one bill from their utility company.
The result is to give the consumer the power to shop for the best energy usage plan and lowest cost solutions to meet their needs thereby reducing their energy costs.