Customer Choice - Choosing your Electricity Supplier
What is Customer
Choice
Customer Choice is a program which allows electric customers to choose
the company that generates or supplies your electricity. In
our area, customer choice has been implemented in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia. Although active markets have not developed in all states, customer
choice should bring more opportunities and more choices than you ever had before.
How You Get Electricity top
Electricity
is produced and delivered to your home or business in three basic steps:
- Generation: First, electricity is produced or generated at
a power station using fuels that include coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear,
hydroelectric, solar, and wind. Electricity providers either generate the
power themselves at power stations they own, or they purchase it from other
providers and re-sell it to consumers. These companies generally are called
electricity suppliers.
- Transmission: Electricity generated in a power station
is delivered from the station by way of high-voltage transmission lines,
usually mounted on large wooden poles or steel towers, out to the communities
where it is used by homes, businesses, and factories.
- Distribution: When electricity is delivered close to
where our customers live and work, its voltage is reduced and it is transferred
to smaller distribution lines which carry it to houses and businesses.
Local utilities provide a reliable flow of electric service by employing
linemen, electricians, and other personnel who maintain lines and equipment.
They also employ meter readers to collect information about your use of electricity,
and other employees involved with calculating and issuing bills. All of this
is currently included in the distribution portion of your bill.
How You Pay for Electricity top
Allegheny
Power issues you a bill that shows the amount of electricity you use, measured
in kilowatt-hours (kWhs). This number is multiplied
by the price you pay for supply and delivery. Taxes and other applicable charges
are added to complete your total bill. (For commercial customers, the price
may also include charges for the peak rate of electricity use, called demand.)
Traditionally, you paid one price that included all of the costs of generating
the power, delivering it to your home or business, maintaining reliability,
and other expenses such as accounting, meter reading, and billing. In other
words, Allegheny Power was responsible for both the supply and the delivery of
your electricity.
Under deregulation, the electricity supply is being opened to competition,
so you have a choice of the company that supplies you with electricity, even
though it is still delivered to you by Allegheny Power.
Because you may now be served by a supplier that is separate
from your delivery company, your total electric bill has to be broken into
parts to separate the cost of supply, which includes transmission, from the
cost of distribution. If you choose a new energy supplier, you will pay the
supply prices offered by that supplier, plus regional transmission charges,
and the delivery prices of Allegheny Power. These are not new charges. You
are still paying for the same services you always received, but your bill
is “unbundled” into
separate parts.
Shopping for a Supplier top
If competition has
brought an active market to your area, you may want to shop for a new electricity
supplier. You can begin by contacting your state utility commission (see below)
for a list of suppliers serving your area. Then, call one or more of the suppliers
to get their prices for electricity supply and transmission.
Compare those prices to Allegheny Power’s “price to compare,” which
is printed on your electric bill. If the supplier’s price is lower than
your price to compare, you will probably save money on your electric bill.
The following worksheet will help you compare electricity suppliers:
|
Name of Supplier |
(1) Allegheny Power “price
to compare” |
|
(2) Supplier’s price for generation
and transmission |
|
Subtract line (2) from line (1) |
|
If you decide to make a switch, call your new supplier and sign
up for service. The supplier will contact us, and we will transfer your account.
Allegheny Power will continue to deliver safe, reliable electric power to all
of our customers, regardless of the electricity supplier they choose.
Questions about Customer Choice top
If you
have questions about electricity deregulation and customer choice, you can
call Allegheny Power at 1-800-Allegheny
(1-800-255-3443). You can also contact the public utility commission in your
state.
Maryland Public Service Commission
1-800-800-4491
www.md-electric-info.com
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
1-888-632-1314
www.OhioElectricChoice.com
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
1-888-782-3228
www.puc.state.pa.us/utilitychoice
Virginia State Corporation Commission
1-877-YES-2004
www.vaenergychoice.org
|