Electricity deregulation and retail choice, explained

The old setup and the new one

EIA says that at the beginning of the 20th century more than 4,000 isolated electric utilities operated in the United States, and that over time they linked up. It also says some utilities generate all the electricity they sell, while others buy from other utilities, power marketers, independent power producers or wholesale markets. A customer in the old setup has one company for everything: the plants, the wires and the bill.

Deregulation, or restructuring, splits that bundle. EIA describes the result in short: in some states commissions fully regulate prices, and other states have a mix of unregulated prices for generators and regulated prices for transmission and distribution. In some states, EIA adds, customers can buy electricity directly from a power marketer while a local utility delivers it. The wires stay with one local company in every case.

How the split market works

Three jobs are now separate. Making power is open to competing plant owners. Selling power is open to suppliers, who buy wholesale and bill you. Delivering power stays with the local utility, which EIA says operates the distribution system that connects homes and businesses to the grid no matter where the electricity comes from.

On your bill the two parts show up as a supply line and a delivery line. The commission still sets the delivery line in a rate case (see how rate cases work). The supply line comes from your supplier's plan or, if you never chose, usually from the local utility's default service. The roles in the Texas version are in TDU vs REP.

Where it is used

Ohio is at the top with 58.0% of home accounts on supplier service, then Massachusetts at 55.9% and Texas at 55.7%. Across the 15 places, utilities and suppliers reported 624 supplier-by-state entries with home accounts. The EIA-861 file lists 82 retail power marketers with 6,963,807 home accounts in total.

The count is of accounts, not of laws. A state can allow choice and show few accounts, and the file does not separate community choice programs from other supplier service in California.

Source: EIA-861 2024 Sales_Ult_Cust (share and supplier counts); EIA retail sales, 2025 and 2015 annual. All 51 places (50 states and DC) are in the CSV. CSV, 51 rows.

Prices in choice states and other states

We grouped states by the 1% line and weighted by kWh sold. In 2010 the choice group paid 13.69 cents and the other group 10.23. In 2025 the numbers are 21.33 and 14.83. The choice group rose 56% and the others 45%, both nominal.

Source: EIA retail sales, home price and kWh sold by state, weighted by kWh sold. Choice states = 1% or more of home accounts served by a supplier in EIA-861 2024 Sales_Ult_Cust. Nominal prices. A group difference is not a measure of what choice did. Retrieved 2026-10-02. CSV, 16 rows.

Read this table with care. Many things differ between the two groups, and this page controls for none of them. A group gap is not proof that choice lowers or raises prices. We cannot separate the effect of choice from everything else, and we do not try.

Why we show no supplier prices

A supplier's plan price depends on your address, your use, the term and the date you sign. EIA publishes none of it, and we do not scrape it. So this site never quotes a supplier price for a city in a choice state. If you see a number like that elsewhere, check the date and whether it includes the monthly fee and the delivery charge.

What we can show is the state average: Ohio's 2025 home price was 16.96 cents per kWh, an average of everything customers there paid, supplier or utility. For an actual plan, use the commission's comparison site and read the contract terms: length, early-exit fee, fixed or variable rate, and monthly charges.

What we have no data on

We have no list of the year each state opened its market, so we give no dates. We have no data on how many customers switched, on plan prices, or on which customers get default service. The share and supplier counts come from reports by utilities and suppliers for 2024.

More on this site

See the rankings, how to compare electric companies, the bill line guide, the glossary and data sources.

Key facts and where they come from

CSV, 13 rows.

Keep reading

• TDU vs REP: who delivers and who sells
• Why electricity prices differ by state
• How to read your electric bill
• Cheapest electricity by state
• State utility commissions and rate cases
• State rankings