How to Switch Your Electricity Supplier in New York: Steps

1. Find what you pay now. Your bill shows the price you pay for your utility’s supply service. Write down that price and the date it will next change. It is the supply price on your utility bill.
2. Check that you can choose. Look at your bill. If your power comes from a city utility or a cooperative, it may sit outside the choice program, so confirm before you shop.
3. Compare on the official site. Start with Power to Choose, New York DPS, which is run for consumers. Look at the price type, the term and the fees, not only the headline rate.
4. Get the terms in writing. Ask for the price per kWh, whether it is fixed or variable, the term, every monthly fee, the early termination fee and what the price becomes at renewal.
5. Sign up with the supplier. You enroll with the supplier, not with your utility. Keep the contract and any confirmation, and note how long you have to cancel.
6. Watch for the start date and your first bills. Your utility handles the change. Expect a notice, and check that the supplier name, the price and the start date match what you were told.
7. Mark the end of the term. Put the renewal date in your calendar. Many plans change price at the end of the term unless you choose again.

These points come from the regulator or its official shopping site, or from the supplier disclosure language that its rules require. Each names where it was read.

• Residential customers have the right to rescind an agreement within three days of receiving it, without penalty. Source: New York DPS, how to shop for utility services.
• If you enroll by phone or door to door, you complete a third party verification, and the sales agent should not be present for it. Source: New York DPS, how to shop for utility services.
• A variable rate product must guarantee savings on an annual basis or more often, and credit or refund you if the price exceeds what you would have paid your utility. These rules took effect April 16, 2021. Source: New York DPS, how to shop for utility services.
• A fixed rate is limited to a price no greater than the trailing 12 month average utility supply rate plus a premium of no more than 5 percent. Source: New York DPS, how to shop for utility services.
• If you cancel, it may take several weeks to be returned to the utility, depending on the date of enrollment. Source: New York DPS, how to shop for utility services.

Source: Read on October 10, 2026. Rules and supplier lists change, so use the regulator link below for the current text.

We could not confirm these points from an official page, so we do not state a number for them. Ask the supplier, read the contract and check with the New York State Public Service Commission.

• The ESCO’s current price against your utility’s supply price
• Early termination fees
• The date of your next default price change, so you compare offers against the right number

New York PSC, if you were switched without authorizing it: 1-888-697-7728.

The average New York home used 586 kWh a month in 2025, or about 7,036 kWh a year. At that use, every 1 cent per kWh of difference between an offer and the supply price on your utility bill changes the yearly bill by about $70. A gap of 2 cents is about $141 a year, and 0.5 cents is about $35.

Those numbers shrink or grow with your own use. A monthly fee of $5 adds $60 a year, which can erase a small price gap. Run your own numbers with the electricity bill calculator, and compare fixed and variable plans with the fixed vs variable rate calculator.

Switching does not change the company that owns the lines and the meter. In New York, the largest investor-owned utilities by residential customers in 2025 were:

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data), residential customers. Call your utility for outages whichever supplier you use.

Keep your contract, your confirmation and any call notes. If you think you were switched without permission, tell your utility and your regulator right away. The New York State Public Service Commission takes complaints about suppliers.

Be wary of anyone who says they are from your utility and says you must switch, who asks for your account number before you have seen a contract, or who will not give you the price and fees in writing.