Deregulated Electricity States: Where Households Can Choose

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data). Share of residential customers served by retail power marketers. Limited states are listed for completeness, and California and Virginia have a small or no supplier share in the EIA data.

In 2025, the share of homes with a retail supplier ran from 62% in Massachusetts to 0.0% in Virginia. Having choice and using choice are different. Several things push a state's share up or down:

• Group buying programs. In some states towns and counties buy power for residents, and residents are enrolled unless they opt out. That counts as supplier service in the data.
• The default price. When the utility default is competitive, fewer households bother to switch.
• History. Markets that opened early had more time to build up suppliers and customers.
• Marketing and rules. Sales practices and consumer protections shape how many households sign.

1. Read your bill. If it names a company other than your utility as the supplier, you already use choice.
2. Check your state on the list above and open its page for the official comparison site.
3. Make sure your utility is part of the program. Cooperatives and municipal systems are often outside it.
4. If you are still unsure, ask your utility or your state regulator.

Where choice applies, the old single company was split. Power plants are no longer owned and priced by the local utility, and generation is bought on competitive markets. A regulated utility still delivers the power, because poles and wires are a natural monopoly. Suppliers compete to sell the energy.

The result is the structure on your bill: an energy part that suppliers compete on and a delivery part that a regulator controls. Our guide to what a retail electric provider is shows who does what.

• Your delivery utility, your meter and your outage service.
• The delivery part of the bill, which stays regulated.
• Access in every part of a choice state. Municipal utilities and many cooperatives are outside the program.
• A guarantee of savings. A supplier offer can be higher or lower than the default.

In the rest of the country a regulated utility, a cooperative or a municipal system provides generation and delivery together, and a state regulator or a local board sets its rates. Those households cannot pick a supplier. They can still change their rate plan, join a time-of-use program or use a utility's efficiency offers. See time-of-use rates explained.

Each choice state has its own consumer pages and its own list of licensed suppliers. Open your state on the providers page to find its regulator, its official comparison site where one exists and the name it uses for default service. For Texas, which has the biggest market, see the Texas guide.

Regulators describe these markets as having retail choice or competitive supply. The word deregulated is common in searches, so we use it here, but delivery stays regulated everywhere. The states also differ in their rules for suppliers, their default prices and how much of the state is covered, which is why each state has its own page.

• U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 (final 2025 data)