How to switch electricity suppliers
Short answer. A supply switch is a change of who sells generation, effective on a future meter-read cycle, not the moment you submit a form. The delivery utility keeps the wires, the outage response, and usually the bill. You should not see two suppliers charging for the same dates.
The sequence
Confirm the market is open to you and the account is in your name. Record the price to compare and your kWh. Choose a licensed offer that names your delivery utility. Submit the enrollment. The utility sends a confirmation or shows a pending switch. Service starts on the next eligible meter read, often one billing cycle and sometimes two. Until that date, the old supply arrangement remains in force.
How the bill changes
Under utility consolidated billing, the new supplier’s line replaces the old supply line. You still pay delivery to the utility. Under dual billing, the supplier mails a separate supply bill and the utility bills delivery. Know which one you agreed to. If both a utility supply charge and a supplier charge cover the same period, contact the utility; that overlap is a billing error, not a feature of choice.
What does not happen
The lights do not go through the new company. A switch does not require a truck. It does not cancel arrears you owe the utility. It does not remove an early termination fee you still owe the old supplier. If someone enrolled you without consent, that is slamming, which is a complaint to the utility and the regulator, not a normal switch.
Questions people ask
How long does an electricity switch take?
Typically one to two meter-read cycles. The confirmation from the utility states the effective date. It is not same-day.
Will I get two bills?
Often no. Many markets use utility consolidated billing. Some suppliers bill separately. The contract says which.
Can I switch if I am behind on the utility bill?
Utilities can block a switch when the account is in arrears or under a deferred-payment agreement. Pay or resolve the hold before you shop.
Use the bill, not a stale screenshot
How to switch electricity suppliers comes down to documents you can keep: the utility name on the bill, the supply price or default price, the kWh or demand that drove the charges, and the term and fees in any contract. National average prices from the Energy Information Administration are context. For 2024, EIA put average residential use at 865 kWh a month and the average residential price at 16.5 cents per kWh. For June 2026, EIA reported 18.34 cents per kWh of residential revenue. Those figures mix supply and delivery for the whole country. They are not a price to compare, and they are not an offer in this territory.
If a salesperson’s number and the bill disagree, keep the bill. Shop Energy Prices does not rank suppliers and does not publish a live rate table. Re-check the official shopping site or the utility tariff on the day you enroll, because offers and default prices change.
Going further on How to switch electricity suppliers
How to switch electricity suppliers is a local shopping problem only if the account is in a retail-choice territory and the account is in your name. The utility printed on the bill is the fact. The city name is a hint.
Where choice exists, you shop supply. Delivery, outages, and the meter stay with the utility. A supplier that does not name that utility is showing you the wrong product.
The benchmark is the price to compare, basic service, standard offer, or standard-offer service for that utility, not the national average. EIA’s 16.5 cents per kWh for 2024 and 18.34 cents of residential revenue per kWh in June 2026 mix supply and delivery for the whole country.
Offers change. This site does not rank companies and does not post a live table. On the day you enroll, read the contract term, the monthly fee, and the early termination fee at your own kilowatt-hours.
An illustration only: moving from 8 cents to 7 cents on 650 kilowatt-hours is 7 dollars before fees. A monthly fee or an early termination fee can erase it. Delivery does not disappear.
Addresses on the edge of a town, and addresses served by a municipal utility or a cooperative, often cannot use the investor-owned shopping site. If the bill and this page disagree, follow the bill.
What to verify before you act
Write down the utility name, the account name, the supply price or default price, and a typical month of use. How to switch electricity suppliers does not change those four facts. If a contractor, a supplier, or a city page disagrees with the bill, the bill wins. Shop Energy Prices does not sell electricity and does not keep a live rate table.
Use one official source for the benchmark: the price to compare or default service on the bill, the state shopping site if your state publishes one, or the commission docket that sets the default. EIA’s national averages are context for scale. They are the wrong number to beat.
Keep the contract PDF. Circle the term, the fee to leave, the renewal rule, and any pass-through that is not fixed. A verbal match to a competitor is not the product. If you are inside a cancellation window, follow the written notice method the same day and keep a copy.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions How to switch electricity suppliers and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions How to switch electricity suppliers and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions How to switch electricity suppliers and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
A worksheet for How to switch electricity suppliers
Write the utility, the rate class, the current supply or default price, the end date, and a recent month of kilowatt-hours. Beside them write the alternative and every fee. How to switch electricity suppliers is finished only when those two columns can be subtracted. If you cannot name the fee to leave, you do not yet have a decision.
Ask, in writing, which bill lines change and which stay. Delivery, franchise fees, and gross-receipts taxes usually stay. Supply, a voluntary green attribute, or an equipment runtime can change. A seller who will not point at the line is not ready for your signature.
Set one reminder for 60 days before the contract ends and one for the day a commission usually resets default service, if you know that month. How to switch electricity suppliers does not require weekly shopping. It requires one careful comparison at the moment the price can actually change.