Delaware

Electric:

The Delaware Public Service Commission has reformed the state's electric market to give customers a chance to save money on their electric bills through choosing an alternate electric supplier. Customers at Delmarva and the Delaware Electric Cooperative can shop for a cheaper electric supply rate.

Delmarva sold its power plants to open the market to competition, and now only owns the transmission and distribution wires, while also providing 'backstop' power to customers who do not shop for electricity. With the move to competition, Delmarva has separated service into two parts:

• Regulated distribution of power, which is still only provided by the utility, and
• Supply of the electric commodity, which is open to competition.

Customers can choose to receive their electricity supply from their utility, or an alternate energy provider.

Customers who do not choose an alternate electric provider receive default supply from the utility, or Standard Offer Service (SOS). SOS prices change once annually. Most supply for SOS is bought through a competitive auction once a year, but Delmarva is starting to blend other power into the SOS supply, such as on-shore and off-shore wind power. Because the SOS price only changes once a year, customers paying the SOS price do not enjoy the benefits of falling market prices. Choosing an alternative electric supplier allows customers to receive the benefit of falling prices faster.

Customers who choose an alternate energy provider still have their power delivered to them by Delmarva, and contact Delmarva for all outage reporting. Customers can choose to receive either a single bill from Delmarva for their delivery service and energy supply service, or can receive two bills, one from each company.