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Deregulated vs. Regulated States — July 2026

Every U.S. electricity bill splits into two halves: supply (the energy itself) and delivery (the poles, wires and transformers that move it to your house). Which of those halves you can shop for depends on one fact about your state — not your utility, not your plan, your state: whether it runs a deregulated (“retail choice”) market or a regulated one. Today that is 14 of 51 U.S. jurisdictions (50 states plus D.C.) with choice, and the other 37 without it — and, as the sections below cover, a few states are more complicated than their statute alone suggests.

Live data · Source: U.S. EIA, July 2026 · refreshed monthly

What “deregulated” changes, and what it never does

In a deregulated market, a competing supplier can sell you the supply half of the bill while your existing utility keeps delivering the electricity — reading the meter, maintaining the lines, responding to outages. The delivery half, and any riders layered on top, are not up for shopping in either kind of state; they stay with your utility either way and are set through the state's regulatory process. That is why a switch never zeroes out a bill, only the supply line item on it.

In a regulated market, there is no competing supplier to buy from at all — your utility is the only seller of both halves, and its rates (supply included) are set by your state public utility commission through a rate case, not a marketplace. Neither structure is inherently cheaper; deregulation exists to let market competition set the supply price, regulation exists to have a commission set it instead. Which one serves you better is a state-by-state, plan-by-plan question, not a rule of thumb.

Where each structure applies

Residential supplier choice is open in these 14 jurisdictions:

Everyone else — 37 jurisdictions — is regulated:

* carries a caveat explained below — the statute and the practical reality differ.

Deregulated on paper, restricted in practice

A state's market classification is a legal fact, not a guarantee of a wide-open marketplace. 5 states classified as deregulated here carry an active restriction worth knowing before you shop:

Regulated states sometimes described online as open markets

The reverse confusion happens too: a state can be legally regulated for residential electricity while a different program in the same state (natural gas choice, community choice aggregation) gets described loosely as “deregulation.” We classify by what a residential customer can actually do:

If you are in a regulated state

There is no supplier to switch to, and no offer you can compare against a competitor — any site or caller telling you otherwise in a regulated state is selling something that is not actually for sale where you live. What is real: ask your utility which rate schedules you qualify for (many regulated utilities still offer time-of-use or off-peak pricing), check for income-based rate assistance, and look at your utility's own efficiency rebate list before buying equipment out of pocket. None of that is a marketplace, but all of it is a genuine, state-sanctioned way the price side of your bill can move.

See what your state's structure means for your bill

Enter your state and bill: the calculator shows your state's average and, if you are in the 13 jurisdictions where a switch is both legal and live today, flags it. Nothing you type is stored.

Bill Shock Calculator

See where you stand - and where your bill is headed. Nothing you type is stored.

Ohio average: $224/mo at 19.45¢/kWh (+11.9% YoY)

Your bill is 33.0% below the state average (≈771 kWh/mo at the state average price).

Where your bill is headed:

  • locked2027/2028 delivery year (Jun 2027 - May 2028)
    +$0.23/mo
  • locked2028/2029 delivery year (Jun 2028 - May 2029)
    -$0.23/mo
  • trendIf the last 12 months' trend continues
    +$17.89/mo

“Locked” = PJM capacity auction prices already cleared (a floor - several utility zones cleared higher). “Trend” = the observed 12-month EIA trend extended, not a promise.

Three ways to fight it:

  1. Switch your plan. Ohio lets residents pick their electricity supplier. Plan comparison coming soon.
  2. Find your energy hogs. See what each appliance actually costs to run at Ohio rates: cost-to-run guides.
  3. Get a home energy audit. DOE guide to professional and DIY audits.

Estimate only, based on official data as of July 2026 (U.S. EIA residential averages; PJM auction results). Your actual plan price differs.

Keep going

Estimate only, based on official data as of July 2026. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential retail sales (public domain), refreshed monthly. Market structure is our own classification of what residential customers can do in practice, and can change with state law — verify with your state commission before acting.