Customer Choice Information

Understanding Electric Choice

ATTENTION ENERGY SHOPPERS

Citizens' Electric Company has no generation and will not supply generation service or energy outside its territory. Citizens' will not be participating as an Electric Generation Supplier in the Customer Choice Program.

Citizens' "Price to Compare" = 5.2704 cents per kWh
(Includes Transmission and All Applicable State Taxes)

What You Need to Know

Electric Choice gives customers the option of choosing their Electric Generation Supplier (EGS). It also allows the customer to select a generator based on price, products and incentives as well as personal preferences as to the type of generation to purchase, such as nuclear, coal or green energy. Electric Choice will not change the industry's tradition toward safety, reliability and maintenance.

What Are You Choosing?

Customers will be choosing the EGS, which is the company that generates their electricity. The Electric Distribution Company (EDC) will still deliver the electricity to the customer's home or business, respond to outages and maintain the local distribution system (the wires).

Be an Informed Shopper

It's important to be an informed shopper. Keep in mind, contracts are legal agreements and some suppliers could require fees or penalties for terminating agreements or switching suppliers. Below is a list of questions to ask a potential supplier.
Compare offers from more than one supplier.
Compare the supplier's price per kWh with the Price to Compare supplied by your EDC.

EGS's will have access to a list of enrolled customers and may be marketing directly to those customers. They may also be marketing to the entire customer base through their mass marketing techniques.

After you have shopped for the best deal and carefully reviewed the information from different suppliers, you must:

Inform your selected supplier of your choice.
That EGS will notify your EDC of your desire to obtain generation from them.

Your EDC will then send you a letter confirming your EGS selection. If the selection is not correct, you have 10 days to contact your EDC before it becomes final. If the 10 day waiting period ends more than 16 days prior to your regularly scheduled meter reading, you will become a customer of that EGS on the next read date. If there are less than 16 days until your next meter reading date, you will become a customer of that EGS on the next month's read date.

Questions to Ask

Are you licensed by the PUC?

What is the length of this agreement?

Will the price stay the same for the entire time?

Is there a penalty for canceling before the time is up?

or for switching suppliers?

Do you offer special pricing options?

Do you offer interruptible or time-of-day rates?

Does my rate depend on how much electricity I use?

or when I use it?

Do I need a special meter; is there a charge for the meter?

What steps must I take to switch suppliers?

Is there an access or exit fee for starting/stopping supply?

Do you have a budget billing option?

Do you participate in low income assistance programs?

How to Stay informed

Here are several helpful web sites we have found which may be useful in providing additional information about customer choice.

www.electricitychoice.com is an independent site that covers customer choice and deregulation issues across the nation

www.electricpower.com provides daily updates of electric power news

www.energybuyer.com is a FREE consumers guide to find local providers of any energy need!

www.energycentral.com is a news brief service. Each day, they e-mail several short summaries of articles concerning the electric industry. If the summary appears to be useful, you may request the entire article. Visit the site for more info.

www.electrichoice.com is the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's electric choice web site.

www.energyguide.com provides neutral, comparison shopping via an interactive search for an alternative EGS in your area.

www.energyland.com provides news and original content on energy industry deregulation and alternative energy from both an industry and consumer perspective.

www.nreca.org has a restructuring section that shows the status of each state as well as other pertinent information.

www.oca.state.pa.us provides additional information about alternative EGS's in your area

http://puc.paonline.com is the PA PUC homepage

http://www.puc.state.pa.us/utilitychoice/home.aspx contains PA PUC general utility choice information in PA.

www.puc.state.nh.us is the New Hampshire PUC's site.

www.cpuc.ca.gov is the California PUC's site.

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