Electricity Supplier - Make The Right Choice
Who is my electricity supplier?
In Canada and the United States, it’s easy to learn which energy provider serves your property or residence. It depends on whether you are trying to find your electricity and natural gas supplier. Sometimes, homes and businesses have the power to choose their energy service utility company and the products and service they provide. Customers are free to choose. It's a competitive energy marketplace.
If you use both services, your property might have the same local distribution company for both fuels, – commonly known as a "duel fuel supplier". But if your utility records are stored separately, you might need to more research to learn who supplies your natural gas services and your electricity services separately.
Here is a list of accredited Electricity Suppliers in Canada
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/mc-mc.nsf/eng/lm00525.html
Here is a list of accredited Electricity Suppliers in the United States.
https://www.electricchoice.com/blog/25-top-providers-part-1/
Who can supply electricity?
All electricity supplier companies must have a licence from the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). One of the licence conditions is that a company must produce codes of practice on:
Although the codes of practice are not legally enforceable, they will be useful when negotiating with a company and any breach should be reported to governmental regulatory authorities.
Choosing an electricity supplier
You can change your company if you wish. If you are considering changing your company you should be aware that the pricing structures, services offered and policies will differ between the different companies.You should carefully check the information and contracts of the competing electricity suppliers, and compare these to your current terms, to make sure that you choose the best deal for your needs. A lot depends on your gas bills or electricity bill, and your location by postal code.
Dual fuel offers
Dual fuel is the supply of gas and electricity by the same company. Some gas and electricity suppliers are licensed separately by Ofgem to supply customers with both fuels. Some companies will supply both fuels under one contract, while others will give one contract for gas and another for electricity.
Electricity Suppliers who make dual offers will often give a discount off the total bill as they can make administrative savings by issuing combined bills and collecting combined payments. However, this does not necessarily mean that the cost of gas and electricity
- procedures for complaints
- payment of bills, arrangements for dealing with arrears and prepayment meters
- site access procedures
- energy efficiency advice
- services for older, disabled and chronically sick people. As part of this code of practice, the company must keep a register of these people and provide services to help those who are blind and partially sighted or deaf or hearing impaired. Especially during a power outage, it is important that these customers are restored asap.The customer may have to pay for some of these services.
- how you will be charged for your electricity supply. Some companies may make a fixed standing charge and then a unit charge for the amount of electricity used; an company may not make a standing charge, but charge a higher unit price
- whether different charges apply to different periods during the day
- if cheaper prices are offered for particular payment methods, for example, if you pay by direct debit
- what service standards each company is offering, for example, for repairs, extra help for older or disabled customers.All electricity suppliers must keep a list of their customers who ask to be identified as pensioners, chronically sick or disabled.The electricity supplier must tell all its customers that it keeps such a list and give information on how customers can be added to the list
- the company's policies, for example, on debt and disconnection.