In deregulated electricity states, consumers face a choice that most people don’t fully understand: stay with the utility’s default supply service or switch to a competitive electricity supplier. The default option goes by different names—Standard Offer Service (SOS) in Connecticut and Maryland, Basic Generation Service (BGS) in New Jersey, Purchase of Receivables (POR) in Illinois,…
If you’ve ever wondered why electricity prices change by the hour—or why your utility’s rates shift seasonally—the answer lies in how wholesale electricity markets actually work. Independent System Operators (ISOs) and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) run two parallel pricing mechanisms that together determine what generators earn and, ultimately, what consumers pay. Understanding day-ahead vs. real-time…
If your business or facility operates a backup generator, on-site solar array, or any form of self-generation, your utility may assess a standby rate rider on top of your standard electricity charges. These riders are among the least-understood line items on commercial electric bills—and one of the most consequential for facilities that invest in resilience…
The electric grid is increasingly being shaped from the bottom up. Rooftop solar, home batteries, smart thermostats, EV chargers, and heat pump water heaters are no longer just cost-saving appliances — they’re grid assets. Distributed Energy Resource Aggregation (DERA) is the mechanism that bundles thousands of these small devices into a single controllable pool that…
When your lights stay on through a heat dome, a polar vortex, or the aftermath of a major storm, a set of federal mandatory reliability standards is part of the reason why. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) enterprise it leads form the regulatory backbone of bulk power…
Time-varying electricity rates — plans where the price per kWh changes based on time of day, day of week, or grid stress conditions — have been running in pilot programs for over a decade. The findings from early adopters in Illinois, California, New York, and several European markets now provide a clear picture of who…
If you manage a commercial or industrial facility, you may have noticed a line item on your electric bill labeled “power factor adjustment,” “reactive demand charge,” or simply “PF penalty.” For most small businesses these charges are invisible — but once your facility’s power factor drops below 0.85 or 0.90, the utility penalty can add…
Community solar has quietly become one of the most practical ways for households to go green without installing a single panel on their roof. If you rent, live in a shaded house, or simply don’t want to commit to a 25-year lease, a community solar subscription lets you buy into a shared solar farm and…
Heat waves are no longer rare events. Across deregulated electricity markets, the past few summers have produced record peak demand, wholesale price spikes, and rolling brown-out warnings in regions that historically were considered grid-stable. For homeowners, this creates two simultaneous problems: comfort risk during the heat itself, and bill risk from variable-rate plans or peak-period…
The price you pay for electricity is shaped less by your retail supplier than by the regional market operator running the grid you sit on. ERCOT (Texas), PJM (mid-Atlantic and Midwest), and NYISO (New York) operate fundamentally different market designs — different ways of paying generators, different rules for reserve capacity, different rules for renewable…