What is Deregulated Energy?

For the longest time I thought that my Boston apartment’s energy bill was just a number that the utility companies made up. I could never guess what the total amount would be. Some months I’d have the A/C going full blast in the middle of June and the bill would be almost nothing. Other months I thought I was saving money by not turning on the heat and freezing all day only to find out that the energy bill was hundreds of dollars. It never made sense.

As you can expect, I didn’t think too much about it when the energy bill sent me an invoice for some small amount in a month where I thought it should have been higher. However, I was always pissed off when the bill was hundreds of dollars. This leads to an unfortunate dynamic where energy costs can only create one strong emotion: negative. Find me someone who was genuinely happy about their energy bill at the end of the month? I’m still waiting. Meanwhile, there’s a long line of people who aren’t happy with it each month. I usually found myself at the front of that line.

These early annoyances with my energy bill led me to do some research. At first that meant waiting on hold for over an hour before speaking with a customer representative to debate that my bill should be lower. But when I started digging deeper, I learned that energy in Massachusetts is a free market. Said differently, you can choose your supplier and are not forced to go with the local utility company.

I spent >100 hours reading about energy deregulation so that you don’t have to. Here’s a very short history:

Up until the 1990s, every state treated electricity as a monopoly. The same company generated, delivered, and billed you for power. (This is what I assumed was still happening.) There was no competition, no market, and certainly no incentive to lower prices. Then a few states decided to experiment with opening the market, starting with California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and a handful of others. The idea was simple: let private suppliers compete to sell electricity while the utility companies focus on maintaining the wires and delivery infrastructure. How has this been a thing since the 1990s yet nobody knows about it? Or was I the only one out of the loop?

Some states embraced it fully, others half‑heartedly, and some not at all. That’s why today we have this weird patchwork system where a business in Connecticut can shop for power but one in Florida can’t.

If you’re reading this from one of these states, you probably have options:

If you’re not in these states…you might find this less interesting unless you’re planning to move. Each of the 10 states listed above has its own version of deregulation, but the core idea is the same: you can shop around for your electricity supply rate while still relying on your local utility (Eversource, National Grid, etc.) to deliver it.

Unfortunately for me as a disgruntled renter, I wasn’t able to get my building’s property manager to switch to a new electricity company. However, when you do have control over the building or you own a business deregulation turns electricity into something you can actually negotiate.

The key is understanding that the “supply” portion of your bill (the part most people ignore) is completely up for grabs. That’s where brokers and energy consultants can help you find savings.

Even though deregulation has been around for decades, a lot of companies still pay the default rate set by their utility. They either never switched or signed a contract years ago and forgot about it. A few reasons this happens:

The end result: thousands of businesses paying 10–30% more than they need to.

If you manage a facility, school, or business, the simplest first step is to look at your latest energy bill.

Even if you don’t switch, understanding your options gives you leverage.

Energy deregulation was supposed to empower consumers, but only the people who pay attention actually benefit. The good news is that once you know how it works, it’s not complicated. You don’t have to change your usage or install anything new. You just need to compare your rate to what’s available in the open market.

Of course, I am biased and have to plug RePulse Energy Partners (REP) as an option before signing off. Pitching REP always feels uncomfortable for me because there’s never been a sell. All we do is help people understand their energy options. If this history of deregulated energy has shown you anything, it’s that the market is all twisted and the deck is stacked against you. The last thing we want to do is make it more complicated so we keep things simple. Best case scenario, we help folks lower their utility rate. Worst case scenario, we validate that they are already on the best possible plan. In either case, we’ve found its good to know what “good” looks like when it comes to your utility bill…because thinking about that first January utility bill I got while living in Boston still keeps me up at night.

Learn more at: repulseenergy.com