Delaware has a deregulated electricity market.  What does this mean?  It means that the local incumbent utility Delmarva, which was once a regulated monopoly controlling all aspects of electricity service – generation, transmission, distribution – is now only in charge of distribution (they are just an electricity delivery company).  The state mandates that they offer all of their customers a generation default rate for those customers who do not choose an alternative supplier.

Even though Delmarva offers a default generation rate, they do not profit off of these charges.  Their only profit is derived from the delivery charges that are still regulated by the state.  Because of this fact, Delmarva not only does not care if their customers choose a competitive electric supplier, but actually support it.  They want all of their customer to purchase their generation electric service from alternative suppliers so that they can focus their attention on the management and reliability of the electric lines and wires in the state.

Customers looking to shop for competitive electric rates can use the Delmarva default rates (Price to Compare) to determine if the offers they receive are worth signing a contract.  Current competitive electricity rates are showing good savings (8-20%) versus the default rates over the last several years.

Delmarva default rates change about every 4 months.  It is important for Delmarva customers to realize that signing a fixed electricity  contract is not only about saving money off of the current default rate, but also about price protection into the future.  It is possible that the future default rates can become lower than the fixed rate that you signed.  However it is possible, and more likely, that they can drastically increase.  Fixed rate contracts are designed to offer customers with budget certainty giving them electric rate protection.