As one of the largest electric utility service areas in the country that has been restructured into a fully competitive market, the PSE&G service area provides an abundance of electricity rate plans and options for the over 2.1 million power customers in the area. Though the participating customer base has been relatively small when compared to similar energy choice states such as Pennsylvania and Maryland, competitive electricity suppliers offering service to PSEG customers continue to market rates that are well below the PSEG basic generation service rates. Basic generation service rates are the price PSEG customers pay for power supply who have not selected a competitive supplier.
With energy choice legislation that favors a successful choice energy market, many competitive electricity suppliers have entered New Jersey with the attentions of providing low cost electricity and a higher quality of customer service. As the PSEG energy choice market continues to mature, the state has seen even more applications to be a licensed New Jersey competitive electricity supplier. Many of these companies have decided to just offer service in the PSEG service area since it is the largest service area in the state accounting for over half of the residential customers.
In order to become a competitive electricity supplier in PSEG the company must first obtain a license with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The license allows the competitive supplier to purchase power on the wholesale electricity market and then sell it to retail customers such as homes and businesses. To obtain customers these companies must market their services so that consumers can find out about them and learn about the benefits that they are providing which can be lower prices, better customer service, or even green energy.
Perhaps the easiest way for consumers to find out about PSEG competitive electricity suppliers is to use a price comparison site or consumer information site that reviews price plans. Using price comparison websites has become common practice in other industries such as real estate’s Zillow.com, automobile comparison site autonation.com, and travel site travelocity.com just to name a few. The energy price comparison site ElectricRate.com allows consumers to compare price plans from competitive electricity suppliers in the PSEG area in a clear and easy manner.
The number of PSEG competitive electricity suppliers actively seeking new customers continues to grow. Below are a list of some of the lowest rate options offered to PSEG residential customers. The BPU requires that all competitive electricity supplier offer to residential customers include generation charges, transmission, and the sales use tax, which allows customers to compare all offers on the same playing field.