How to switch electric rate plans with your utility

This is not a supplier switch

Changing which of your utility’s tariffs you are billed under is a different thing from signing up with a retail electricity supplier. The plan switch happens inside the utility, costs nothing, and does not involve a contract with a new company. The difference matters because the sales pitches sound alike and the risks do not.

Before you call

1. Pick the plan on paper first. Every utility page on this site prices all of that utility’s open plans against the same household, and the calculator lets you adjust the household to look like yours. Know the name of the plan you want and roughly what it should save. How to compare without getting it wrong.
2. Check it is still open. Utilities close plans to new customers without removing them from the tariff book. We drop closed plans from this site, but a plan can close between our snapshots. The tariff document linked on every rate page says so in its first paragraph if it has.
3. Check the meter. Time-of-use plans need a meter that records use by hour. Most homes now have one; some do not, and the utility will either install one or decline the switch. Ask.
4. Check the minimum term. Some time-of-use plans require you to stay for twelve months. Others let you leave any time but will not let you back on for a year. Both are written in the tariff, and both are worth knowing before rather than after.
5. Look for a bill protection period. Many utilities now offer the first year on a time-of-use plan with a guarantee: if you would have paid less on your old plan, they credit the difference. If yours does, the switch has no downside for a year. Ask for it by name; it is rarely advertised.

Making the switch

• Online account. Most large utilities have a "rate options" or "compare plans" page inside the account. Some show your own past year priced under each plan, which is better data than anyone else has.
• Phone. Ask for the plan by its tariff name — the one on the rate page, not the marketing name. Ask when it takes effect and whether there is a minimum term. Note the date and the name of the person you spoke to.
• Form. Smaller utilities and cooperatives often use a one-page election form. It will ask for your account number and the schedule name.

The change is applied at a meter reading, so the first bill after switching may be split: part of the period on the old plan, part on the new. That bill is not a fair test of the new plan. Wait for a full period.

After the switch

Compare on a per-day basis, and compare like with like — the same month a year earlier, not the month before. On a time-of-use plan the first full bill tells you whether your habits match the hours; if the bill went up, look at the breakdown by period before deciding the plan was wrong. Often one load — a car charger set to start at 6pm instead of midnight — is the whole difference.

If it genuinely does not suit you, switch back. Unless the tariff says otherwise, you can, and the utility would rather have you on a plan you understand than argue.