Connecticut

There are three steps to providing electricity to homes and offices across the United States. The first step is the actual production of the power also called generation. In the Northeast United States, the New England Independent System Operator produces the electricity and administers it throughout the New England area to the power providers. The second step is known as transmission. It is controlled by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which controls the transmission grid that sends the power through the lines running underground and along the power lines in the New England area. The third step is distribution. This step is controlled by the providers of a given area. The last step is non-negotiable in any state in the United States because it would take too much effort to lay out new lines. The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control regulates this step as well to ensure that rates stay low across the board.

There are two methods of regulation that states are allowed to initiate in order to efficiently deliver these three steps to the highest standards: the regulated and the deregulated systems.

The way the regulated system is set up is that there is a pool of companies that produce power for a certain geographical area. Within that area, there is also a pool of power providers who get the power from their chosen producer and then deliver that power to the consumers in their area for a fee. In the regulated system, consumers cannot choose either their power producer or provider and are therefore subject to paying the fees set in place by the producers for their part of the city or state. This system is in place throughout most of the country.

 However, in the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the state of Connecticut voted to deregulate their power system and put more power into the hands of the consumers in hopes of increasing their stagnant population. While the new deregulated system does not give consumers the option to choose their service providers, they are able to choose which company produces their power for them from the pool of producers available in their area.

The state of Connecticut has four major service areas with a fifth area that gets its power from sources from a neighboring state. The four divisions are Southern, Western, Central, and Eastern. Each power provider in the state falls into one of those categories for getting power to a consumer's home or business. However, within each of these divisions, there are a number of power producers that residents in any of the four sections are able to choose from. This is the bright side to the deregulated system from the consumer's point of view. While one home may be located in the Southern division, the owner could choose a power producer located in the Western division, if they have a better rate than one in their own area, without having to worry about their provider not being able to deliver it to them.

The choice of where electricity is produced is has nothing to do with the quality of the power pumping through the power lines. It is simply a means of allowing the customer to choose what they want to pay for electricity. Geographically speaking, choosing a provider out of a specific distribution area has no affect on the ability for the provider to transfer the power from the producer to the consumer.

The major power producers in Connecticut currently supporting the deregulation act are ConEdison Solutions which supports all kinds of buildings from residences to small and large businesses, Direct Energy Services, LLC which also supports all kinds of home and businesses, and MX Energy which provides power to all sources while constantly focusing on ways to improve how green their product is at a reasonable price.