Choosing an electric supplier in Connecticut

Who can choose a supplier

Shopping in Connecticut happens on the wires of the two investor-owned distribution utilities. Eversource (The Connecticut Light and Power Company) has 76.3% of the state's residential customers and United Illuminating 20.1%¹. Their customers can keep the utility's standard service or sign with a licensed supplier; either way the utility still delivers the power, reads the meter, restores outages and sends the bill.

The rest of the state is served by town utilities such as Town of Wallingford, City of Norwich and Groton Dept of Utilities. In EIA's 2025 utility census, only Eversource and United Illuminating reported residential customers who buy their supply elsewhere: 198,451 and 53,758 respectively. Households served by a municipal utility buy from it at the prices it sets; in 2025 the public power utilities' residential customers paid an average of 19.54¢ per kWh¹. Which utility serves an address is decided by the utility's own service map.

The Rate Board and the standard service price

The official place to compare is the Rate Board on EnergizeCT, the state's comparison of licensed suppliers' residential offers with the standard service rates of Eversource and United Illuminating.

Standard service is the default: the supply you get if you never choose. The Office of Consumer Counsel explains that the utilities buy this electricity with oversight from PURA and the Office's own staff, and that the standard service rate changes on January 1 and July 1 each year. On the bill, it sits in the supply section as the Generation Services Charge, with a bypassable federally mandated congestion charge beside it; everything under delivery is paid to the utility whoever supplies the power.

That twice-yearly reset is what makes Connecticut shopping a moving target. A fixed supplier price is compared against a benchmark that can rise or fall every six months. In 2026 it fell: the governor's office reported in September that the supply rates that took effect on July 1, 2026 had come down, after PURA lowered other charges from May 1. EIA's monthly data show what homes paid after these changes: the statewide residential average for August 2026 was 24.51¢ per kWh, 18.8%² below the same month a year earlier (preliminary). A supplier contract signed before those changes is now measured against a lower standard service price.

What the rules guarantee

Connecticut's supplier rules are written into state law and are summarised on the state's consumer protection page on third-party electricity suppliers:

• No variable rates. Variable-rate contracts for residential customers have been banned since 2015.
• No cancellation fees for residential supplier contracts, under a 2021 public act.
• A minimum term. A residential contract must last at least four months, and when it renews the new price cannot be raised for at least four months.
• Hardship customers can sign with a supplier only at a price equal to or below the utility's standard service rate, under a PURA ruling, and PURA may keep them from being switched at all.
• Return at any time. A customer can switch back to the utility's standard service whenever they choose; the state's page says the switch takes up to two days and the charges are prorated.

The same page warns that almost all supplier contracts renew automatically, often at a higher price, and advises customers to note when their contract expires and to check the supply summary on the first page of each bill.

What EIA's data say about each part of the market

EIA's annual census splits Connecticut's residential market into three groups of figures, each covering a different part of the bill and different customers. In 2025:

• standard-service customers of Eversource and United Illuminating paid an average of 28.97¢ per kWh, supply and delivery together;
• supplier customers paid their suppliers an average of 11.78¢ per kWh, supply only;
• the same supplier customers paid their utility an average of 18.96¢ per kWh¹, delivery only.

Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery28.97¢

Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only11.78¢

Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only18.96¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh by service part, EIA-861 2025. Supply-only and delivery-only averages each cover only part of a bill and different groups of customers; adding them gives only a rough estimate of what a shopping customer paid in total.

Show the numbers

Part of the market	¢/kWh
Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery	28.97¢
Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only	11.78¢
Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only	18.96¢

These are averages of revenue divided by kWh across a whole year, not prices on offer. The supply-only figure mixes every supplier contract in force during 2025, old and new, and EIA does not publish a supply-only figure for standard service. That is why the figures cannot answer whether shoppers came out ahead: the like-for-like comparison is a supplier's price per kWh against the standard service supply rate for the same months.

Delivery averages also differ between the two utilities. At Eversource, residential customers with a supplier paid 18.65¢ per kWh for delivery alone in 2025, a change of +14.7% per kWh from 16.26¢ per kWh in 2024; at United Illuminating they paid 20.17¢ per kWh, a change of +3.0%¹ from 19.59¢ per kWh³. Those charges come from the utility's tariff and are the same whichever supplier a customer picks.

Eversource (CT)18.65¢

United Illuminating (CT)20.17¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Delivery charges only: what the utility billed customers who buy supply elsewhere, divided by their kWh. Not comparable with bundled prices.

Show the numbers

Utility	delivery-only revenue per kWh (residential)
Eversource (CT)	18.65¢
United Illuminating (CT)	20.17¢

Who shops: larger users

The households that buy from a supplier use noticeably more electricity than those on standard service. In 2025, Eversource's delivery-only residential customers averaged 863 kWh a month, against 677 kWh for its standard-service customers. At United Illuminating the gap was wider: 814 kWh against 516 kWh¹. EIA's data do not say why; they do mean that per-kWh averages of the two groups describe different kinds of homes, and that fixed monthly charges are spread over more kWh for supplier customers.

The share that shops is similar on both systems: 16.6% of residential customers on Eversource's wires and 17.1% on United Illuminating's. EIA counted 9¹ suppliers with residential customers in the state in 2025.

Connecticut against the rest of New England and New York

Connecticut's 16.3% is the 9th highest shopping share among the states, above the US figure of 15.1% but well below Massachusetts (63.6%) and New Hampshire (40.8%). EIA's share counts customers of suppliers and of community choice aggregation (town-level purchasing programs) alike. What supplier customers paid for supply alone also differed: 11.78¢ per kWh in Connecticut, against 15.22¢ per kWh in Massachusetts, 14.34¢ per kWh in Rhode Island and 14.79¢ per kWh¹ in New York. Each state's figure averages a different mix of contracts and customers in 2025.

Massachusetts63.6%

Ohio58.1%

Texas55.5%

California42.1%

New Hampshire40.8%

Rhode Island25.9%

Illinois22.5%

Pennsylvania22.4%

Connecticut16.3%

United States15.1%

District of Columbia10.3%

New York7.3%

Maine7.1%

New Jersey6.1%

Delaware5.6%

Maryland4.8%

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Residential customers of energy-only suppliers and community choice aggregators (plus Texas retail electric providers) as a share of all residential customers (EIA-861 2025, EIA customer counting: bundled + energy-only + Texas retail provider accounts). Includes municipal or community aggregation where it is reported as energy-only.

Show the numbers

State	Customers with a supplier
Massachusetts	63.6%
Ohio	58.1%
Texas	55.5%
California	42.1%
New Hampshire	40.8%
Rhode Island	25.9%
Illinois	22.5%
Pennsylvania	22.4%
Connecticut	16.3%
United States	15.1%
District of Columbia	10.3%
New York	7.3%
Maine	7.1%
New Jersey	6.1%
Delaware	5.6%
Maryland	4.8%

Before signing a supplier contract

1. Compare supply with supply. Put the supplier's price per kWh next to the standard service rate on the Rate Board for your utility, not next to the total on your bill.
2. Check the end date against January and July. The standard service rate resets on those dates; a contract that runs past one of them will be measured against a new benchmark.
3. Know what happens at renewal. Most contracts renew automatically; the renewal price can differ from the one you signed for.
4. Read the supply summary each month. It shows the supplier's rate on the first page of the bill.

The broader picture of Connecticut's prices, utilities and bills is on the Connecticut electricity page; the residential average there (27.42¢ per kWh² for September 2025 to August 2026) covers standard-service and supplier customers together. The regulated vs deregulated guide compares the two market designs.