Buying electricity from an ESCO in New York

Who can choose and where to look

Most New York homes can buy their electricity supply from an energy service company (ESCO) instead of their utility. The utility keeps the delivery side: in the words of the Department of Public Service, it "will continue to deliver your energy and respond to all emergencies even if you switch to an ESCO." There is no requirement to switch. A home that does nothing stays on its utility's full-service supply, which is the default.

The state's official listing of residential offers is the Department's Power to Choose site. ESCOs need the Department's approval and sell under rules set by the Public Service Commission; the Department publishes the list of ESCOs it regulates and takes complaints about them by phone and online.

Seven utilities with 100,000 or more residential customers deliver to 99.0%¹ of the state's residential customers: Con Edison, National Grid, PSEG Long Island, NYSEG, RG&E, Central Hudson and Orange & Rockland. Which one serves an address is decided by the utility's own map, not by city or ZIP code.

Fewer than one home in ten shops

EIA's annual census of utilities (Form EIA-861) counts the customers who buy supply from someone other than their utility. In 2025, 532,632 New York residential customers did, 7.3% of the total. That placed the state 11th highest among the 50 states and DC; across the US the share was 15.1%. The count covers 56¹ ESCOs and community choice (CCA) programs with residential customers; EIA's count does not separate a home that signed with an ESCO from one enrolled by its town's CCA.

Shopping is far from even across the state. Each utility reports how many of its residential delivery customers buy supply elsewhere:

RG&E, around Rochester, had the highest share; NYSEG and National Grid, the two other large upstate utilities, had the lowest outside Long Island. Con Edison's share was mid-range, but on the state's largest system it still meant 311,927¹ homes buying supply elsewhere, the largest group in the state.

Long Island is the exception

PSEG Long Island (LIPA), a state power authority in EIA's records, reported 1,032,490 residential customers on its wires in 2025 and only 19 of them buying supply from another company. For practical purposes, Long Island homes buy their electricity from the utility, at an average of 26.17¢ per kWh¹ for full service in 2025. Its delivery-only figure rests on that handful of accounts, so it is left out of the delivery comparison below.

Utility supply, ESCO supply and delivery: the 2025 split

EIA splits what customers paid by the part of the service they bought. All three figures below are average revenue per kWh, total charges divided by kWh used, for calendar 2025; none is a tariff or an offer.

• Utility full service (default): homes that stayed with their utility paid an average of 25.92¢ per kWh for supply and delivery together.
• ESCO and CCA supply only: homes that bought from an ESCO or CCA paid their supplier an average of 14.79¢ per kWh for the electricity alone, across all contracts.
• Utility delivery only: the same homes paid their utility an average of 17.88¢ per kWh¹ for delivery.

Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery25.92¢

Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only14.79¢

Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only17.88¢

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	25.92¢
Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only	14.79¢
Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only	17.88¢

These numbers answer different questions and cannot be lined up against one another. The full-service average includes delivery; the supply-only average does not. The ESCO customers are also not a random sample: they are concentrated in some utility areas more than others (see the table above), and delivery charges differ widely between those areas. A statewide supplier average therefore says nothing about what any one contract costs or whether shoppers as a group paid more or less than they would have on default service.

Delivery charges stay with your utility

Whichever supplier a home picks, the delivery part of the bill is the utility's. EIA's delivery-only figures show how much that part varies across New York. In 2025, Con Edison billed residential customers who bought supply elsewhere an average of 24.29¢ per kWh for delivery, against 10.37¢ per kWh¹ at National Grid.

National Grid (NY)10.37¢

NYSEG (NY)13.11¢

RG&E (NY)13.41¢

Orange & Rockland (NY)14.61¢

Central Hudson (NY)18.08¢

Con Edison (NY)24.29¢

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)
National Grid (NY)	10.37¢
NYSEG (NY)	13.11¢
RG&E (NY)	13.41¢
Orange & Rockland (NY)	14.61¢
Central Hudson (NY)	18.08¢
Con Edison (NY)	24.29¢

Because Con Edison homes use little electricity, the gap per home is smaller than the gap per kWh: the delivery part of the bill averaged $107.46 a month for Con Edison's shopping customers in 2025, $78.63 for National Grid's and $117.38 for Central Hudson's, the highest of the three. Central Hudson's shopping customers used 649 kWh a month on average, Con Edison's 442 kWh¹.

From 2024 to 2025, delivery revenue per kWh for these customers changed by +18.2% at NYSEG, +8.9% at Central Hudson, +8.2% at RG&E and −1.3%¹ at Con Edison. Switching suppliers does not change these charges.

The rules an ESCO sells under

The Department of Public Service sets out several protections for residential customers on its shopping page:

• A residential customer can rescind an ESCO agreement within three days of receiving it.
• A customer can always switch back to the utility.
• Switching a customer's supplier without approval is unlawful; unauthorized switches go to the Department's complaint line or its online complaint form.

In December 2019 the Commission adopted an order changing the retail access market and required every ESCO that wanted to keep serving mass-market customers (homes and small businesses) to file an updated eligibility application. The sample mass-market contracts the Department lists alongside it are of three kinds: a fixed rate with a price cap, guaranteed savings, and renewable energy. Separately, a Commission order of December 16, 2016 prohibits ESCOs from serving low-income customers, a rule the state's courts upheld in 2017.

Checking an ESCO offer against your bill

A supplier offer is a price for supply only, so the fair comparison is with the supply part of your utility bill, not with the total.

1. Find your own use. The average New York home used 586 kWh a month in 2025, 6th lowest² among the states, but Con Edison's full-service homes averaged 373 kWh and National Grid's 652 kWh¹. Your bill shows your own kWh by month; if an offer includes a fixed monthly fee, it weighs more on a small apartment than on a large house.
2. Read the price type and term. Note whether the price is fixed or variable, how long it lasts, what happens when the term ends and whether there is an early cancellation fee.
3. Start from the official list. Power to Choose lists residential ESCO offers by utility. Door-to-door and phone sellers, brokers and comparison sites present offers by their own criteria.

Delivery charges do not depend on the supplier, so the comparison comes down to the supply line.

Why the stakes are high in New York

New York homes paid an average of 28.60¢ per kWh over the last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026), all utilities and suppliers together, 58.5% above the US average and 6th highest among the states. The average was 11.2%³ higher than in the previous 12 months (2026 months are preliminary). The full-service average depended heavily on the utility: in 2025 Con Edison's homes paid 36.74¢ per kWh, NYSEG's 22.59¢ per kWh after a 23.3% rise from 2024, and RG&E's 22.01¢ per kWh¹. The New York state page covers prices, bills and utilities in full.

For help paying, New York received $401.2 million⁴ from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal year 2026, which the state distributes to eligible households. Ask your utility whether it offers a low-income discount.