Switching energy suppliers: what changes

What changes, and what stays exactly the same

One line on the bill changes hands. Everything physical stays where it is: the utility still delivers the energy, reads the meter, maintains the network and remains the party you call when supply fails. Delivery charges are set by the utility's tariff and are identical whoever supplies you, which is precisely why shopping is possible at all — there is a single competitive line, and a switch cannot touch the rest of the invoice.

• Supply: the supplier of record, its price and the entity that bills that line.
• Delivery, meter and network: unchanged, and set by the utility tariff.
• Utility account number: the same identifier every quote is built against.
• Service continuity: no interruption, no site visit, no new meter.

The switch runs under a selection rule, not a request to the utility

In Texas the governing rule is 16 TAC §25.474, Selection of Retail Electric Provider. The customer authorises the incoming supplier, the supplier must verify that authorisation before it may submit anything, and it must deliver its terms of service promptly afterwards. The enrolment is then processed through ERCOT's market systems, which validate the transaction and pass the service order to the transmission and distribution utility that owns the meter. The utility never chooses your supplier; it executes the change against the account. The purchase of the service is a matter between you and the supplier, and an enrolment submitted without verified authorisation is what the rules call an unauthorised switch, a violation of the rule rather than a disputed sale.

• §25.474 covers authorisation, verification and delivery of the terms.
• The supplier submits the enrolment; ERCOT validates and schedules it.
• The TDU executes the change and keeps reading the meter.
• ERCOT settles the market; it does not sell you power or set your price.

The effective date is a meter read, not the day you sign

A switch takes effect on the premise's scheduled meter-read cycle, not on the date a contract is signed. A request lodged before the market deadline is normally scheduled for the next eligible read; a request that misses the deadline rolls to the following cycle. The gap matters because the previous arrangement's price continues to apply until the effective date, so a contract that starts on signature is not the same thing as a switch that has completed. The deadline is set by the utility's read schedule, so two sites under the same utility, signed a day apart, can complete in different weeks.

• Confirm the requested and the confirmed effective date in writing.
• The outgoing supplier bills usage through the switch date.
• The incoming supplier bills from that date forward.
• A missed deadline moves the effective date by a full cycle.

How long a switch takes depends on the state and the tariff

The wait between signing and serving is set by the state's rules and the utility's own meter-read schedule, so the same request can behave very differently across a border. Ohio gives the customer a second look rather than a rescission: the supplier files a request with the distribution utility, the utility mails a confirmation letter, and the customer has seven days from the postmark date on that letter to stop the switch. The supplier's request has to reach the utility before the next meter read to be effective on it — the Ohio Edison tariff requires the enrolment at least twelve calendar days ahead of that date, with confirmation going out within two business days. Pennsylvania runs the other way: the customer has a three-business-day right of rescission from receipt of the disclosure statement, a right the rules say cannot be waived, and once the supplier submits the electronic enrolment after that window the utility must complete the change within three business days, taking a meter read to make the handover. Texas fixes neither number: an ordinary switch is bounded by the authorisation and the meter-read cycle the account sits in, so a request lodged just after a scheduled read can roll into the following one and take the better part of two billing cycles to complete.

• Ohio: the utility mails a confirmation and the customer has seven days from its postmark date to stop the switch.
• Ohio's meter-read lead is tariff-specific — the Ohio Edison tariff sets it at twelve calendar days.
• Pennsylvania: a three-business-day rescission from the disclosure, then completion within three business days of the enrolment.
• Texas: no fixed statewide window on an ordinary switch — the meter-read cycle bounds it, and a mistimed request can take two cycles.
• None of these clocks is shorter because the paperwork arrived late; read each document on the day it lands.

The rescission right, and how short it is

Texas gives a customer the right to rescind the terms of service without penalty for three federal business days after receiving them, under 16 TAC §25.474. It attaches to a switch request rather than to setting up a new account, and it is the cheapest correction available if the documents turn out to differ from what was described. The window starts the day the terms arrive, so the cost of not reading them that day is the whole of the remedy. The disclosure rule at §25.475 requires the terms of service to describe the right and say how to exercise it, so the notice and the remedy arrive together.

• Three federal business days from receipt of the terms.
• It applies to the switch, not to a move-in at a new address.
• The supplier must state how to exercise it: phone, email, web or mail.
• An untimely rescission leaves the service on the agreed terms.

Why a switch fails to complete

Most incomplete switches are administrative rather than commercial. The usual causes are a premise or meter number that does not match the supplier's records, an address discrepancy, a credit check the supplier has not cleared, an outstanding balance that has triggered a hold, or a block left on the account. Until the switch completes the existing arrangement simply continues, so a stalled enrolment is not a gap in service — it is a delay in the price changing. The most common single cause is a premise identifier that does not match, because the enrolment is executed against the meter rather than the mailing address.

• Check the premise identifier against the utility account before signing.
• Clear the supplier's credit screening in advance, not on the start date.
• Ask whether the account carries a hold before requesting a date.
• Track each enrolment through to its confirmed effective date.

Arrears, deposits and the switch-hold

16 TAC §25.480 governs credit requirements and deposits, and it is where a switch can be stopped by money already owed. A supplier may place a hold that prevents a switch taking effect while qualifying arrears are unresolved. That is not a general right to block a customer indefinitely: the amount has to qualify, the required notices have to have gone out, and a disputed charge can be a different case entirely. The two suppliers should be able to state the amount, its basis, and what releases the hold.

• A hold blocks the switch taking effect, not the debt itself.
• Ask for the amount, the invoices and the dates behind it.
• Ask what payment or arrangement releases the hold.
• A deposit is a supplier credit decision, not a delivery charge.

An unauthorised switch has a remedy, and it is not a renegotiation

A switch a customer never authorised is not a billing dispute but a rule violation, and Texas names it. Under 16 TAC §25.474 a change of retail electric provider made without the customer's authorisation, or without the evidence of it the rule requires, is an unauthorised switch — what the market calls slamming. The remedy runs through the account rather than the negotiation: the customer tells the supplier and the transmission and distribution utility, asks to be returned to the prior provider, and the supplier that submitted the enrolment has to produce the authorisation it relied on. If that does not resolve it, the customer can complain to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which can order the enrolment corrected and the account returned. One limit is worth knowing before you plan around it: delivery service is not refundable the way a disputed supply charge is, so a switch that ran for a month still leaves the transmission and distribution charges standing.

• An unauthorised switch — slamming — is a violation of 16 TAC §25.474, not merely a disputed sale.
• Notify both the supplier and the utility and ask to be restored to the prior provider.
• The supplier that filed the enrolment must produce the authorisation it relied on.
• Unresolved, the route is a complaint to the PUCT, which can order enrolment corrected.
• Delivery charges for the period served do not disappear with the correction.

What transfers, and what does not

Only the supply contract moves. The utility account, the meter, the wires, the delivery tariff and the physical service stay with the address. Renewable content is a property of the product you buy rather than of the wires, so a stated renewable percentage or a bundled certificate attaches to the new supply contract and the old one's attributes belong to the period they were billed. Balances and deposits do not vanish in a switch; they are settled under the old agreement and the applicable supplier and utility billing rules. A renewable certificate is an accounting instrument and can be bought separately from the energy, which is why a product's renewable share belongs to the contract rather than to the electricity at the meter.

• Supply, price and the product's environmental attributes transfer.
• Account, meter, delivery tariff and service stay with the address.
• An unpaid balance is not erased by changing supplier.
• A deposit already held is disposed of under the old contract.

Multiple meters are multiple switches

A site is not an account. Every meter carries its own account number, its own enrolment and its own effective date, so a five-location business runs five switches rather than one. They rarely move together: one utility processes faster, one read cycle lands a week later, and one enrolment can fail over something as ordinary as a mismatched address. Any location that lags keeps its existing arrangement, so the supplier of record has to be tracked per meter rather than per company. Where a portfolio switches together, the later sites commonly land in the following cycle, and their old price overlaps the new term for a few weeks.

• One meter, one account, one enrolment, one effective date.
• Track the supplier of record per meter, not per business.
• Confirm every location took effect; a lagging site keeps its old price.
• Staggered read cycles produce staggered completion dates.

What to check on the first bill

The first invoice after a switch is the cheapest place to catch a problem, because the paperwork is still to hand. Confirm the supplier of record is the one you signed with and that the supply price printed matches the agreed price for the days billed. Check that the delivery line has not moved, that any one-time charge matches what the agreement disclosed, and that the billed volume reconciles to the meter — the transition bill can legitimately split two suppliers across the effective date.

• Supplier of record matches the agreement.
• Supply price matches the agreed price for those billing days.
• Delivery line unchanged; one-time charges as disclosed.
• Billed volume reconciles to the meter and the effective date.

When switching will not save money

A switch only moves the supply line, so it cannot help an account whose usage is too small for that line to matter — where fixed monthly charges dominate, the ceiling on any saving is low whatever a supplier offers. It will not help mid-term if the outgoing agreement's termination charge outruns the gain. It will not help if the usage the quotes were built on no longer describes the site, and it will not help if the offers being compared rest on different terms, start months or term lengths.

• Small usage caps the possible saving — fixed charges dominate.
• A mid-term exit can cost more than it saves.
• Changed operations invalidate quotes built on last year's usage.
• Different terms or start months are not a like-for-like comparison.

Eligibility and what an inquiry does

Whether a business can switch depends on the service address, the meter and the utility serving it. Municipal utilities, cooperatives and some jurisdictions offer no competitive choice at all, and the Texas rules described here apply in Texas. HighGround may receive compensation from a provider on a completed purchase, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier — it starts a comparison against your own usage and terms.

• Choice depends on the address, the meter and the utility territory.
• Municipal systems, cooperatives and some states have no retail choice.
• An inquiry places no order and switches nothing.
• The Texas rules here are Texas-specific.

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