Many businesses assume they’re stuck with their local utility. However, if you’ve ever wondered, “Can my business choose its energy supplier?”—the answer, in many cases, is yes. In much of the US, energy deregulation gives you that option.
In the 1980s and 1990s, states across the US began restructuring their energy markets. The goal was simple: introduce competition and give businesses more control over energy costs. By the early 2000s, many parts of the US had deregulated, restructured, or unbundled natural gas and electricity supply, opening the door for businesses to shop around instead of relying only on their utility.
This isn’t unique to energy. Aviation was deregulated in the 1970s and telecommunications followed in the 1980s. Both shifts gave consumers more choice, better pricing, and faster innovation. Energy deregulation has followed the same path, offering businesses flexibility where they once had none.
What is Energy Deregulation?
To understand what energy deregulation means, it helps to break it down in terms of your bill. Think of your energy bill as two main parts:
- Delivery: the wires, poles, and pipelines that bring energy to your business.
- Supply: the actual electricity or natural gas you use.
Before deregulation, utilities managed both. Even when they didn’t generate the electricity or natural gas themselves, they still acted as the supplier, bundling the commodity with delivery at a regulated price. Businesses had no choice but to buy everything through their local utility.
In the 1980s and 1990s, concerns about rising energy costs and limited competition pushed policymakers to restructure the industry. The idea was to keep delivery centralized—since it doesn’t make sense to build multiple competing sets of poles, wires, and pipelines—while opening supply to competition.
That’s what deregulation did. Today, utilities still own and maintain delivery to ensure reliable service, but supply can come from multiple providers. This gives your business the option to stay with the utility for default supply or choose an independent supplier who offers pricing, contracts, and services tailored to your business.
Currently, nearly half of U.S. states have some form of deregulation. Depending on where you operate, your business may already have the ability to choose its electricity or natural gas supplier.
Why Would I Switch Suppliers?
It may feel easier to stay with your utility’s default service, but that decision can hurt your bottom line and add unnecessary volatility to your energy costs. Utilities are limited in how they buy supply. Most purchase energy through state-run auctions on fixed schedules. If market prices are high during those auctions, the extra costs are passed directly to you. Utilities have very little flexibility to buy when market conditions are better.
Independent suppliers aren’t bound by those rules. A strong energy partner can monitor the market, time purchases, and build a strategy that supports your business goals. In other words, deregulation didn’t just open the market to potentially better rates, it gave businesses more control to optimize their energy budgets.
What Are the Benefits for My Business?
For businesses, deregulation means:
- The ability to choose your supplier.
- Pricing and contract flexibility.
- More control over long-term energy strategy.
- Local partners who understand your market.
Instead of being locked into a one-size-fits-all utility model, you can align your energy decisions with your budget, risk tolerance, and growth plans.
Sprague’s Role in Energy Deregulation
Sprague has been supporting business with their energy needs since 1870, serving more than 25,000 customers with tailored energy procurement and consultation. Our expertise spans natural gas, electricity, solar, delivered and wholesale fuels, and materials handling. While serving areas primarily in the Northeast for much of our history, our footprint is expanding.
With Sprague, you gain budget certainty, local expertise, and ongoing account monitoring to keep your strategy on track. We start with your business—your goals, your energy use—and design a plan that delivers control today and adapts to tomorrow.
Reach out today to learn how Sprague can serve as a smart alternative to traditional utility supply.
