Delmarva Power
Delmarva Power is part Pepco Holdings, Inc, which is one of the East Coast's largest energy delivery companies. In total, Delmarva Power serves about half a million residential and business electrical customers in Delaware and Maryland. Delmarva Power's territory in Maryland primarily includes the Delmarva Peninsula, which is located on MD's eastern shore.
Since the 1999 electrical deregulation in Maryland allows Delmarva Power customers to participate in the MD electric choice program, these energy customers have two options:
Option 1: Standard Offer Service. By default, Delmarva Power supplies the energy, charges for it (using MD electric rates set by the Maryland Public Service Commission) and delivers the energy.
Option 2: Customers can take advantage of the MD electric choice program to shop for their own MD electric suppliers. In this case, Delmarva Power is still responsible for delivering the power and maintaining the required infrastructure, but the alternative supplier generates the power. Delmarva Power can also bill the customer, so that consumers need to only deal with one electric bill rather than two (i.e., one bill for energy supply and one for energy delivery).
Residential consumers have dozens of options when it comes to comparing rates among MD electric suppliers, and business customers (especially big industrial business or other large commercial enterprises) have even more options for comparing suppliers as a means of lowering their MD electric rates.
Many residential and business consumers participate in the MD electric choice program for reasons other than lowering their MD electric rates. Namely, shopping alternative MD electric suppliers gives customers the power to choose to get their energy from companies whose values and commitment to the future match their own. Generally, these are suppliers who focus on providing greener energy and technologies.