The Straight Answer: You Can Switch — In Delmarva Territory Only
Yes, you can choose your electricity provider in Delaware — but only if you're a Delmarva Power customer. Delaware's retail choice program is electric-only and applies solely to Delmarva Power's service territory; it's also choice for generation, not gas. Your utility still owns the poles, wires, and meters no matter what you do — only the generation portion of the bill is shoppable, through suppliers certified by the Delaware Public Service Commission (PSC).
Here's the part the mailers and doorknockers leave out: for most Delmarva households, switching is a bad bet. There's no Delaware-specific study, but the closest rigorous benchmark — Ohio State University research on deregulated retail electric markets — found that competing suppliers' most commonly chosen 12-month fixed-rate offers priced above the default utility rate 72.1 percent of the time, and even when suppliers did undercut the default, savings ran only 5 to 10 percent. That logic applies with extra force in Delaware, because Delaware's default rate is itself set through a live wholesale reverse auction, not a padded utility markup — third-party suppliers bidding against that same wholesale market have very little room to beat it while still covering their own margin and customer-acquisition costs. If you do nothing, you're already on a regulator-vetted, auction-priced default. The rest of this page is the detail, and the five-minute check to run before you sign anything.
What Power Costs in Delaware
Delaware's average residential electricity rate was 17.1¢ per kilowatt-hour as of the US Energy Information Administration's preliminary 2025 figures. The chart below shows the historical EIA series alongside a projection — the backdrop for every decision on this page.
Full Delaware electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Delaware (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 8.4 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 8.6 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 8.7 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 9.0 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 8.9 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 9.1 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 9.0 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 9.1 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 9.2 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 8.5 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 8.6 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 8.7 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 8.6 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 8.8 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 9.0 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 11.9 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 13.2 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 13.9 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 14.1 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 13.8 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 13.7 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 13.6 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 13.0 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 13.3 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 13.4 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 13.4 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 13.4 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 12.5 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 12.6 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 12.6 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 12.5 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 13.7 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 15.7 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 16.6 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 17.1 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
That rate is up roughly 90 percent since 2005, and the pace has been accelerating: about 2.5 percent a year over the last decade, faster than general inflation in most of those years. None of that trend is caused by switching suppliers or staying with the default — it's driven by regional wholesale energy costs, and it shows up on both sides of the meter no matter who bills you. Delaware regulators approved a Standard Offer Service increase of roughly 18 to 20 percent effective June 1, 2026 — about a 9 percent total bill increase for a typical residential customer, or around $14.64 more a month at 811 kWh — driven by higher wholesale costs in the latest supply auction. The practical takeaway: the cheapest kilowatt-hour is the one you never use. Tightening up the electrical and heating systems that drive most of a Delaware home's usage, and — where the roof and budget allow — rooftop solar, will do more for a long-run bill than any supplier contract.
How Delaware's Market Works — and Where to Shop
If you never choose a supplier, Delmarva Power supplies you automatically through Standard Offer Service (SOS), also called Fixed-Price Standard Offer Service (FP-SOS). SOS is not set by utility cost-plus accounting — it's set through a competitive multi-tranche reverse-auction and RFP process that the PSC oversees, using appointed independent technical consultants (most recently Liberty Consulting), where wholesale suppliers bid to serve tranches of Delmarva's default load. The lowest qualifying bids set the SOS Price to Compare (PTC), reset periodically (semi-annually or annually) to track wholesale market costs. Because the mechanism underneath SOS is already a wholesale auction, it's close to a true market price — which is exactly why third-party suppliers find it a tough benchmark to beat.
The official shopping resource is the Delaware Public Service Commission's Customer Electric Choice page, which lists PSC-certified, active electric suppliers for Delmarva Power territory along with guidance on what to ask a supplier before you sign anything. Delmarva Power also hosts its own "Energy Supply Options" page pointing to the same supplier list. Start at the PSC page — it's the one place a supplier can't pay to rank higher.
The Traps: What the Regulators Are Warning About
Delaware's PSC and Public Advocate have issued repeated consumer warnings specific to this market. The recurring plays:
- Spoofed-number "slamming" calls. The PSC has documented third-party suppliers — or agents impersonating them — using spoofed caller-ID numbers made to look like they're calling from Delmarva Power itself, pressuring customers to switch suppliers with promises of savings. Delaware regulation (26 Del. Admin. Code § 3001-10.0) explicitly bans "slamming" — switching a customer's supplier without proper authorization — and gives you the right to demand the supplier produce proof of authorization within 5 (up to 15) business days if you believe you were switched without consent.
- Teaser rates that expire. A low introductory price that renews onto a higher month-to-month rate once the promotional period ends, with no obligation to stay competitive with the PTC.
- Exit fees that erase the savings. A rate that looks lower than the Price to Compare until a monthly fee or early-cancellation charge is added back in.
If You Do Shop: The Five-Minute Checklist
A minority of offers do beat the Price to Compare. If you want to actually check, do it this way:
- Find your current Price to Compare on your Delmarva Power bill. Write down the number and the date it resets.
- Shop only at depsc.delaware.gov's Customer Electric Choice page. If an offer arrived by mail, call, or door, find that same supplier on the PSC list before believing anything it claims.
- Compare the all-in cost — per-kWh rate plus any monthly fee — against the PTC, not just the headline rate.
- Confirm there's no cancellation or exit fee, and no built-in rate escalation once a promotional period ends.
- Calendar the contract's end date the day you sign, so you re-shop or fall back to SOS instead of rolling onto an uncapped month-to-month rate.
- Never authorize a switch over an unsolicited call or at the door. A legitimate offer is still there tomorrow, after you've checked the PSC list yourself.
And keep it in perspective: a supplier changes the price of the electricity, not what's happening inside your walls. For the panel, breakers, grounding, and wiring issues that actually put a home at risk, see our electrical guide.
Sources
Figures on this page are 2026-current and pulled from primary sources. Market structure and supplier list: Delaware Public Service Commission, Customer Electric Choice and Standard Offer Service. SOS/PTC auction mechanism and the 2026 rate increase: Liberty Consulting 2026 SOS Technical Consultant Report and Delaware.gov rate-increase notice. Offer-pricing benchmark (72.1 percent of offers priced above default): Ohio State University research via Ohio State News. Consumer warnings and anti-slamming rule: Delaware PSC consumer warning, Delaware Public Advocate, and 26 Del. Admin. Code § 3001-10.0. Average residential rate (17.1¢ per kWh, preliminary 2025) and the historical series in the chart: US EIA, Electric Power Monthly. We review these figures every six months.