How to Read an Ohio Supplier Offer Before You Sign
An Ohio electricity supplier offer can look like a simple discount on your bill. It is not. In choice territory, you are shopping for the generation slice of your power — the kilowatt-hours themselves — while your local utility keeps delivering power over the wires and charging you for that delivery. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)¹ explains the split plainly: competitive suppliers cover generation, which is roughly half of a typical bill, while transmission and distribution stay with the utility that serves your neighborhood.
That framing matters when you read an offer. A headline rate that undercuts the utility by a fraction of a cent can still leave you paying more once monthly fees, short introductory periods, or a steep early-exit charge enter the picture. It also matters if you live outside Ohio. Texas shoppers use a different official shopping site and a standardized Electricity Facts Label; Maryland and other choice states have their own tools. The decision checklist is similar everywhere: know your baseline price, know whether the rate can move, know the fees, and know what happens when the term ends. This guide walks that checklist in Ohio terms, with side notes for other markets where the same traps show up under different names.
What an Ohio supplier offer actually is
Ohio’s retail electric choice framework dates to Senate Bill 3 in 1999, which gave customers the option to pick who supplies their electricity while the local distribution company remains the wires provider, according to the PUCO’s shopping guide¹. Your offer, then, is a contract with a competitive retail electric service (CRES) provider — often called a marketer or supplier — for generation. The utility still handles outages, meter work, and the delivery charges on your bill.
Not every Ohioan can shop. The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC)² notes that electric choice is available to customers of AEP Ohio, AES Ohio, Duke Energy, and the FirstEnergy utilities (The Illuminating Company, Ohio Edison, and Toledo Edison). Customers of municipal systems, electric co-ops, or the low-income Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP Plus) are not eligible. Energy Choice Ohio’s FAQs³ make the same point: co-op members, municipal customers, and PIPP participants cannot use the choice program.
Choice is optional. Energy Choice Ohio³ states flatly that shopping is an opportunity, not a mandate, and that you keep reliable service through your local distribution company if you never switch. The PUCO also certifies suppliers for financial, technical, and managerial fitness and requires certification renewal every two years, per its shopping overview¹. Certification means the company cleared those thresholds — not that any particular offer will save you money.
If your supplier fails, Ohio law requires the utility to act as provider of last resort so service continues, then notifies you in writing that you are on the utility’s standard service offer, according to Energy Choice Ohio³. Reliability of delivery is not what the supplier contract is selling. Price risk is.
Start with the Price to Compare on your bill
Before you weigh any supplier pitch, find the Price to Compare (PTC) on your electric bill. The PTC is the utility’s default generation rate, stated in dollars per kilowatt-hour, and it is the benchmark a competitive rate has to beat if you hope to save, as both the PUCO¹ and the OCC⁴ explain. Ohio bills must show the PTC along with your account details and usage history.
The PTC moves. The PUCO shopping guide¹ publishes utility-specific PTC figures that change on a schedule and invites customers to sign up for rate-change alerts. Treat any PTC you wrote down months ago as stale until you check a recent bill or the current PUCO listing. The OCC’s standard-offer fact sheet⁵ likewise urges customers to review old bills to see how the standard offer has shifted over time.
Ohio’s official shopping tool is Apples to Apples on Energy Choice Ohio⁶. Step one in the PUCO’s switching sequence is to pull your PTC, then filter offers by cost, contract length, and incentives. The tool surfaces term lengths, early termination fees, monthly fees, and promotional language so you can compare more than the teaser cents-per-kWh line. Savings are not guaranteed; Energy Choice Ohio³ says so directly, and the OCC repeats that message in its wise-choices guidance².
Texans will recognize the same habit under a different brand. The state’s Power to Choose⁷ site tells shoppers to ask for their current total rate at about 1,000 kWh of usage before calling a new retail electric provider. Different market design, same discipline: establish a baseline, then compare.
Fixed, variable, teaser, and “green” language
Rate type is the heart of the offer. Ohio rules require CRES contracts with residential and small commercial customers to spell out prices and fees in clear language, including special rules for fixed and variable products, under Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸.
A fixed-rate offer must disclose, at minimum, the cost per kilowatt-hour for generation (and transmission if applicable). A variable-rate offer must either (1) give a clear formula tied to publicly available indices or data, with those indices named in the contract, or (2) explain the factors that will make the price move and how often it can change — and if the supplier uses that second path, it may not charge an early termination fee, according to the same rule⁸. That second path is a practical tell: if the contract is vague about how the variable price is set and still tries to lock you in with an exit fee, read it again carefully against the rule’s requirements.
The OCC’s vocabulary is blunt about marketing patterns. A teaser rate⁵ is low for a short stretch — often one to three months — then jumps for the rest of the term. A fixed rate stays put for the contract period; a variable rate can change monthly. OCC tells customers to ask how often a variable rate can change and whether any caps apply. Its “bad apple” guide⁹ warns that short one- or two-month offers may be teasers that climb quickly, and that variable agreements need ongoing monitoring for spikes.
“Green” or renewable branding deserves the same scrutiny as price. The OCC’s wise-choices fact sheet² notes that marketers and aggregators may offer green options, then warns shoppers to compare prices and avoid greenwashing that under-delivers environmental claims while overcharging. Ohio contracts must also incorporate information on the approximate generation resource mix and environmental characteristics of the power supplies, per Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸. Ask for that disclosure before you pay a premium for a label.
OCC’s summer 2026 Apples to Apples examples illustrate how far a “bad apple” can drift from the PTC: one electric marketer example sat near twice a sample Price to Compare, which OCC calculated as nearly $959 more per year for a typical 1,000 kWh household compared with the utility benchmark, as shown in its bad-apple explainer⁹. Those figures are snapshots, not forecasts — but they show why matching the headline rate against your PTC is non-negotiable.
Fees, term length, and early exit costs
The cents-per-kWh line is incomplete without the fee schedule. Ohio contracts must itemize recurring and nonrecurring CRES charges and state that you will still pay the utility’s service and delivery charges, under Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸. Flat monthly rates, percent-off discounts, and per-kWh prices each have their own disclosure requirements in that rule. The PUCO Apples to Apples tool¹ is built to surface monthly fees and early termination fees alongside the energy rate for exactly this reason.
Early termination fees (ETFs) are a common trap. The OCC reports that an ETF can be $100 or more, and that there is no early termination fee when you return to the utility’s standard offer at the natural end of a marketer contract, per its standard-offer fact sheet⁵. Energy Choice Ohio³ advises knowing the supplier’s early-termination policy before you enroll. If you are already on a supplier and want to switch before the term ends, Energy Choice Ohio³ and OCC materials both flag that you may owe an ETF.
Contract length and start timing belong on the same page. Rules require estimated start and expiration dates and a commitment that service begins with the next available meter reading after the utility and supplier process the request (Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸). The OCC notes it can take two to three billing cycles for a marketer’s charges to appear or disappear on the bill after a switch or cancellation (standard-offer fact sheet⁵). Plan cash flow accordingly; a “savings” story that ignores the lag is incomplete.
Moving also has rules. Residential and small commercial customers may terminate without penalty if they move outside the supplier’s service area or into an area where the supplier charges a different price, and also if the contract lets the supplier terminate for reasons other than nonpayment or force majeure, under Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸. Ask the supplier what happens if you relocate before you sign.
Auto-renewal and what happens when the term ends
Many contracts renew themselves. If a contract can renew without your affirmative consent — even when the rate or other terms change — Ohio rules require a conspicuous, highlighted statement saying so (Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸). The OCC calls these evergreen contracts and warns that automatic renewals can land customers on much higher prices (wise-choices fact sheet²). In its standard-offer guidance, OCC says it has found many consumers unaware that contracts may roll into monthly variable rates that can be more than twice the utility’s standard offer (standard-offer PDF⁵).
That is why calendar discipline beats hope. The OCC recommends keeping the written contract, setting a reminder before the end date, and asking what the renewal rate would be (wise-choices²). Compare that renewal number to the current PTC and to aggregation offers in your community before you let silence enroll you in another year. The PUCO¹ likewise tells customers to watch contract end dates because terms and rates can change after expiration.
If you do nothing at the end of some contracts, you may stay with the marketer on worse terms rather than snap back to the standard offer. Ask, in writing if needed: Does silence renew me? At what rate? How am I notified? Those questions appear on OCC’s own checklist for shoppers weighing energy choice (wise-choices²).
Standard offer, aggregation, or marketer
Ohio shoppers usually face three supply paths, as framed by the OCC².
First is the utility’s standard service offer — the default generation product, shown as the Price to Compare. Utilities set it through competitive auctions, and OCC describes those auctions as having consistently produced economical prices over the years. OCC often recommends the standard offer as a dependable, frequently lower-cost path compared with many marketer deals (standard-offer fact sheet⁵). Staying on or returning to the standard offer is a legitimate choice, not a failure to “shop hard enough.”
Second is government aggregation. Ohio law lets cities, townships, and counties, after required votes and process steps, buy energy in bulk for residents (PUCO shopping guide¹; OCC aggregation fact sheet¹⁰). Most Ohio aggregations are opt-out: you are enrolled unless you opt out within the notice window, often about 14–21 days after the notice, with a second chance to rescind within seven days of the utility’s enrollment notice postmark (OCC aggregation¹⁰). Aggregation does not guarantee savings, but OCC notes that bulk buying has often produced competitive prices over time. PIPP Plus customers are not eligible; residents already on an alternative supplier are not auto-included and should ask the local government about joining and about any ETF with their current supplier.
Third is an individual marketer contract. That is where door-to-door pitches, mall kiosks, and cold calls usually lead. OCC advises against buying energy during a door-to-door sale or in-store promotion and against sharing a utility bill or account number unless you fully intend to switch (wise-choices²). Historically, OCC reports that consumers who chose marketers have spent more than those who stayed with the utility’s standard offer (bad-apple guide⁹). That is an average pattern, not a prediction for every offer — but it is a reason to treat an unsolicited pitch as homework, not a favor.
The PUCO has reported that over two-thirds of Ohio residents have a supplier, either chosen individually or through government aggregation (PUCO shopping guide¹). Popularity is not proof of savings. Compare all three paths against the same PTC.
Sales tactics, slamming, and scam tells
Ohio marketers must identify themselves as marketers — not as the utility, a municipality, or a government agency — show photo ID, describe rate types without misleading promises, disclose contract details including cancel rights, and, for certain telephone and door-to-door sales, complete independent third-party verification (TPV) before the switch is submitted, according to the OCC’s rights fact sheet¹¹. Marketers must leave when asked. High-pressure tactics and deceptive marketing are prohibited, and the PUCO can fine suppliers and force marketing changes when rules are broken (PUCO¹).
Slamming — switching your supplier without permission — is illegal. The PUCO¹ and OCC¹¹ both say so. If a company you do not recognize appears on your bill, contact the utility, ask to return to your prior arrangement, request removal of related charges, and report the slam to the PUCO. You should not owe penalties to the slamming company, OCC says.
After you enroll, your utility sends a confirmation notice. For electric service, you generally have seven calendar days from the postmark date to cancel without penalty; natural gas uses seven business days in the PUCO’s summary (PUCO shopping guide¹). The Energy Choice Ohio steps page⁶ likewise gives seven days from the confirmation letter’s postmark to stop an incorrect switch. Keep the notice. Use the window if anything on it does not match what you thought you signed.
Scam patterns overlap with legitimate telemarketing enough to confuse people. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office¹² has warned about callers who impersonate utilities, threaten shutoffs, and demand prepaid money cards, and about unsolicited “lower rate” pitches. Tips that still travel well: do not trust caller ID, do not give personal information on an inbound call, hang up and dial the number on your bill, and remember that utilities generally must provide notice before disconnection. Report suspected scams to the Attorney General and the PUCO.
Beware look-alike shopping websites. OCC warns shoppers to confirm they are on the official PUCO site ending in .gov — energychoice.ohio.gov² — rather than a commercial clone.
A pre-sign checklist and where to get help
Read the full terms before you enroll. The OCC¹¹ says marketers are prohibited from enrolling you without consent — and that your signature is consent — so understand fees, duration, renewal, and complaint procedures before you sign. Ohio contracts must include an itemized list of prices and fees, duration, renewal disclosures, generation-mix information, and cancel procedures under Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸. Get a written copy. Keep it.
Work this list against any offer — Ohio marketer, aggregation notice, or, in parallel markets, a Texas Electricity Facts Label:
- What is my current PTC (or Texas equivalent all-in rate at my usage)?
- Is the offered rate fixed, variable, indexed, or introductory — and what is the post-teaser price?
- What monthly fees, minimums, or one-time charges apply?
- How long is the term, and what is the ETF if I leave early?
- Does the contract auto-renew without my okay, and at what kind of rate?
- Will charges appear on my utility bill or a separate invoice?
- Who do I call for billing questions versus outages? (Outages always go to the utility — Energy Choice Ohio FAQs³.)
- What happens if I move?
- How does this compare with my community’s aggregation and with staying on the standard offer?
- Is the company on the PUCO’s certified-supplier list?
If something feels off after you sign, use the seven-day cancel window. If problems persist — deceptive marketing, slamming, unresolved billing disputes — contact the PUCO Consumer Call Center at 800-686-7826 or file online, and for residential advocacy questions contact the OCC at 1-877-742-5622, numbers both agencies publish on their consumer pages (PUCO¹; OCC¹¹). Contracts themselves must tell customers how to reach the PUCO and OCC (Rule 4901:1-21-12⁸).
A supplier offer is a financial document dressed as a utility conversation. Read it like a loan term sheet: baseline price, rate path, fees, exit cost, and renewal. If the paper cannot answer those points clearly, do not sign — and remember that keeping the utility’s standard offer, or joining a vetted aggregation, is often the calmer path the state’s own consumer advocate highlights when the “deal” starts to look like a story instead of a spreadsheet.