Moving to Ohio? How Electricity and Gas Choice Works
If you're moving to Ohio from a fully regulated state, the energy setup feels backwards at first. You still have a utility that owns the wires and pipes — AEP Ohio, Duke, AES Ohio, FirstEnergy brands, Columbia Gas, Enbridge, and the rest — but on the supply side you can shop. Or you can do nothing. Both are legitimate. Here's the sequence that keeps movers out of trouble.
Two products, one roof
Most Ohio homes buy electricity and natural gas separately. Each has its own default rate and its own competitive market. Your utility still delivers both, still reads the meter, and still fixes outages and leaks. Switching a supplier never changes who shows up when the power is out.
- Electric default: the Price to Compare (PTC) — an auction-based standard service offer printed on your bill.
- Gas default: the Standard Choice Offer (SCO) (sometimes labeled GCR) — a monthly market-linked rate, not a fixed annual price.
Move-in checklist
- Start utility delivery service for electric and gas at the new address — this is the account that owns the meter. You need it before supplier shopping is meaningful.
- Save the account numbers from the first bills or welcome packets. Competitive suppliers ask for them at enrollment.
- Check whether the city or county runs aggregation. Opt-out programs can assign you a supplier automatically after you move in. Read the notice; leaving is allowed (how aggregation works).
- Compare only after you know your utility territory. Offers are territory-specific. Use your ZIP on this site, then confirm the utility name on the bill.
- If you switch, watch for the 7-day rescission window on the utility confirmation letter — Ohio's undo button (switch walkthrough).
What "choice" does not mean
It does not mean dozens of companies run different wires to your house. Reliability and delivery charges stay with the utility. Shopping only changes the supply line — the energy commodity — and only when a fixed or variable offer beats the default enough to justify the contract terms. In calm markets, staying on the PTC or SCO is often the rational move. That sentence is the opposite of Texas culture, and movers from deregulated states often over-switch out of habit.
Deposits, credit, and first-month surprises
Utilities may require deposits based on credit or service history; suppliers may as well. Budget for a first bill that includes partial-month delivery, proration, and whatever default supply rate applied before a competitive enrollment kicks in. If someone door-knocks a "special move-in rate," demand written terms and compare them to the PTC/SCO before sharing your account number.
Bottom line
Moving to Ohio: open utility delivery first, learn your PTC and SCO, treat aggregation mail as real, and only shop when an offer clearly beats the default at your usage after fees. Doing nothing is a complete strategy until the numbers say otherwise. When they do, the switch is paperwork — not a truck roll — and you get seven days to reverse it.