Electricity

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The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) allow customers of Consolidated Edison (ConEd), National Grid (Niagara Mohawk), New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), Rochester Gas & Electric, Central Hudson, Orange and Rockland, and the Long Island Power Authority to choose alternative electricity suppliers. Each utility continues to offer “default service” for customers who have not chosen an alternative electricity supplier. Each utility sets its default service price differently but most charge a rate that varies by month, and includes a mix of supply bought on long-term hedges and short-term market purchases. For customers above 500 kW, the utilities charge “hourly pricing” that varies with real-time changes in the wholesale market. In New York, the two major charges for energy supply from the utility are the Market Supply Charge (MSC) and the Merchant Function Charge (MFC). The Market Supply Charge is the price the utility pays for customer electricity consumption. The Merchant Function Charge covers other costs involved with serving customers on default service (ex. billing and collection charges). The MSC and MFC dictate what a customer pays for energy supply labeled as “total electricity supply charge” on a customer utility bill.

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Natural Gas

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The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) allows customers of Consolidated Edison, National Grid (Niagara Mohawk), New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), Rochester Gas & Electric, Central Hudson, Orange and Rockland, National Fuel Gas, Corning Natural Gas, Keyspan Energy Delivery New York, Keyspan Energy Delivery Long Island, and St. Lawrence Gas to choose an alternative gas supply service. Gas supply is still delivered by the local utility. If customers do not use a third-party gas supplier the utility continues to offer what is called “default service”. Default service typically changes every month. Depending on the service area, default service charges are lumped into a single “commodity charge” or are separated into a Gas Supply Charge (GSC) and a Merchant Function Charge (MFC). The Gas Supply Charge is the price the utility pays for the actual gas supply while the Merchant Function Charge covers other costs such as billing and collection charges.