Service
Supply Procurement
Competitive supply, the right contract, the right timing.
At a glance
- Commodity savings versus SOS
- 5 to 18%
- Contract length sweet spot
- 24 to 36 months
- Procurement cycle
- 4 to 8 weeks
In deregulated markets, the commodity portion of your bill is open to competitive supply. The default service utility supply, often called Standard Offer Service or Provider of Last Resort, is rarely the cheapest option for commercial accounts. We benchmark competitive supplier offers, negotiate contract terms, time the procurement against market conditions, and handle the contract lifecycle including expiry tracking and renewal strategy.
- Maryland, DC, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey supply markets fully open to competition
- Standard Offer Service is rarely the lowest-cost option for commercial accounts
- Contract structure matters as much as the headline price
- Aggregation across multiple meters often unlocks better terms
What we find
The specific patterns this discipline catches
- 01
Standard Offer Service overpayment versus available competitive rates
- 02
Contracts approaching expiry that need renewal strategy before auto-rollover
- 03
Supply and delivery imbalances where the bundled rate does not match supplier-issued invoices
- 04
Aggregation opportunities for portfolio accounts to access wholesale-style pricing
How this engagement runs
From first bill to documented savings
We start with your current supply terms: who is your supplier, what is the rate structure, when does the contract expire, what is the early termination liability. We benchmark against the current competitive supplier market for your load profile. When a procurement event is warranted, we run a structured RFP with multiple suppliers, negotiate terms beyond the headline price, and lock in the contract at a favorable timing window. We track every contract expiry and run the renewal process before auto-rollover.
In depth
Common questions, answered
What is Standard Offer Service and why is it usually expensive?
Standard Offer Service, or SOS, is the default electricity supply your utility provides to any customer who has not chosen a competitive supplier. The rate is set through periodic wholesale auctions and rolled into your utility bill as the supply or generation charge. SOS is a regulated commodity service, not optimized for any specific customer; it is priced to cover the utility's wholesale procurement plus a small administrative margin. For residential customers, SOS is usually competitive. For commercial customers with predictable load shapes, decent load factor, or larger volume, competitive suppliers can almost always beat SOS on price, on contract flexibility, or both. The savings are real and recurring.
What is the difference between supply and delivery on my bill?
Your electric bill has two main components: supply, which is the cost of the electricity itself, and delivery, which is the cost of getting it from the generator to your meter. Delivery is regulated and provided exclusively by your local utility; it cannot be shopped competitively. Supply, in deregulated states, is open to competition; you can either take Standard Offer Service from the utility or contract with a competitive retail supplier. The same is true for natural gas. Understanding which component is which is the prerequisite to any procurement decision. We map every line item on your bill into supply or delivery so the optimization conversation can happen.
When is the best time to lock in a supply contract?
Timing is harder than most procurement decisions admit. Wholesale power markets fluctuate on weather, fuel prices, capacity auctions, and policy events. The honest answer is that perfect timing is unachievable, but informed timing is. We track the forward curves daily, watch capacity auction results, and time the procurement decision to coincide with favorable conditions in the relevant ICE futures and PJM capacity prices. We do not time the market in isolation; we time the market against your contract expiry, your risk tolerance, and your operational visibility into future load. The result is procurement timing that beats reactive renewal in any given year, not necessarily the absolute low.
Related services
Often deployed alongside
Send us a bill. We will tell you what we see.
Fifteen minutes with one of your invoices is usually enough to see whether there is meaningful savings on the table.