Your Electricity Contract Is Ending: What to Check Before It Renews

An electricity contract ending is a decision point: the price, fees or cancellation terms that worked last year may change. The renewal offer and the arrangement that applies if you do nothing can be different products. Read both before choosing.

This guide is for households with a competitive electricity supplier or retail provider. It is not a guide to ending utility service at a property. Supplier choice, default service and notice rules depend on the state, utility territory and account. The Pennsylvania and Texas examples below are specific to those markets; do not apply their deadlines nationwide. All example prices are invented, not current offers.

Gather the documents that determine your next bill

Open the current contract, its disclosure or price sheet, the renewal notices, and a recent bill. Download copies while you can still access them. Also collect the last 12 months of electricity usage in kilowatt-hours (kWh), particularly if heating or air conditioning makes your consumption seasonal.

The Pennsylvania regulator's contract-summary guide identifies useful fields: price structure, supply price, recurring fees, start date, duration, cancellation terms and end-of-contract treatment. In Texas, read the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) and Terms of Service for the proposed product and the default renewal product. The PUCT contract rule, section 25.475(e), explains those renewal documents.

Create a short comparison sheet. Do not substitute an advertisement for the actual terms you would accept.

If a detail is absent, mark it unknown and ask for it in writing. Keep the product name or plan identifier beside the price: a phone quote for one product does not explain the contract for another.

Separate four dates before arranging a switch

Record the current contract's end date, any deadline for accepting a renewal offer, the earliest effective switch date without a cancellation fee, and the replacement supplier's confirmed service date. These dates need not be identical. An offer can expire before your contract does, and signing today does not necessarily mean service starts today.

Start reviewing when the first notice arrives. If your account shows an approaching end date but you have no notice, request a copy now. Do not assume the rule is the same as a friend's plan or that a sales representative's verbal assurance settles the fee question.

Pennsylvania: keep the options notice

For covered fixed-duration electricity contracts, 52 Pa. Code section 54.10 requires an initial notice 45 to 60 days before expiry and an options notice at least 30 days before expiry. The options notice is sent by first-class mail and sets out the proposed terms and choices.

The fee protection is more precise than a simple countdown. For covered contracts entered into after September 30, 2020, section 54.3(2) bars termination fees between the date the options notice is issued and contract expiry. Save the dated notice and confirm which effective service date the supplier will use.

Texas: read the end-date wording carefully

For residential fixed-rate products with terms of at least three months in the competitive retail market, Texas Utilities Code section 39.112 requires at least three written expiry notices. For contracts longer than four months, the final notice must be at least 30 days before expiry. PUCT rule 25.475 sets a 15-day minimum for fixed-rate contracts of four months or less.

Under the rule's section (e)(2)(C), a residential customer with a stated calendar end date has protection from a termination penalty during the 14 days before that date. If expiry is described as the first meter read on or after a date, the residential protection runs from 14 days before that stated “on or after” date. Ask the provider to identify the applicable date and fee treatment before scheduling the transfer.

Elsewhere, use your regulator's rules and your own notice. Our state energy guide directory helps locate official starting points. Electricity rules should not be assumed to cover natural-gas contracts, municipal aggregation arrangements or commercial accounts.

Find out what happens if you do nothing

Look for language describing automatic renewal, rollover or default renewal. Then ask three questions: What product starts? What will the first price be? How can that price change afterward? A familiar supplier name does not mean the old rate continues.

Pennsylvania's section 54.10 permits a nonresponding customer's fixed-duration contract to convert to a month-to-month arrangement without cancellation fees, or another fixed-duration arrangement with a right to cancel at any time for any reason without a fee. Do not assume every Pennsylvania rollover is variable or identical to a renewal offer you actively accept.

In the Texas market described above, section 39.112 generally requires a default month-to-month renewal product that can be cancelled without a fee; its price may vary between billing cycles. The statute also addresses a provider's failure to give the required notice: if the customer has not chosen another product, existing fixed-rate pricing must continue until the required notice is given or the customer selects another product. If you suspect that happened, preserve your notices and bills and ask for a review rather than assuming you can stop paying.

A contract expiry notice is not itself a disconnection notice. Continue handling bills and payment deadlines. If you separately receive a shutoff notice, use the utility's official assistance process promptly; do not treat contract shopping as a substitute.

Compare the dollars at your usage, not just cents per kWh

For a simple supply-only comparison, calculate electricity used × supply price, then add supplier fees and subtract credits you actually qualify for. Compare the same dates and the same included charges. Our energy-offer comparison guide explains the broader checklist, while the supply and delivery guide shows why changing a supply price does not remove the rest of a bill.

Here is a fictional household using 800 kWh in one billing period. Its old 9-cent supply price is ending. Three possible next arrangements are shown below. The old price would have produced $72 of supply charges at that usage, but it is not assumed to remain available.

Example limits: delivery is separate and identical across these options. Taxes, deposits, exit fees, usage credits and other charges are excluded. Offers A and B are assumed to keep the stated prices and monthly-fee terms for 12 billing months. Real terms must be checked. The table is not a whole-bill estimate or a Texas advertised average-price comparison.

Offer A has the lower energy rate, but B costs $1.40 less at 800 kWh because A adds $7. Compared with the first-cycle rollover, A is $17 less and B is $18.40 less. B still costs $17.60 more than the expiring $72 supply charge. A better replacement offer does not necessarily preserve last year's price.

Find the usage level where the result changes

The energy-price difference is $0.112 − $0.105 = $0.007 per kWh. Divide A's $7 monthly fee by $0.007: the break-even point is 1,000 kWh. At that usage, both options cost $112. Below it, B is cheaper; above it, A is cheaper under these assumptions.

At 300 kWh, A costs $38.50 and B costs $33.60. At 1,600 kWh, A costs $175 and B costs $179.20. These checks show why a single summer bill can give the wrong impression for the rest of the year.

If your 12 monthly readings sum to 11,000 kWh, A would cost $1,155 in energy charges plus $84 in monthly fees, or $1,239. B would cost $1,232. That is a $7 difference for the year in this simplified comparison. With flat energy prices and fixed monthly fees, annual usage is enough for this calculation. With tiered prices, monthly credit thresholds or time-of-use rates, calculate each month or time period separately. Do not multiply the rollover's first price by 12 and present it as a reliable annual forecast.

Choose the replacement and confirm the effective date

Compare a renewal from the current supplier with other eligible offers. Where utility default supply is available, include it as another option, using its actual effective rate period rather than assuming a year-long fixed price. In Pennsylvania, PAPowerSwitch's FAQ confirms that customers can request a return to utility default service. That is not the same as the Texas default renewal product described above.

Before accepting, get the full terms, confirm your eligibility, and ask the new provider to state the planned start date. Ask who submits the transfer and how you will receive confirmation. Pennsylvania's FAQ says accelerated switching can likely occur within three business days after the utility is notified; that is not a promise that every enrollment takes exactly three days from the moment you click.

When staying at the same home, request the appropriate supplier switch or renewal, not a move-out or disconnection order. Do not close the underlying utility account merely to avoid a renewal. If you are actually moving, ask for the separate move-out and move-in process, including how any applicable fee exception is documented.

Save the accepted offer, contract version, confirmation number and effective date. After the transfer, check the first bill for the supplier name, service dates, rate and recurring fees. A bill spanning a change can contain more than one pricing period; reconcile each period before declaring it wrong.

Avoid the mistakes that make renewals expensive

• Reading only the renewal promotion. Also read the no-action terms. They may describe a different product.
• Confusing fixed price with fixed bill. Usage still changes, and the contract may permit specific pass-through changes. Check what is actually fixed.
• Comparing mismatched prices. A supply-only price cannot be compared directly with an average price that includes delivery. Do not add delivery twice.
• Counting every advertised credit. Test the exact eligibility rule against your likely monthly usage.
• Accepting a new contract just to stop reminder emails. Check its duration and exit terms first, especially if a move is possible.
• Assuming every cancellation is free. A protected rollover and an actively accepted new agreement can have different terms. Verify the product you are actually on.

If the contract has already renewed

Request the current product name, start date, price sheet and record of how the renewal occurred. Establish whether you took no action or affirmatively accepted a new agreement; do not assume those situations carry the same cancellation rules.

Use the relevant state provisions above to ask about a fee-free exit from a no-action renewal. If the company claims you accepted a new contract, request the confirmation or consent record and the exact cancellation clause. Keep the original notice, emails, bills and dates together. Ask the company to explain any disputed amount in writing.

If that does not resolve the issue, our utility help page points to official assistance routes. A complaint is a way to request investigation; do not assume it suspends your payment obligations or creates an automatic refund.

Use this short script before you agree

“My current electricity contract ends on ___. Please confirm the product and price that apply if I do nothing, the earliest effective switch date without a cancellation fee, and the terms of any renewal offer. For the offer I am considering, identify all monthly fees, credits and delivery charges, the start date and duration, and any future cancellation fee. Please send the documents and confirmation in writing.”

Write the answers beside your usage calculation. You are ready to decide when you can identify the next product, estimate its cost under stated assumptions, and explain exactly when it starts and how you can leave it.