You can make a bright decision

Seize the power

These resources can help you to make smart decisions while shopping for electricity.

Learn about choosing providers. Visit the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s Web site, at www.puc.state.pa.us/utilitychoice/electricity/ecShoppingGuide.aspx. Or call its Utility Choice hot line, 1-888-782-3228.

Information also is available through the Office of Consumer Advocate: www.oca.state.pa.us or 1-800-684-6560.

Find strategies for coping with high energy prices. Visit http://Energy.cas.psu.edu.

LIKE A BLAST from the past, the full impact of then-Gov. Tom Ridge’s 1996 legislation that opened the electric industry to competition is now hitting Northeastern Pennsylvania.

As of Jan. 1, 2010, customers of PPL, our region’s dominant power provider, will have the opportunity to shop for an electricity supplier.

This means that utilities independent of PPL can produce the electricity you use in your home and charge different rates at different times of the day.

PPL will still deliver electricity to your home or business, service the lines and do the billing. These functions are what the industry calls “transmission” and “distribution” services.

For starters, according to PPL, its residential customers’ electric bills are expected to rise about 30 percent in January. But one can reduce this increase by selecting a supplier that offers a better generation price than PPL.

In fact, PPL in its latest customer mailing notes that one supplier will shave off 10 percent of the generation costs for a year.

Deregulation of any utility that offers the customers choices also requires consumers to be knowledgeable to get the best deal.

We encourage our readers to investigate today to keep costs down next year. In a box accompanying this editorial are phone numbers and Web sites to aid your search.

Two key factors for residential customers are what power companies call the “price per kilowatt hour” (kwh) and whether suppliers have “off-peak prices.” That means if you’re willing to use more power during periods of low demand, you might get a discount. For example, if you tend to use appliances such as washers and dryers at night or in the early morning hours, a supplier that offers discounted power during off-peak periods might be for you.

Or if you are a proponent of wind energy, you might want to sign on with a company that generates power through wind farms.

Giving electricity providers the opportunity to compete ultimately will rein in energy costs.

But it’s up to us to be savvy consumers by approaching the topic sensibly and shrewdly.