How Electricity Deregulation Works in New Hampshire
New Hampshire lets customers choose a competitive electric supplier instead of their utility's Default Energy Service. Whichever regulated utility serves your address — Eversource, Unitil, or Liberty Utilities — keeps delivering power and handling outages no matter which supplier you pick, and Default Energy Service remains a normal fallback if you'd rather not shop.
Three utilities split the state
New Hampshire's electric delivery is split among three regulated utilities: Eversource (the state's largest, formerly known as Public Service of New Hampshire and still sometimes referred to as PSNH), Unitil, and Liberty Utilities. Whichever one serves a given address is responsible for the wires, meter, and outage response, and that doesn't change based on who supplies the actual electricity.
Default Energy Service: the fallback rate
Customers who don't choose a competitive supplier are automatically served under Default Energy Service, the utility's own regulated supply rate. It's periodically reset through a formal filing process with the state Public Utilities Commission rather than staying fixed, so the rate a customer sees can shift meaningfully between resets depending on wholesale market conditions at the time.
How Default Energy Service is set — and why it's been debated
Default Energy Service rates are supposed to reflect the utility's actual cost of procuring power on customers' behalf, reviewed periodically by state regulators. New Hampshire's Office of the Consumer Advocate has raised concerns in recent years about whether the process for setting these rates adequately reflects real market costs, arguing for reforms to how default service is priced. That kind of active regulatory debate is a useful reminder that a state's default rate isn't a fixed, guaranteed baseline — it's worth checking current numbers directly rather than assuming last year's relationship between default and competitive rates still holds.
Choosing a competitive supplier
Customers who want to shop can select a licensed competitive supplier for the energy portion of their bill instead of Default Energy Service. The utility continues billing and handling delivery either way, so switching changes only the supply line item and its price source, not who to call for an outage.
Frequently asked questions
Which utility delivers my power in New Hampshire?
One of three regulated utilities depending on where you live: Eversource (formerly Public Service of New Hampshire, still sometimes called PSNH), Unitil, or Liberty Utilities. Whichever one serves your address keeps delivering power and handling outages regardless of your supplier.
What is Default Energy Service in New Hampshire?
Default Energy Service is the regulated supply rate a New Hampshire utility charges customers who haven't chosen a competitive supplier. It's periodically reset through a regulatory filing process rather than staying fixed indefinitely.
Is Default Energy Service always worse than a competitive supplier's rate?
Not necessarily — the relationship between Default Energy Service and competitive rates shifts over time with wholesale market conditions, and New Hampshire's own consumer advocate office has raised concerns about how default rates are set, which is part of why comparing current, specific numbers matters more than assuming one option is always cheaper.
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