Background Information - Michigan Energy Choice
On June 3, 2000, Michigan Governor John Engler signed into law the Customer Choice and Electric Reliability Act (Act 141). Since then, legislators, consumers and energy suppliers have worked together to put into place program details and protective guidelines that will help customers benefit from these new energy choices. Some of these new guidelines include:
- A code of conduct that prohibits utilities from using any of their resources to subsidize the costs of activities of an affiliate or share information that would give an affiliate an unfair competitive advantage.
- Procedures to allow customers to switch suppliers and protect them from being switched without their consent.
- Reliability and performance standards to ensure electric providers maintain certain levels of service.
What's included in the Michigan Energy Choice program is the ability to choose the electric supply portion of your energy use. What's not included is the delivery of your energy service. An energy supplier is a company that generates electricity for you or buys electricity for your use from another generator. A supplier other than your local utility is called an "Alternative Energy Supplier" or AES. Under this new program you can choose to buy your electric supply from an AES, if one is available to you. You are not obligated to choose a different electric supplier. Wisconsin Public Service will remain your electric supplier unless you choose otherwise. The delivery of energy will remain as a service from Wisconsin Public Service and will continue to be regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission.
