Natural Gas Choice programs in United States of America allow residential consumers and other small volume gas users to purchase natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 from someone other than their traditional utility company. With Natural Gas Choice programs, customers can either purchase from their natural gas utility or choose to receive their gas supply from non-utility Choice suppliers. Large commercial and industrial consumers have had the option of purchasing the natural gas commodity separately from natural gas services for many years.

Overview

Currently, 21 States and the District of Columbia have legislation or existing programs that allow Natural Gas Choice Programs. Enrollment in “customer choice” programs increased in 2008 for the third year in a row. Overall, more than 13 percent or about 4.7 million of the approximately 35 million residential natural gas consumers with access to choice were buying natural gas from marketers as of December 2008. The availability and characteristics of these customer choice programs vary widely from state to state. For instance, some states allow customers to participate in Choice programs, but lack of natural gas supplier participation has precluded the development of a competitive natural gas market. Even in fully developed competitive markets enrollment varies widely. Currently the states of Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 and Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 have the highest percentage of customer participation in Natural Gas Choice programs with 81.5 percent and 42.3 percent of customers participating in Natural Gas Choice Programs respectively. New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, on the other hand, have customer participation rates of 17.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively, despite full implementation of Natural Gas Choice Programs. One reason for the disparity between participation rates is the difficulty marketers in some states have obtaining financing to purchase natural gas for delivery. Whereas in Georgia, the overwhelming majority of customers are served by one large marketer, Georgia Natural Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of the regulated utility, Atlanta Gas Light Company, New York State is served by 69 mostly independent marketers.

Georgia

Georgia is the state with the highest participation percentage in Natural Gas Choice programs. In 1999 all Georgia customers became eligible to participate in Natural Gas Choice. At one time 19 natural gas suppliers were approved to supply gas to natural gas customers. However, by 2002, 90% of Georgia residents were served by 3 or fewer marketers. In 2007, Georgia had 1,793,650 residential and 127,835 commercial customers. They consumed approximately 112 and 49 billion cubic feet of natural gas, respectively.

Ohio

Ohio has had Natural Gas Choice since 1997. More than 40 percent of the state's residential natural gas customers were participating in choice programs as of September 2008. Several major Ohio natural gas utilities in Ohio have plans to exit the function of supplying natural gas to customers, leaving the gas supply function to independent natural gas supply companies. In 2007, Ohio had 3,273,791 residential, 272,548 commercial, and 6,865 industrial customers. They consumed approximately 300, 159, and 295 billion cubic feet of natural gas, respectively. Currently, Ohio has 35 natural gas suppliers certified to participate in Natural Gas Choice programs including IGS Energy

IGS Energy

IGS Energy, also known as Interstate Gas Supply, Inc., is America's largest independent retail natural gas and electric supplier, serving more than 800,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the states of Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland...

, MXenergy

MXenergy

MXenergy is a retail natural gas and electricity supplier in North America. It was founded in 1999 to provide natural gas and electricity in deregulated energy markets. In 2006, MXenergy was named fourth on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing private companies in America on the basis of...

and Spark Energy.