Setting Up Electricity & Gas When You Move

Unlike the UK’s single national regulator, US energy regulation is split across two very different layers. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) oversees interstate wholesale electricity transactions and the high-voltage transmission grid that moves power between states — but it has no say over the bill that lands in your mailbox. That’s set at the state level, by your state’s Public Utility Commission (sometimes called a Public Service Commission), which regulates the retail rates, service rules, and consumer protections for the utility serving your specific address.

In most of the country, electricity and gas service is still a regulated monopoly — one company holds the exclusive right to serve your address, for both delivering the energy and billing you for it. There’s no marketplace to browse and nothing to compare, because there’s only one option. The task isn’t “switching,” it’s simply opening an account before or when you move in.

1. 1

   Identify the utility for your new address

   Search the address or ask your landlord/real-estate agent — most areas have one obvious electric utility and, if the home uses gas, one obvious gas utility.

2. 2

   Call or apply online with your move-in date

   Give the utility your move-in date so service is live (or a meter is set up) when you arrive — don't assume it's automatic.

3. 3

   Provide ID, and possibly pay a deposit

   New customers are often asked for identification, and sometimes a security deposit or a credit check — see below.

4. 4

   Service starts

   Commonly same-day to a few business days later, longer if a technician needs to visit the meter.

Moving into a genuinely brand-new home changes one part of that process: there’s no previous occupant’s account to close out or meter reading to reconcile, because the address has never had service before. The builder typically arranges the physical utility connection during construction, but that doesn’t automatically put the account in your name — you still need to contact the utility yourself before closing or move-in to open a first-time account for your address. It goes through the same new-customer steps as any other account (identification, possibly a deposit or credit check), so don’t assume a new-construction home skips that step just because nothing needs “transferring.”

A smaller group of states — concentrated in Texas and parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic — have restructured their electricity (and sometimes gas) markets to allow retail choice. The wires utility still delivers the energy and responds to outages, exactly as in a regulated state, but a separate competitive retailer can supply the actual electricity or gas and set its own pricing and contract terms.

Texas is the clearest, most stable example: most of the state sits on the ERCOT grid, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) requires customers connected to it to choose a retail electricity provider rather than defaulting to one. Beyond Texas, treat any list of “deregulated states” as a starting point, not a certainty — restructuring can apply to electricity but not gas (or vice versa), can vary by utility territory within a state, and does occasionally change. Confirm it for your specific new address with your state PUC or the incoming utility itself before assuming you have a choice to make.

There’s nothing in the US equivalent to the UK’s 5-working-day switching guarantee. Timelines are set by each individual utility, not by federal or, usually, state law. In practice that means new service commonly starts anywhere from the same day to a few business days after you apply — faster in areas with smart meters that can be activated remotely, slower if the property needs a technician to physically turn on or install a meter. Build in a buffer rather than assuming service will simply be live the moment you arrive.

One cost people moving often forget to plan for: many US utilities can require a security deposit from a new customer, particularly if you have no billing history with that specific company or a thin or poor credit record. It’s not universal and it’s not a fixed amount, but it’s common enough that it’s worth asking about — and budgeting for — when you set up service, rather than being surprised by it on your first bill.

A deposit isn’t always unavoidable, though. Many utilities will run a credit check first and waive or reduce the deposit if it comes back clean, and the FTC notes that some utilities accept a “letter of guarantee” — essentially someone else agreeing in writing to cover the bill if you don’t — as an alternative to paying cash upfront. It’s worth simply asking your new utility what your options are rather than assuming the deposit quoted to you is the only path; policies here vary by company, not by any federal or usually state rule.

If a move is straining your budget, it’s worth knowing about the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federal program administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the Department of Health and Human Services and delivered through state and local agencies. It exists specifically to help eligible low-income households cover home energy costs — exactly the kind of expense that spikes around a move.

Eligibility and funding levels are set annually and vary by state, so treat any specific dollar figure as something to verify directly with your state’s LIHEAP office rather than a fixed rule — the program page above is the place to start.

Worth knowing if you’re applying around a move: LIHEAP funding has been genuinely unsettled the last couple of budget cycles, with releases to states delayed and the program’s federal funding proposed for elimination in successive budget requests, even though Congress has so far kept it funded each year. That doesn’t mean don’t apply — it means don’t assume this year’s timeline or amount will look like last year’s, and it’s worth applying early and checking your state office directly for current status.

It’s tempting to assume there’s a baseline federal rule protecting people from having their power shut off — there isn’t. Things like winter disconnection moratoria, minimum notice periods before a shutoff, and medical-certificate holds all come from state (and sometimes local) regulation, not a single nationwide standard, which means what protects you in one state may simply not exist in another.

If you’re worried about falling behind after a move, don’t assume a rule from your last state carries over — check the specific protections your new state’s Public Utility Commission publishes, and contact your utility directly if you think you might need one.

Whether moving feels like a simple address update or a from-scratch application comes down to one thing: is your new address served by the same utility as your old one?