The concept of energy choice should be liberating. You can now choose the energy company that's right for your home, your budget, and your lifestyle! But too often, people get lost trying to figure out the difference between the local utility company and the various retailers vying for their business.

At Vista Energy, we believe that it's important you know as much as you can about the power you have as an energy consumer. That's why we want to help you understand the true differences between who we are as an energy provider and your local utility company.

What is the Definition of a Utility Company?

The simplest answer is often best. Your local utility is the company responsible for the power lines, poles, and meters for your area. These responsibilities include:

• Transmission of electricity and/or natural gas
• Distribution of electricity and/or natural gas
• Maintenance, repair, and construction of any and all forms of infrastructure related to transmission and distribution of electricity and/or natural gas
• Reading the meter to determine energy usage during a billing cycle
• Billing and payment for energy using during a billing cycle
   

Your local utility company is the institution you contact when you lose power, pay your bill, have questions about your usage, report a downed power line, or do anything related to the physical aspects of using power at your home or business.

And depending upon where you live, you could have a different utility company in charge of the electricity and natural gas you use at your home or business. It depends upon the nature of the energy market in your area before energy choice arrived.

What Does Vista Energy Do Compared the Utility Company?

Good question! It's true – the utility company does take care of everything you see regarding electricity and natural gas, including the billing. But it often neglects what's most important to consumers – the actual cost of the energy you use.

The role of Vista Energy in the competitive energy landscape is providing customers choice regarding the price you pay for your energy usage. Founded by energy traders and investors with decades of personal experience, we negotiate for the best available prices of electricity and natural gas so that we extract the greatest possible value out of the energy market and deliver that savings to you in the form of competitive rates.

When you switch to Vista Energy, your local utility company will still transmit the energy to your home, fix any equipment problems, correct any outages, and conduct all the billing and payment concerns. Vista Energy then tells your local utility the rate you pay for your energy usage so they know how much to bill you.

Why Should I Choose Vista Energy Over My Local Utility Company?

This might be the most important question you ask. When you select Vista Energy as the energy company for your home or business, you choose the plan with the rate and amenities you like most. This typically includes a long-term fixed rate that locks in the rate you pay for each kilowatt-hour of energy you use during a given billing cycle. The knowledge that your rate stays the same every bill helps you better estimate what your billing amount will be, which can help you budget your household expenses more effectively.

If you decide to use your local utility as your energy company, you will typically pay a different rate for your energy usage every single bill. Most utility companies charge you whatever the going rate for energy might be that month, because they aren't set up to negotiate the price of energy like we can at Vista Energy. We pride ourselves on knowing the ins-and-outs of the energy industry better than our competitors.

Ultimately, the difference between Vista Energy and your local utility company is that we focus all of our efforts on working the energy market to secure great fixed rates for our customers. Your local utility company is rightly concerned with ensuring the physical infrastructure of the energy industry stays in proper working order, but that also means they can't explore the energy market to find the best prices on the energy you need for your home or business.

Energy choice provides you the best of both worlds: the stability of a single utility company that takes care of the lines, poles, and meters for all the houses and businesses in your area, while you get to shop for the energy company that's right for your home and needs. We just feel that Vista Energy offers exactly what you want from an energy company.