The deregulation of the natural gas market in the 1980s and of the electricity market in the 1990s had the same basic purpose: to remove restrictions on businesses and consumers while encouraging increased competitiveness, greater efficiency and, ultimately, lower prices.

But deregulation has even taken into account pricing issues its architects could not have foreseen. Natural gas has been used to generate increasing amounts of electricity during the past 10 years, which has driven prices up in excess of the rate of inflation.

Deregulation has provided business customers numerous options to help manage this cost increase—an opportunity that would not have been available in a regulated market. Overall, deregulation's impact has been to create a variety of pricing plans and products that can be tailored to your business.

We understand that deregulation can be a complex concept and, at Direct Energy, we believe choosing a provider should be a simple decision. We offer customized plans to help you manage costs and budgets throughout the year. To learn more about how Direct Energy can help you make the most of deregulation's benefits, visit www.directenergy.com/solution.