It's a bit more complicated. The door-to-door thing is retail choice, typically when people talk about "deregulated" electricity markets they're often referring

It's a bit more complicated. The door-to-door thing is retail choice, typically when people talk about "deregulated" electricity markets they're often referring to stuff at the generation/transmission level (wholesale markets), where a regional transmission operator is the balancing authority and offers a variety of market products that utilities and merchant generators participate in. Generally this has been perceived as more efficient than the traditional integrated utility and lowered costs for consumers in general. Since you're on PG&E, you're probably in California ISO's territory[1]. "Retail choice" is the ability of individual households to buy directly from retail suppliers[2], and the history there is a bit spottier and less conclusive. It's not as widespread and participation has actually declined[3]. [1] http://www.caiso.com/Pages/default.aspx http://www.caiso.com/Pages/default.aspx [2] https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/68993.pdf https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/68993.pdf [3] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37452 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37452