How does this work? Where I'm at (Iowa) your electric provider is determined by where you live. As far as I know, you have one company that provides electric to your home. You don't have the option of picking someone else.
Based on the website it looks like Griddy is something you can just sign up for and then your bill will be routed through them somehow? How does that work? Who maintains the infrastructure?
The common term for this is “regulated electricity market” vs “deregulated electricity market”.
By your description it sounds you guys in Iowa have a regulated market. There you have a vertically integrated electric utility company who does everything from generation to line maintenance and billing with oversight from a public regulator.
In a deregulated electric market you have separate generator companies who sell wholesale electricity to retail energy suppliers who sell it on to end customers. Transmission companies maintain the grid infrastructure and they are paid by the other participants for this service. This scheme when it works right can result in more competition and thus better efficiencies.
Based on the website it looks like Griddy is something you can just sign up for and then your bill will be routed through them somehow? How does that work? Who maintains the infrastructure?