Choosing An Electricity Provider

[Perknose]

Last year, the market in Pa. was opened to competition. Yay!

It actually worked for me. I switched to ConEd, and my bills have been lower this year. A year later, I'm switching again.

In the spirit of tl;dr, I'll just say that it's yet another somewhat time-consuming process, with possible pitfalls for the unwary.

Yeah, I know: /firstworldproblems

 

[Drako]

Make sure you sign up for green energy. It's win for the whole planet!

 

[rcpratt]

How about the possible pitfall of your utility(ies) not knowing whether they can/should invest massive amounts of capital into increased capacity because of uncertainty due to customer choice.

Boo electric choice. If they increase Michigan's choice cap beyond 10%, it's going to be a very bad thing.

 

[dmcowen674]

Last year, the market in Pa. was opened to competition. Yay!

It actually worked for me. I switched to ConEd, and my bills have been lower this year. A year later, I'm switching again.

In the spirit of tl;dr, I'll just say that it's yet another somewhat time-consuming process, with possible pitfalls for the unwary.

Yeah, I know: /firstworldproblems

After fees and BS charges is it really cheaper?

 

[Possessed Freak]

After fees and BS charges is it really cheaper?

Yep. I have received quotes from a few providers. They bundled all the costs into the kw/hr rate so you could judge apples to apples between them. In my case, the difference was so small I stayed with the company who actually maintains the lines in the area. I can't complain, but I think the uptime is less about the company and more because there is a very large retirement home in our town so the company does its best to restore power quickly.

 

[ElFenix]

How about the possible pitfall of your utility(ies) not knowing whether they can/should invest massive amounts of capital into increased capacity because of uncertainty due to customer choice.

Boo electric choice. If they increase Michigan's choice cap beyond 10%, it's going to be a very bad thing.

eh? why would that happen? the generators sell to the retail providers. the only way there's substantial fall in electric usage is if people stop using it. that's not going to happen. the uncertainty for generators is that someone else might come in and start generating. but that planning takes forever and most added capacity nowadays is only keeping up with demand.

 

[rcpratt]

eh? why would that happen? the generators sell to the retail providers. the only way there's substantial fall in electric usage is if people stop using it. that's not going to happen. the uncertainty for generators is that someone else might come in and start generating. but that planning takes forever and most added capacity nowadays is only keeping up with demand.

Not really sure what you're saying. If a customer chooses to leave utility X for utility Y, utility X loses that revenue. If a lot of people do that, it's a big deal.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Who is responsible for the upkeep of the lines?

 

[Perknose]

After fees and BS charges is it really cheaper?

Yep.

Yep. I now have one year's real-world, bottom-line experience to draw on, and it has worked for me, at least.

All the "fees and BS charges" remain the same no matter your actual juice provider. In this case, these would be the Customer Charge D:, the Distribution Charge , and the State Tax Adjustment.

The above three all go to PECO no matter what, as they own and maintain the infrastructure in my area.

Only the Supply Charge varies depending on which company you choose, and that's on a straight and easily comparable kWh basis.

But no matter who supplies your electrons, it all comes on one PECO-generated bill.

Gosh, this stuff is fascinating! Who will play me, Citizen Consumer Perknose, in the made for TV movie?

 

[Perknose]

Who is responsible for the upkeep of the lines?

PECO, and you pay them for it (see above), no matter which company you buy your actual electrons from.

 

[ElFenix]

Not really sure what you're saying. If a customer chooses to leave utility X for utility Y, utility X loses that revenue. If a lot of people do that, it's a big deal.

i guess michigan does it differently.

here you choose a retail electric provider. the retail electric providers choose between generators, not the end users. some of the generators are also retail electric providers. frankly, there's not enough spare capacity for the generators to lose money.

 

[rcpratt]

i guess michigan does it differently.

here you choose a retail electric provider. the retail electric providers choose between generators, not the end users. some of the generators are also retail electric providers. frankly, there's not enough spare capacity for the generators to lose money.

Oh, I see. I believe the utilities here are largely both generators and retail providers. You're not allowed to be all three (transmission), though.

My point was aimed at uncertainty for generators. While it's not as cut-and-dry as I made it sound, selling power retail is far more profitable than selling it on the open market. It's a huge uncertainty.

 

[ElFenix]

Oh, I see. I believe the utilities here are largely both generators and retail providers. You're not allowed to be all three (transmission), though.

My point was aimed at uncertainty for generators. While it's not as cut-and-dry as I made it sound, selling power retail is far more profitable than selling it on the open market. It's a huge uncertainty.

transmission is the one where monopoly makes sense. there's some places that are served by co-ops or by city owned utilities that don't have retail choice, and a couple areas there there isn't enough wholesale competition to have retail competition.

smart meters are getting rolled out. but because the retail providers can only change your kw/h rate twice a year, they've had to do things like offer rebates for people moving their usage to nights/weekends.

 

[CPA]

I love having a choice down here in Texas. Am at 6.9 cents/kwh right now.

 

[lothar]

I love having a choice down here in Texas. Am at 6.9 cents/kwh right now.

Why do people from Texas always complain about their electricity bills? That's like the #2 complaint after municipal property taxes.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Why do people from Texas always complain about their electricity bills? That's like the #2 complaint after municipal property taxes.

Not much else to bitch about

 

[vi edit]

Why do people from Texas always complain about their electricity bills? That's like the #2 complaint after municipal property taxes.

Because it's like 900 degrees and 90% humidity 9 months out of the year?

 

[ElFenix]

Why do people from Texas always complain about their electricity bills? That's like the #2 complaint after municipal property taxes.

when the price of natural gas went high we had some of the highest rates around. now that the floor has fallen out of that we're cheap.

 

[lothar]

Because it's like 900 degrees and 90% humidity 9 months out of the year?

Places in California, Arizona, and others are like that as well...Texas is certainly no exception.

 

[rcpratt]

when the price of natural gas went high we had some of the highest rates around. now that the floor has fallen out of that we're cheap.

So clearly the solution right now is to build lots of natural gas plants.

/tangentblog

 

[vi edit]

Places in California, Arizona, and others are like that as well...Texas is certainly no exception.

They don't have the suffocating humidity of Houston (or a lot of the south/south east).

 

[EagleKeeper]

PECO, and you pay them for it (see above), no matter which company you buy your actual electrons from.

Do you have the options of putting electrons back into the system?

If so, do they belong to PECO or the "original" supplier?

 

[Perknose]

Do you have the options of putting electrons back into the system?

If so, do they belong to PECO or the "original" supplier?

If serious, that's a good question. With Peco alone, we did. They were state mandated to buy back any electricity a consumer generated (by solar, wind, whatever) but didn't use.

Not sure now.

 

[lothar]

when the price of natural gas went high we had some of the highest rates around. now that the floor has fallen out of that we're cheap.

That explains it.
Those people that complained were all from a few years ago.
Even a Texas resident forum member here used to complain in P&N about energy costs(I think his name is Arknagin or whatever).
None of them seem to have complained recently about energy costs...They still complain about municipal property taxes though, but they don't realize that they still have it better than we do in Maryland.

Contacts in Texas:
2 family members in Sugar Land, TX
3 family members in Houston, TX

I was in Texas in October for a family wedding. If I were to ever move to Texas, it would be Sugar Land. No doubt in my mind about that. Too bad they don't have FiOS though.

 

[kranky]

At our end of the state we have a couple alternative electric suppliers. We switched a few months ago even though the savings was only going to be about $5-$8 a month. The utility actually encourages people to compare and switch if they can save money. The utility doesn't suffer - they still get paid for servicing the account, and transmission and distribution of energy. I get the feeling they would just as soon not have to worry about handling supply.