Energy Shopping
When shopping for energy it is important that customers understand their energy bills and current energy rates. In more mature energy choice markets like Texas, competition is in full swing and the Texas Public Utility Commission does a great job of making sure that all residential offers are apples-to-apples energy rate comparisons. This allows electricity customers to see which energy company is offering the lowest electric rate.
Energy customers who are new to energy choice markets (PPL, PECO, PSEG, JCPL, BGE, CLP, and more) have a “price to compare” to weigh energy rate offers against. Energy shopping can be stressful for customers who are new to the energy choice concept. Not all energy suppliers advertise their rates equally. Some suppliers will present electric rates that include taxes while other will withhold the tax. Some energy suppliers will advertise a low introductory variable rate, but then will increase the rate right away.
Using energy comparison sites like ElectricRate.com can help eliminate the confusion. ElectricRate.com presents all electricity rate offers on an even playing field so that customers can see who is offering the lowest rate. With the information present, the customer can make a decision based on electricity price, contract length, renewable energy portion, or promotions that an electricity company may offer.
Business electricity customers in particular have to be concerned about traps in the electric rates that they choose. While the state governments in energy choice markets do a good job at protecting residential consumers, they have taken a back seat at protecting business customers from electric rate offers. Energy suppliers have been offering rates that only include a portion of the competitive charge while passing through the rest. When this happens, the customer thinks that they have signed a contract for 7 cents, but when the bill comes they end up paying 9 cents.
The reality is that the contracts offered by electricity suppliers to businesses contains all of the information. However sometimes employees who are given the responsibility to do energy shopping don’t read the entire contract. ElectricRate.com provides free energy rate comparisons for business customers and makes sure that the offered electric rates include the entire price to compare from the utility. There are never hidden fees with ElectricRate.com offers, and custom savings analysis’ show the offered rates versus the comparable utility default rate.
Updated on
