Falling energy prices continue to give Texas electric customers an early Christmas gift, as lower electric rates give Texans the opportunity to lock-in a low, fixed electric rate for the coming year.

 

Fears of a prolonged recession overpowered announced production cuts by OPEC, with oil ending the week at $33.87 a barrel, a four and a half year low.  Natural gas ended the week at $5.55/MMbtu after dropping another 7¢ Friday.  Persisting low energy prices translate into good deals for Texas electric customers, who have an opportunity to lock-in a cheap rate for 12 months or longer, and ensure continued savings even if prices rebound in the new year.

 

SaveOnEnergy.com allows customers to take advantage of the current lows in the energy market, by empowering them to easily and conveniently find the best electric rate.  By having several qualified and vetted energy suppliers compete online for customers’ business, customers know they’re getting the cheapest rate possible, without having to devote hours to researching all the rates and offers in the market.  And SaveOnEnergy.com’s energy experts ensure customers find a reputable energy provider that will be around for a long time, and won’t leave customers stranded.

 

In more good news for Texas customers, a study commissioned by the state Public Utility Commission found that a new market design for the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), will save customers $5.6 billion over 10 years.  The so-called “nodal” market, which will increase the pricing points on the ERCOT system, will allow ERCOT to run the market more efficiently, and use the lowest-cost generation more often.  The nodal market will also reduce the impact of “congestion” on transmission lines, which, just like on the roads, prevents cheaper power from flowing to customers.  Although the market has been delayed to December 2010, and will cost $660 million (double the original cost), the study finds the market will, overall, produce big savings to customers.

 

Customers in the Houston area will soon be getting another way to save money as the Public Utility Commission approved new “advanced” meters for customers at CenterPoint Energy.  The “smart” meters will allow customers to track their power usage in real-time in their home, allowing them to take more conservation measures to lower their bill.  The meters will also support products that price power more cheaply during certain times of the day, allowing customers to shift some of their usage (such as washing clothes) to times when the rate is cheaper.

 

The meters will be deployed between now and January 2014, with 145,000 installed in 2009 and 500,000 every year thereafter.  Customers in Dallas are also having smart meters installed by Oncor.

Texas electric customers can still act to lock-in a low electric rate before the start of the new year, but prices may soon rise as OPEC seeks to stop oil’s unprecedented slide.

 

While oil was still under $50, prices rose nearly 10% last week, on indications producers are willing to cut supply to support higher prices.  News the U.S. government may help automakers through use of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund also stopped a slide in prices.

 

Officials from Saudi Arabia reported that the OPEC member has already delivered cuts promised to OPEC, a sign that world supplies are smaller than traders had estimated.

 

Saudi Arabia’s oil production was “absolutely” in line with its OPEC quota, Minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview.  The desert kingdom is the world’s biggest oil producer and OPEC’s most influential member.

 

Natural gas prices fell to under $5.50/MMBtu, making this a great time to shop around for a cheap electric rate, before higher gas use in the winter heating season pushes prices back up. 

 

Customers can remove the hassle of finding the best electric rate by using SaveOnEnergy.com to choose their energy provider.  SaveOnEnergy.com allows customers to shop from the comfort of their own home, anytime day or night, and takes the legwork out of finding the right energy supplier.  SaveOnEnergy.com vets and screens several electric companies who compete for customers’ business, meaning customers get the benefits of competition without having to worry about whether their chosen supplier is financially sound and stable, because SaveOnEnergy.com’s team of energy professionals qualify each company so only the best providers with low rates, sound business models and high levels of customer service are listed.

 

Meanwhile, a report by the Energy Retailer Research Consortium confirmed that Texans have the best choices when it comes to buying electricity.  The analysis ranked Texas’ electric market #1 in the U.S. and Canada for both business and residential customers.  Because of Texas’ progressive electric market, customers can choose from a significant variety of products and services, including: locking in energy prices for a year or more, indexed energy prices, hourly electric rates, green or renewable products, the bundling of maintenance services with electricity, the development of on-site power generation, premium power quality services, backup power and reliability services, energy efficiency services and opportunities for customers to participate in bulk power markets.  Customers in other states don’t have all these custom options to fit their individual needs.

Collapsing energy prices make it imperative for Texas business customers to take advantage of the current market and lock-in a low, fixed price for electricity before the end of the year and any rebound in the market.

 

Energy prices continued their slide last week, with oil dipping below $50/barrel and ending below $41 — a four year low.  Oil has lost $100 since its summer high, an unthinkable proposition just four months ago.  Friday’s close of $40.81 was the lowest closing price since Dec. 10, 2004, when oil closed at $40.71.

 

How long such low prices will last is the question.  While economic indicators are contributing to a bearish outlook, OPEC President Chakib Khelil promised the cartel would cut production at its meeting on December 17 if oil remained below $60 a barrel.  Energy officials from other OPEC members have expressed support for $75-80 as a “fair price” for oil, and support taking action to ensure prices return to those higher levels.  Accordingly, Texas businesses should take advantage of the current lows in electricity rates while they last.

 

Oil’s drop has also pushed natural gas prices lower, as has strong storage reports from the federal government and weaker demand.  The front-month futures price for gas is down about 58% from its July peak.  Between April and September, monthly gas consumption by industrial users dropped 14% to 4.756 billion cubic feet, the lowest monthly figure since at least 2001. 

 

Lower demand and lower usage of stored gas pushed natural gas prices below $6/MMBtu and to the lowest closing since January 2005.  Friday’s close was $5.742, but Morgan Stanley still expects 2009 natural gas prices to be $7/MMBtu, meaning customers must take advantage of today’s current prices.

 

While it’s a great time to lock-in a cheap electric rate, Texas commercial customers must navigate the landscape carefully.  As wholesale energy prices fall, electric companies will try to increase their margins by not lowering their retail prices as much, in an attempt to make up for squeezed margins in a higher-priced environment.  It’s just like when your corner gas station doesn’t lower prices as fast as they could, unless they have a competitor across the street cutting prices.

 

That’s where SaveOnEnergy.com can help Texas electric customers save money.  Through its one-of-a-kind online exchange portal, SaveOnEnergy.com puts the power of competition to work for your business, with just a few simple clicks of the mouse.  By simply entering in some information about their businesses, Texas commercial customers can receive customized, competing electricity rates from several vetted and pre-screened energy suppliers, ensuring that businesses get the lowest price possible.

 

With SaveOnEnergy.com working for your business, you don’t have to worry about getting the best rate from an electric company, or whether they’re holding back a cheaper rate when prices fall.  Because SaveOnEnergy.com pits several energy providers in head-to-head competition for your business, you can rest assured they’ll offer you their best price.  And with SaveOnEnergy.com’s online exchange portal, it takes just a few minutes to get competing quotes; you don’t have to spend days playing phone tag with a bunch of electric suppliers and sales staff — SaveOnEnergy.com makes it easy to save money.

Texas electric prices continue to fall along with other energy commodities, and it’s still a good time to lock-in a low, fixed electric rate through SaveOnEnergy.com.

 

Electric prices have been falling with the price of oil, which has lost nearly two-thirds of its value since the summer, and is now trading just above $50.  According to news reports, OPEC will probably wait until mid-December to decide whether to cut output.  That means Texans still have a window to shop around and find a cheaper electric rate before any tightening of the oil market.  Some analysts see oil sliding to $40/barrel absent a reduction in output.

 

SaveOnEnergy.com provides a one-stop shop to find a cheap electric rate and a new energy provider.  Its one-of-a-kind retail exchange portal allows Texas businesses to get multiple rate quotes from several pre-screened energy providers with just a few clicks of the mouse, making saving money on electricity a breeze.

 

Meanwhile, market reforms in the wholesale Texas electric market have suffered a setback as the state’s grid operator, ERCOT, announced a new “nodal” market meant to combat the volatility in prices seen this spring will likely be delayed until December 2010.  That’s nearly two years later than the original start date of January 2009.  The price tag of the market design has also doubled, to $660 million, though the new market is expected to produce consumer savings of about $6 billion.

 

The bad news for consumers is that a repeat of this spring’s extreme volatility in electric prices, which saw wholesale prices reach into the thousands of dollars per megawatt-hour, may still be lurking around the corner until the new market is eventually implemented in 2010.  However, due to the ballooning cots of the project, Texas regulators and politicians are taking another look its cost-benefit ratio, to make sure it will still benefit customers overall.  Thus, the project’s future completion is dependent on a new cost-benefit study due in mid-December.

 

One of the main reasons for this spring’s high prices was “congestion” on the state’s electric wires — just like having too much traffic on the road.  The congestion kept cheap wind power from West Texas from flowing into populated areas like Dallas and Houston.  As a result, consumers in those areas had to be served with more expensive power generated closer to the cities, which raised Texas power prices to unseen levels.

 

The new “nodal” market is intended to combat such congestion by pricing power differently.  Under this nodal structure, there will be more transparency into congestion, which will let power companies mitigate its effects.  Currently, ERCOT and electric companies can’t always see congestion in real-time, which means they can’t change their operations to reduce energy prices.  By making congestion more easily detectable, the resulting higher prices may be mitigated.