Amanda Winchester
Only Days Until PECO Raises Electric Rates
New, higher electric rates are set to go into effect for customers buying their power supply from PECO in the Philadelphia area on October 1, unless customers shop for an alternative electric supplier with SaveOnEnergy.com As SaveOnEnergy.com first alerted customers over a month ago, electric rates at PECO for small businesses and residential customers will rise as PECO rebalances its power supply portfolio, and passes onto customers new costs of buying power. These higher electric rates, reflected in the “Price to Compare,” only apply if you buy your electricity supply from PECO, and not one of the dozens of competing energy suppliers now offering you a lower rate. With the competition introduced in Pennsylvania’s electric industry, customers can choose among competing electric suppliers offering lower electric rates for their power supply, which will still be delivered over PECO’s wires under service regulated by Public Utility Commission. Currently, over 40% of
Extreme Summer Strains Texas Electric Providers; Make Sure Yours is Financially Stable
This summer’s extreme heat has put a severe strain on the finances of Texas electric providers , producing conditions which could result in one or more providers going out of business . Texans who have chosen their electric provider by just looking for a cheap rate, without any diligence as to the provider’s financial health, need to look for a more stable provider using SaveOnEnergy.com to ensure their electric provider does not succumb to these conditions and go out of business. The wholesale electric market in which Texas retail electric providers operate is an expensive and risky business, even under normal conditions. That’s why SaveOnEnergy.com only offers electric rates from prudently operated, risk averse electric suppliers that aren’t going to go belly-up due to wild swings in the market. On top of the “normal” risk in the electric market, extreme events, especially when prolonged or unexpected, can put electric providers
Debate Over Austin Energy Rate Hike Shows Benefits of Texas Electric Choice
Debate over who should bear the brunt of looming rate increases at municipally owned Austin Energy shows one of the biggest benefits from the choice of electricity providers available in most of Texas — customers don’t have to worry about subsidizing other customers’ rates. The Austin-American Statesman reports that Austin Energy has proposed hiking residential electric rates by 23% next January. While some of the increase is due to increased costs, much of the proposed increase, the Statesman reports, is due to a re-allocation of costs among customer classes. Specifically, the utility is seeking to reduce the portion of costs paid by commercial and industrial customers by raising residential electric rates . When customers can choose their electricity provider — such as in Dallas, Houston, and Corpus Christi — customers don’t have to worry about whether they’re paying a higher rate to support somebody else’s subsidized rate. With the electric
Fall the Perfect Time for Texans to Shop for Lower Electric Rate
With Labor Day passing and the kids back to school, it’s time for Texans to check their energy rate , and see if they can be saving money by shopping for a lower electric rate from a competing retail energy provider on SaveOnEnergy.com . Although the heat continues to linger over much of Texas , temperatures have “moderated” into the 90s rather than the 100s, and the fall months are always a good time for Texans to check out competing electric prices in the market, now that the summer peak usage periods have ended. As air conditioning use will soon die down, there will be less demand for electricity, and that means prices will fall, as they generally tend to do in the “shoulder” months of the spring and the fall when less electricity is being used. No matter what kind of electricity product Texas customers are currently on, it’s
Electric Rates for Businesses to Jump at Met-Ed
Business customers at Met-Ed in Pennsylvania who do not shop for a lower electric rate will start paying higher energy prices for power supplies from Met-Ed effective September 1. Customers can avoid this rate hike, and save up to 30%, by choosing a new electric supplier with SaveOnEnergy.com . Met-Ed, a FirstEnergy company, serves 560,000 customers in 13 Pennsylvania counties, mostly in eastern Pennsylvania including Reading and outlying areas surrounding Harrisburg, Bethlehem, and Allentown. Earlier this week, Met-Ed posted its updated Prices to Compare for the three-month period beginning September 1. The Price to Compare is the part of the customer’s utility bill related to electricity supply , and under electric competition it can be avoided if the customer chooses to buy their electric supply from a competing energy supplier . At Met-Ed, the new Price to Compare for small and medium-sized businesses will be 9.606 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh),
SaveOnEnergy.com Celebrates Nine Years of Lowering Customers’ Electric Rates
SaveOnEnergy.com , the nation’s leading resource for customers to save money on their energy rate, recently celebrated nine years of helping customers shop for their electric or natural gas supplier, saving customers millions of dollars in the process. Since it was founded nine years ago, SaveOnEnergy.com has always focused on empowering customers to leverage the power of choice introduced into the electric and gas markets. With its industry experts, SaveOnEnergy.com screens all the energy suppliers in the market, and only takes the cream of the crop: those that are well-run and financially sound with high levels of customer service. SaveOnEnergy.com then gets these energy suppliers to compete, head-to-head, against each other to win your business . This drives prices down, and maximizes your savings when choosing a new energy supplier . And with SaveOnEnergy.com’s exclusive commercial exchange portal, all it takes is just a few clicks of the mouse to
PECO Electric Rates to Soon Rise for Small Business and Residential Customers
Electric rates at PECO Electric in the Philadelphia area will rise starting October 1 for small business and residential customers who do not shop for a competing electric supplier . PECO has just posted an updated “Price to Compare” for the three-month period starting October 1. The Price to Compare is the electric rate that PECO charges for electric supply, which can be avoided if customers choose to buy their electric supply from a competing energy provider offering a lower rate. Starting October 1, the Price to Compare for small business customers and residential customers will increase, but customers can save money and avoid the rate hike by shopping for an alternative electric supplier with SaveOnEnergy.com . Specifically, for PECO Rate Class GS (General Service) customers with demands under 100 kW (small businesses), the electric Price to Compare will increase to 10.87 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), from the current rate
Texas Heat Means Customers Need to Check Their Energy Rate
The record temperatures in Texas which have pushed customers to use their air conditioners non-stop mean customers need to check the energy rate they are currently paying for electricity , and make sure they are saving as much money as possible by shopping for the lowest electric rate on SaveOnEnergy.com . With several Texas cities continuing to see records broken for consecutive days with 100-degree heat, customers’ electric bills for July and early August usage are going to skyrocket. While customers can’t change their past bills, they can shop for a lower electric rate going forward using SaveOnEnergy.com , to make sure they are still taking advantage of the low electric rates for shopping customers in the market. Record power demands, which have prompted calls for conservation and even the interruption of large industrial customers under demand-response programs by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas , have sent wholesale power
SaveOnEnergy.com Can Help ComEd Businesses Avoid Paying Too Much for Electricity
Nearly one year ago, many mid-sized and smaller businesses at Commonwealth Edison in the greater Chicago area transitioned to a new type of electricity pricing if they still buy their electric supplies from ComEd. Before June 2010, mid-sized businesses paid a flat rate throughout the day for their electric supplies from ComEd, as ComEd bought power ahead of time and hedged its load. However, as part of opening the market to competition, ComEd no longer buys power in advance for medium and large customers. Instead, it merely passes the cost of power in the short-term wholesale market onto customers, under a process known as “hourly” pricing, under which the customer’s electric rate changes every hour depending on market conditions. A supermarket, for example, would pay one rate for electricity consumed in the morning, and a totally different rate for power consumed in the afternoon. Generally, prices tend to spike in
Texas Electric Rates Fall Under Customer Choice at SaveOnEnergy.com
Electric rates in areas of Texas open to customer choice continue to be lower than the national average and the old monopoly prices from before the introduction of competition into the retail electric market. Despite claims to the contrary from those who would like to see customers lose their choice of energy provider, Texas’ energy rates in areas open to choice remain below, not above, the national average. Using the most recent national data from November 2010, the average all-in U.S. electric price was about 11.5¢/kWh. In comparison, many 12-month fixed rates in all areas of Texas open to competition were at or below 9¢/kWh during November 2010, and remain in that low range. Texas electric rates in areas open to competition are also lower than the last monopoly-set rates from December 2001, before competition began. For example, using January 2011 competitive retail electric provider rates as a comparison ,