Tracy Hodge
SaveOnEnergy.com Can Get Texas Business Owners Quicker Responses from Backlogged Energy Suppliers
For the second straight week, falling natural gas prices are prompting Texas electric companies to lower their retail electric rates , as competition is forcing energy suppliers to match their competitors’ price cuts. It continues to be a good time to buy. Now, August is normally the busiest time of the year for the sales and customer service departments at most Texas energy providers . It’s when customers start really shopping around for a cheaper electric rate after having received higher bills from summer air conditioning use. So getting the attention of an electric company to get a custom price quote or help you switch is normally a little bit tougher now than during any other time of the year. But this year it’s even more difficult as energy providers have built up a backlog of customer requests for a couple of reasons. First, with record prices, energy suppliers are
Texas Commercial Electric Rates Hit Three-Month Low
Electricity prices for commercial customers are starting to break in Texas, and business owners are seeing the cheapest electric rate offers made in the past three months. That makes it a good time to lock in a fixed price electricity plan at SaveOnEnergy.com , where commercial customers can get competing price quotes from various energy suppliers with just one click of the mouse. It’s all because the price of natural gas, which is one of the main drivers of retail electric prices , has fallen nearly 30% from a peak of $13.57/MMBtu June 30. That means energy suppliers can charge cheaper rates for electricity, and are starting to trim their prices. While it varies by energy provider and product, some offers have been cut by 5-10%. A few of the higher-priced plans have fallen more, up to a nickel from where they were just a month ago. But like with
Combination of Hot Weather, High Prices Equal Highest Electricity Bills Ever Seen in Texas
Texans are paying the highest electricity bills they have ever paid, and the worst may be yet to come with hotter August temperatures right around the corner. Although energy prices have eased slightly , oil is still above $128 per barrel. Natural gas hit a three-month low last week, but is still hovering around $10.50 per million British thermal unit, nearly double the price last year. In other words, any relief from energy prices isn’t going to come quickly. Hotter temperatures compared with last year’s unseasonably mild summer have sent customers’ electric bills soaring. Because last year was so cool, with less need for power-draining air conditioning, Texans are seeing 30%, 40% or even 50% jumps in their monthly electricity usage, pushing their bills even higher. Combining this increased usage with higher electric rates just makes things worse. It’s caught some Texans by surprise, as temperatures across the state reached
Automatic Renewal of Electric Contracts Can Cost Texas Businesses Money
Texas businesses with fixed-price electricity deals expiring soon should not procrastinate renewing or finding a new energy supplier before their term price expires. To do so could expose businesses to wildly volatile electricity prices , the most expensive in the market. The reason is that many electric companies have fixed-priced contracts which automatically renew. But instead of renewing onto the same or another fixed price, the contracts often automatically renew onto a variable rate which fluctuates with the wholesale cost of power. That means a business which has paid 12¢ per kilowatt-hour for 12 or 24 months could end up paying 18¢ to 20¢ per kilowatt-hour under that legalese of the contract. Many customers aren’t aware of these automatic renewal clauses that can change how a customer’s electricity is priced. In fact, the Public Utility Commission is looking at that issue in a rulemaking, as reported by trade journal Energy
Not All Texans Have Freedom to Choose Energy Provider
Texans who can shop for lower electricity prices through sites like SaveOnEnergy.com may not know it, but not everyone in the state can choose their own energy supplier . The benefits of that freedom to choose were evident last week, when, right before Independence Day, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) saddled Northeast Texas customers with a bill for $500 million to pay for a new power plant for SWEPCO , the monopoly electric company in that region. Customers in the SWEPCO territory can’t broadly choose their own energy provider , can’t benefit from customized, lower pricing, and can’t avoid the hefty bill the state’s regulators just handed them. Since customers can’t choose, it means they have to pay for any power plants SWEPCO builds with state approval, even if the plants turn out to be bad investments or more costly than other alternatives. The new SWEPCO power plant has
Texas Small Businesses Leave Money on the Table By Not Shopping for Electricity
It won’t come as a surprise to Texas small business owners, but rising energy prices are second only to health care costs as the top problem facing small businesses, according to a recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Some form of energy costs were ranked as a "critical" problem by 58% of business owners. According to NFIB’s Energy Consumption poll, energy costs are one of the top three business expenses for 35% of small businesses. NFIB isn’t telling business owners anything new by reporting that energy costs have increased rapidly over the last two years and even more so in the last six months. Small business owners are not able to adjust the price of their goods and services quickly enough to match the steep energy price increases without hurting their customer base, NFIB noted. Business owners are also not able to change business practices fast
High Electricity Rates Here to Stay, Reports Find
High electricity rates are here to say and are a national phenomenon. Staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reported Thursday that they see, "significantly higher power prices that will last for years," and that the trend is, "universal around the country." Essentially, FERC found higher prices to be inescapable because of higher fuel (coal, natural gas, etc.) prices and higher construction and raw material prices (copper, aluminum, nickel, etc.) caused by worldwide demand and increasing demand for electricity here at home. Add in uncertainty over climate change legislation, and you have a recipe for persistently high power prices . The effects are starting to be felt by consumers nationwide. While electricity rates may lag in some areas, utilities across the USA are raising power prices up to 29% , mostly to pay for soaring fuel costs and to build new plants and refurbish an aging power grid. According
Changes to Texas Electricity Market Won’t End Volatility, High Prices
Even though the Public Utility Commission and the state’s grid operator are rushing to fix problems that have caused Texas electricity rates to soar, the changes aren’t guaranteed to bring lower prices, and may even carry unintended consequences that still result in high electric rates for customers who haven’t locked-in a fixed price. While the news is filled with reports about regulators trying to calm the wholesale market, Texas businesses should remember that even with the changes, the wholesale electricity price will still be designed so that, at times, it hits $2,250 per Megawatt-hour, or about 30 times higher what may be considered a "normal" price. All that means is that businesses should still be looking for fixed-price deals to avoid summer price spikes and volatility to avoid being left open to anymore unexpected turmoil in the wholesale market. Last week proved again that as businesses shop for a good
Texans Must Ask If Their Energy Provider Will Be Around in A Month
Two more Texas energy providers have bit the dust as record price volatility wreaks havoc on the market. Customers of eTricity have been switched to high-priced Providers of Last Resort (POLR), a safety net service designed for when an energy supplier goes out of business, while Riverway Power declared bankruptcy to avoid that process. With two prior failures at the end of May, four electric companies have recently failed, forcing about 35,000 customers onto the high-priced POLR service, where the average monthly bill could triple for some customers up to $300. Market experts predict more defaults among marginal energy suppliers if the wholesale market doesn’t calm down. Customers on POLRs are being urged to switch quickly to find a lower electricity rate , but how do they avoid picking another clunker? Some websites, which claim to help customers pick the best electric company , prominently featured some of the now
Good Electricity Rates Still Available for Texans, But May Evaporate With Summer Heat
Electric companies say that most Texans switch their energy supplier in the third quarter of the year, after they receive their first summer bill for usage during June — when air conditioning load and higher summer power prices give homeowners a heftier bill. With consumers being hit on all sides from record gasoline prices to rising food prices, homeowners can’t afford to wait until receiving that first high summer bill to seek out savings in the electric market. They need to find a better, more secure rate now, before running up their meter, and SaveOnEnergy.com offers a quick, hassle-free method for consumers to compare prices and find the best rate. Residential electricity prices have skyrocketed in Texas from a confluence of factors – higher prices for natural gas, oil and coal, plus “congestion” in certain parts of the electric system, which has kept cheaper power from reaching metro areas like