SaveOnEnergy.com Enters 10th Year of Saving Customers Money on Energy with New Website, Expanded Markets
SaveOnEnergy.com , the leader in helping customers find a lower energy rate by getting competing energy suppliers to compete head to head, is entering its 10th year of saving customers money with a newly redesigned website, and other features to enhance the customer experience. The redesigned website is more user friendly, and features enhanced search and sorting features for residential customers, making it faster and simpler to find a low rate for electricity and natural gas . Residential customers can easily filter products to see the products that best meet their needs and criteria, such as green products, or products for customers with poor credit. Customers can also sort products by SaveOnEnergy.com’s recommendation, lowest rate , term length, and by energy provider . SaveOnEnergy.com has made its form for commercial customers much easier as well, streamlining the process. Using this form, commercial customers can leverage the competition available through SaveOnEnergy.com
Texas Drought Could Mean High, Volatile Electric Rates This Summer
Last week, SaveOnEnergy.com noted that even with a stay of federal environmental regulations, which will keep more Texas power plants online this summer, Texas electric rates are still likely to rise because the supply of generation only marginally exceeds forecast demand. One of the reasons for this is the prolonged drought Texas has experienced, and its impact on power generation and electricity production, which was examined by the state senators earlier this week. Even recent heavy rains in some parts of the state, including Houston, have not eased the statewide drought conditions. Many types of power plants rely on large amounts of water for cooling, and without adequate water, these plants cannot generate electricity . “If Texas’ drought persists, it could pose a risk to electricity generation if there isn’t sufficient water to produce the power the state needs,” the Abilene Reporter-News reported. “The drought is already having a ‘slight
Rate Hike for Austin Energy Customers Shows Danger from Monopoly Power Provider
The massive rate hike looming for customers at Austin Energy, which SaveOnEnergy.com first told you about this fall , is “Exhibit A” in how customers are better off when they can choose their electricity provider , and a reminder of how bad things were under the monopoly utility system which existed in all of Texas prior to 2002. SaveOnEnergy.com noted in September that Austin Energy’s rate case would force some customers to subsidize lower electric rates for other customers. This doesn’t happen when customers can shop for their electric provider , as customers can choose a new provider if any electric company is making them subsidize another customer’s rates. SaveOnEnergy.com also recently noted that electric rates at Austin Energy are higher than rates in parts of Texas open to electric choice — and that’s before the impending massive 23% Austin Energy rate hike for residential customers . But that’s only
Blackouts Possible in Texas This Winter and Next Summer; Pushing Electric Rates Higher
Back in November, SaveOnEnergy.com warned customers that all indicators are that Texas electric rates — which have been at record lows for about the past 24 months — will rise in the near future, because of looming generation capacity shortages under which demand for power will outstrip supply. Customers can avoid these expected electric rate hikes by shopping for a new energy provider with SaveOnEnergy.com now, while rates are still low. The fears of higher electric rates were further confirmed last week as ERCOT, the independent entity which manages most of Texas’ electric transmission grid, reported bleak outlooks for both the forthcoming winter, and the summer of 2012. In ERCOT’s winter assessment of capacity and demand for power, ERCOT expects that, under normal weather conditions, the winter peak demand should be around 53,600 megawatts (MW). Available resources, based on normal generation outage rates, will be approximately 64,000 MW, meaning there
Texas Electric Rates Lower in Areas Where Customers Can Shop
Contrary to claims by certain opponents of electric choice , electric rates in areas of Texas in which customers can choose their electric provider are lower than the old monopoly rates from 2001, and lower than rates in other parts of the state where there is no electric choice, including Austin and San Antonio. As noted by SaveOnEnergy.com a few weeks ago, current Texas electric rates for parts open to customer choice are significantly lower than they were 10 years ago, right before competition started. As to rates in other parts of Texas, the Public Utility Commission publishes a chart providing the average monthly bill for a residential customer each month. These costs, which are provided for an average customer using 1,000 kWh, can then be translated into per kilowatt-hour rates simply by dividing the costs by 1,000, providing an easy comparison to electric rates available in areas of Texas
El Paso Fed Up With Monopoly Utility and High Electric Rates
Back in September, SaveOnEnergy.com told you about electric rate hikes at Austin Energy, and how customers couldn’t avoid the higher rates because they didn’t have a choice in their electric provider , as most Texans do. Now, customers at El Paso Electric — another Texas utility which does not offer customer choice — are facing higher rates, and customers are fed up with the monopoly system. Rates at El Paso Electric are among the highest in Texas. According to data from the Public Utility Commission , the average residential bill at El Paso Electric for a customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month was $122.15 for September. That works out to a per kWh rate of 12.2 cents. In contrast, customers in Dallas and Houston who can choose their electricity provider can find fixed electric rates for as low as 8-9 cents per kWh on SaveOnEnergy.com . In other words,
Two Texas Retail Electric Providers to Cease Operations; S&P Sees More Exits Looming
In what may be the first of several, two Texas retail electric providers have filed with the Public Utility Commission to relinquish their electric provider certificate and withdraw from the market. Meanwhile, a new report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services says that small retail electric providers , “may have trouble surviving” in the Texas energy market . SaveOnEnergy.com has alerted Texas electric customers over the past few weeks of the precarious financial situation that some of the electricity providers may be in, due to the extreme heat and the volatile wholesale energy pricing during August, and that customers should check to make sure that they are with a financially stable electricity company . Now come tangible signs of these problems. Two Texas retail electric providers — Pocket Power (organized as Monongahela Communications LLC) and Chain Lakes Power (which traded as Simple Power) have filed to relinquish their supplier licenses at
Top Power Executive Expected Retail Electric Provider Defaults in Texas
During an October 3 investor call, NRG Energy Chief Executive Officer David Crane said that he had expected a number of retail electric providers in Texas to go out of business due to the extreme heat and wholesale energy price shocks which strained retail providers during the entire month of August, and said that he anticipated significant “fallout” from the wholesale market price spikes which ate into retail electricity providers’ profits and stressed their balance sheets. ” [I] t was a very, very difficult month to be a retailer in Texas,” Crane said. NRG runs retail providers Reliant Energy , Green Mountain Energy, and Pennywise Power. To date, there have been no public defaults by retail electric providers as a result of the challenging market environment, and while there have been one or two sales of retail providers, none were definitively linked to the extreme market conditions in August. However, it’s
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