SaveOnEnergy.com Takes the Work Out of Buying Electricity for Texas Businesses
It’s not that Texas business owners don’t want to shop around for the best electric rate so they can cut costs and improve their bottom line; of course they do. But it’s a complicated, opaque world out there in the electric market . There are dozens and dozens of competing electric companies all trying to spin their plan as the best. There are also a wealth of different products and options to choose from: fixed pricing, variable pricing, index pricing, blended pricing, and many more. It takes entire staffs dedicated to buying energy services at Fortune 500 companies to sift through this web of offers and competitors to find the best electric rate , but what are small and mid-sized businesses to do? Online electricity comparison website SaveOnEnergy.com has answered that question by making it easy for Texas businesses to capture the savings available from competition. SaveOnEnergy.com’s one-of-a-kind commercial retail
Customers Can Save with Texas Electric Rates Falling
Texas electric prices continue to fall, and customers have a real opportunity to save some real money by switching their energy provider . SaveOnEnergy.com makes it easy for customers to take advantage of these savings, by offering simple, side-by-side comparisons of screened and vetted electric companies , offering customers the ability to shop anytime day or night with just a click of the mouse. With the price of oil and natural gas falling , electric rates are plummeting, and customers are seeing the types of prices they saw in the spring before a big run-up started in May. Texas residential electric rates are some 2-3¢ cheaper than they were just three weeks ago, as the end of summer brings cooler weather and cheaper prices. All and all, it’s a good time to shop. For customers in the Oncor territory, including Dallas-Fort Worth, the best rate at SaveOnEnergy.com is Spark Energy’s
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
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
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
National Power Debacle Shows Danger of Going It Alone When Buying Electricity in Texas
Last week showed the dangers of choosing an energy provider without some qualified assistance, and why it’s essential customers get some help from a company like SaveOnEnergy.com before making an uninformed decision. National Power Company of Houston did the unthinkable and tried to raise rates for customers on fixed-price contracts, citing a buried “material change” clause in customers’ contracts. Customers who thought they were guaranteed a good rate of about 11¢ per kilowatt-hour shockingly started getting letters saying National Power was going to jack up the rate to 15.3¢, even though customers believed they had signed for a fixed price for as long as 18 months. After customer outrage, the Texas Public Utility Commission pulled National Power’s listing from the state’s electric choice website, and started an investigation. The experience – unfortunately not the first of its kind in Texas – shows the dangers of just picking the cheapest offer