Posted on 05/29/2025 2:41:17 PM PDT by fwdude
I have a questions for those more financially savvy than I.
I live in a state that has deregulated electric energy markets, in an urban area with a lot of choices for providers. My current electric service contract is up in just over a month.
Seeing that energy prices are beginning to come down, is it wise to lock in with a new provider now, or wait as long as possible, possibly risking a spike in July?
Also, long or short contract? Fixed or variable?
Thanks for any advice.
I live in a state that has deregulated electric energy markets too. And I’ve done a bit of research in this regard. Bottom line: I’m staying with my old, regulated power company.
Now the details. Every alternative power company that I looked into looked like a legalized scam. These companies are not regulated. So after their initial teaser period they can charge whatever they want.
Power bills doubling or tripling after the teaser period ends have been reported. And good luck getting through to the cancellation department.
Do your research. But avoid online rating sites that have direct links to the companies they are reviewing. Those sites are just fronts.
Disclaimer #1: You can get good deals if you’re nimble, and jump from company to company when the teaser periods are over. But I’m too old for that.
Disclaimer #2: I found no good alternative energy companies in my state. Your state might have better options than I do.
Why be so vague in your second sentence when you are Fort Worth dude from Texas?
Being without power for a day is inconvenient but being without power for a week can be an actual problem.
I have a questions for those more financially savvy than I.
Seek help from a high school student who has taken math and business courses. Have the student plot out a nice graph and make sure they show all their work.
Yep. One electric company or solar.
I live in a red town that doesn’t give choices. Go figure.
“I would check to see who has the least amount of power interruptions and who gets things cleared up the fastest.”
Living back in Detroit that is the Crucial question.
We have DTE. The only game in town and they SUCK!
Everywhere I know of, delivery is still done by the old regulated power company that put in the lines and infrastructure, regardless of you choose as the “provider”. That’s that determines power quality and uptime, the rest is just financial hocus-pocus.
Which is why I love our Generac.
As long as the NG flows we are ok.
I would get a three month provider, then pop for a 12 month provider.
There in Texas, you have “Power to Choose” to get you your best rates.
https://www.powertochoose.com/
That is the wrong website. It is powertochoose.org.
My three-year contract at 10.8 cents ended this week. I had to sign a new one-year for 14 cents. Natural gas prices have been at all-time lows so something is fishy.
Where are these alternative power companies getting the electricity? They don’t have power plants. They are buying it from the legacy monopolies (DTE, Consumers Energy, and probably from Canada Hydro in Michigan). How do they get the power to your house? They lease capacity on the same power lines and again from the legacy transmission monopolies (ITC and DTE here in Michigan). How can the possibly be less expensive in the long term?
“Everywhere I know of, delivery is still done by the old regulated power company that put in the lines and infrastructure, regardless of you choose as the “provider”. That’s that determines power quality and uptime, the rest is just financial hocus-pocus.’
AND, don’t the “alternative” providers just buy their power from some legitimate company that ACTUALLY generates the power in the first place, thus all the “alternative providers” really do is provide “alternative” billing to the end users?
sounds like the scams back in the day when the phone companies that provided DSL Internet service were forced to sell to “alternative” providers, who did nothing but provide “alternative” billing to end users ...
We don’t have that option at my house in AZ or my houses in CA. AZ electricity is really cheap, but California has one hell of a racket if you don’t pay attention. Time of Use billing is what screws most in CA, they forced me on it for 3 months when I built my new house and got power. It was $100 just to have a porch light on for A MONTH. After Switching back to Standard Billing my bill for both houses combined is in the $300-$400 range in the summertime.
The company that You pay is only collecting the money. They have ZERO to do with the actual service grid. All the different companies are doing the same thing. Most of them would not even know what wire is what...
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