Posted by Guru on Jun 4, 2013 in solar, solar energy, solar grant, solar panel, solar tax credit | 0 comments

Tired of Switching and Switching Your Power Company Yet?

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Have you received a terrific offer from a third party electric supply company (ESCO) claiming they can save you money over BG&E, PEPCO, SMECO or Delmarva Power?

So you’ve compared their rate to your local distribution company’s (the utility company that prints and mails your bill to you) standard offer service rates and indeed you can save a bundle by switching, but have you researched all the got-cha’s?If you are offered a variable rate product, you will want to confirm:

1) Is the advertised rate a teaser rate which will rise to a market price or even higher after a few months, like North American Power’s 4th month surprise rate spike? (Not all customers receive a rate spike, but mine went from NAP’s 8 cent / kWh teaser rate to about 12 cents / kWh at exactly the wrong time: during peak power usage on a hot summer month.)

2) Does your variable rate have a cap like Starion’s 6 month rate cap?

3) Is there a monthly service fee?

4) What are the costs, if any, to switch to your new electric power supply company and to cancel?

If you are offered a fixed rate product, you should confirm:

1) How long is the fixed rate term? 1 year? 2 years?

2) What is the early termination fee for the contract?

3) What is the monthly service fee or minimum billing amount?

4) Does the contract auto-renew at the end of term and automatically lock you into a higher rate product without right to rescind like Washington Gas Energy Services’ contract?

With both variable rate and fixed rate electric power plans, you should know:

The rate you are being offered by your ESCO is not the rate you will be paying. Remember, after you negotiate your energy supply rate, that electric power still has to be delivered to your home.

Your final “all-in” energy cost will include:

1) Energy supply cost;

2) Transmission cost;

3) Distribution cost;

4) In some cases it will include demand charges, time of use tariffs, multiple rate tiers based on volume;

5) Surcharges to pay for all those cheap CFL’s your utility company sells through Cosco, and for their many other incentives;

6) Taxes, hidden taxes, disguised taxes, and more taxes;

7) Junk fees of all sorts

All of these fees can add an additional 3-5 cents / kWh to that great new energy supply rate you just negotiated.

However, after 1-2 years and your contract expires, then what?

You will have to renegotiate your energy rates all over again and look for a new energy supplier. How much do you want to bet that the starting point for the new rates will not be lower? They might be, but the odds are not in your favor. Think about it this way, in which direction do the rates have more room to move, up or down? How would YOU hedge that bet?

If you think that fracking and other new technologies will bring the price down, consider how the free market will affect the apparent surplus we are experiencing in the United States: All but one of the US LNG terminals are configured to import natural gas from overseas. Since the price of LNG in energy hungry China is significantly higher than it is in the United States, investors are working on retrofitting the import terminals to adapt them for energy export, a process which takes time. But when China gets a hold of our natural gas, the US becomes a giant energy exporting country and there goes our surplus and along with it, our low energy prices.

How does this affect electricity prices? Natural gas is the most volatile component of electric power pricing and therefore has the greatest effect on pricing on an inelastic commodity.

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Confused by all that information? You don’t have to be…

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Do you want others to do all the hard work for you?

Best of all, do you want to lock in your energy rates at a competitive price for 20 years using clean, renewable energy and have large renewable energy investors front the bill?

What’s the catch? The investors get their money back plus a reasonable profit margin by selling this green power back to you for 20 years. It’s a good deal for them.

Do you want to know how good the deal can possibly be for you?

Use our solar energy calculator to find out with no obligation!

We need to look at your home’s roof using Google Maps and get an idea of how much energy you use in order to quote you an energy price.

Please click here to enter your address and energy usage data into our system, and an energy adviser will call you to answer your questions and give you an estimate.