Which electricity plan and company to choose in Dallas? (month-to-month, house)

[ChristieP]

Luminant generates the electricity.
Oncor handles the transmission and distribution.
Your electric company sells you the power that you use. Unless, as previously stated, you are in a co-op area.

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Luminant generates the electricity.
Oncor handles the transmission and distribution.
Your electric company sells you the power that you use. Unless, as previously stated, you are in a co-op area.

I don't fully understand the mechanisms. I just know Oncor is the one to call when the power goes out, so I tend to view them as the primary entity. I looked it up and saw Luminant was bought out by another company years ago. It appears there are multiple companies that generate electricity.

In talking to other people, it seems the co-ops have better rates and better reliability, although that may just be anecdotal. I think it all probably comes out to a wash in the end for most people.

[Lorne]

I need to renew my contract soon and this is what I've been quoted from Spark Energy.

Service Plan: Price Protect 12
Contract Term: 12 months
Energy Rate: 7.99 cents per kWh
Early Termination Fee: $175

The only thing I am upset about is that they are adding a monthly fee of $8.99 which will only apply if my monthly usage is below 1000 kWh. My highest usage in 2022 was in August and it was 897 kWh.

Average monthly use: 500 kWh = 14.9
Average monthly use: 1000 kWh = 12.7
Average monthly use: 2000 kWh = 12.6

[tcualum]

I use Energy Ogre to manage my mom and our electricity accounts. The time and money I've saved is well worth the $10 a month I pay for the service.

[fndmom]

Anyone have a company they recommend that works with solar panels? Would love to make sure we are getting the full benefit of what we send back to the grid. Our contact is up with the current company but don't know if there's a better option.

[TheOverdog]

I have Gexa and they are offering a renewal in the .18c per KWH range too. Their rates have been fine in the past, but that is almost double. So Bye.


Yours is close enough to 2000kwh that it should be your base plan.

Mine is like 900-1500, with a high of 2500 so it's a bit tougher to choose.

[NorrinRadd]

Color me baffled as well, we didn't have to do provider vetting in the state we moved from, or the one before that, and our contract is up.

Even with the powertochoose site it's hard to tell if it's worth staying with our current Green Mountain, or consider TXU, or other.

Any suggestions from anyone who has used either of these?

From May last year our average usage was under 500kwh and we never broke 1000kwh. It's a 2BR apartment, we keep the thermostat around 76-78 in the summer and 74 in the winter, and lower when sleeping.

Thanks for any additional insight above what I've already read in this forum on the subject so far.

[apple44]

Originally Posted by NorrinRadd

Color me baffled as well, we didn't have to do provider vetting in the state we moved from, or the one before that, and our contract is up.

Even with the powertochoose site it's hard to tell if it's worth staying with our current Green Mountain, or consider TXU, or other.

Any suggestions from anyone who has used either of these?

From May last year our average usage was under 500kwh and we never broke 1000kwh. It's a 2BR apartment, we keep the thermostat around 76-78 in the summer and 74 in the winter, and lower when sleeping.

Thanks for any additional insight above what I've already read in this forum on the subject so far.

This is really hard to say. You will need to find a company that you think would lower your bill, call them and confirm. You may need to repeat this step a few times (call up a few companies). There are just so many different kinds of plan, fixed rate, variable rate, fixed with a minimum payment and then anything in excess will be variable; and then there's the contract term, from 3 months to 5 years, with associated cancellation fees. Nobody can just tell you what to pick.

Once you think you have a plan you are considering switching to, call your current company Green Mountian, tell them you want to cancel, see if they'll give you something you like and find out any cancellation fee if you do cancel. Then compare the costs and benefits and then make a decision.

[NorrinRadd]

Originally Posted by apple44

This is really hard to say. You will need to find a company that you think would lower your bill, call them and confirm. You may need to repeat this step a few times (call up a few companies). There are just so many different kinds of plan, fixed rate, variable rate, fixed with a minimum payment and then anything in excess will be variable; and then there's the contract term, from 3 months to 5 years, with associated cancellation fees. Nobody can just tell you what to pick.

Once you think you have a plan you are considering switching to, call your current company Green Mountian, tell them you want to cancel, see if they'll give you something you like and find out any cancellation fee if you do cancel. Then compare the costs and benefits and then make a decision.

Thanks for your reply.
I've called a couple other companies, and also savonenergy, thinking they were the same as powertochose and that they would just provide information.

I was surprised that saveonenergy gave me the same kind of sales pressure to chose a plan with them before the end of the call as did TXU and Green Mountain. The difference being savonenergy deals with multiple companies vs. one. Included in that pressure was to chose a lower-rated company, which when asked was given an answer that caused me to mistrust them more. They also would not provide any information unless providing a DOB.

These companies seem like training grounds for future car salespeople, and running on similar scripts.

With the weather heating up I may have missed a cheaper window by a week or two.

[koolace]

A website that I always use to compare power prices is energybot. I like that I can put my info in and it will show my actual usage to compare with the power companies listed. It then tells me roughly how much my bill would be with the taxes, fees, etc for each company.