Choosing Utility Company....what a headache!

[ToyYot]

And then when your contract is up the provider will try to roll you onto a new contract with higher rates than what they offer a new customer. Powertochoose will list their rates for new customers but if you call up and ask for a similar rate you'll get it or something close. So, in reality, you may not need to change your provider every year anyway.

[War Beagle]

Originally Posted by predatorprey

The electric companies are essentially billing companies and all electric power in Houston area comes from Center-point. Therefore it doesn't matter who you have.

Sort by price, duration of contract, and compare base fees. Simple.

This is correct.

I'll preface this by saying that I am a huge free market, libertarian leaning guy. That disclaimer out of the way, "deregulated" electricity is an ideological scam on the part of politicians to trick people into thinking they have more choice than they do. Electrical generation and transmission are not deregulated. It's only on the retail end, which is the least important part as far as having electricity goes, where there is any choice. Next time there is a storm like Ike, call Reliant or TXU about getting your power back on and see how much good that does.

We should try to have as free a market as we can whenever possible. But in situations where it is only feasible for there to be one provider due to extensive infrastructure requirements, deregulation doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[nervouslaughter]

You have to look beyond the sorting and lowest prices. A lot of those lower price companies have horrible service and reputations and jack up their price after a short term. I just went through this and googled the companies on the low end, then researched my way on up based on price. I ended up going with Source Power & Gas. Locked in for two years, esp since rates are predicted to go up overall.

Plan Name: Source Secure Fixed 24
Average Price: 9.5¢/kWh
Term: 24
Energy Charge: 5.455¢/kWh
Monthly Fee: Less than 1000 kWh $9.95/month and more than 1000 kWh $0/month
TDSP Charges: $9.54/month 3.5401¢/kWh
Early Term Fee: $250

[piyf]

Wait, you're going to be paying 9.54/month plus an extra .035401 per kWh?

[DSL_PWR]

Reliant, balanced billing, no base charge, resign a 24 month contract every time.

bill is the same every month no matter what.

No headaches...

[Dopo]

Can somebody seriously explain the benefit of having "competition" with these electrical companies?

[jtothemak]

One thing to consider is price is based on a certain amount of energy. IE some companies charge a high base fee but a low per KW. Well if you live in an apartment or small home you will never use that much energy so having the high base fee makes it actually more expensive. I switched to TXU free nights a while back. My bill stayed the same from Reliant and probably did not save me much but during the summer I can enjoy sleeping at night with the Thermostat at 70 degrees instead of 78.

[Chicken_of_Bristol]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Can somebody seriously explain the benefit of having "competition" with these electrical companies?

No because there is no benefit, unless you are one of the new electric companies that sprung up to meet this new "market." The whole thing was and continues to be a scam to benefit a new "industry" with basically zero benefit for the consumer.