Horrible Electricity Rates in Texas - Deregulation raised prices? (Austin: month-to-month, home)

[tstone]

Interesting map. So essentially, the most populated and most remote states are the most expensive for electricity. Economics 101 in practice.

[brently54]

Is there any group in Texas that is fighting for the consumer to find solutions for cheaper energy prices? Or bring back regulation?

If not, let's start one.
I will be a lobbyist for the group, you guys just need to donate some cash so I can bribe the corrupt officials.

[j96g]

Originally Posted by brently54

Is there any group in Texas that is fighting for the consumer to find solutions for cheaper energy prices? Or bring back regulation?

If not, let's start one.
I will be a lobbyist for the group, you guys just need to donate some cash so I can bribe the corrupt officials.

okay! the way i see it, I already gave 2¢ and I will be able to come up with the rest in winter time

[brently54]

Originally Posted by j96g

okay! the way i see it, I already gave 2¢ and I will be able to come up with the rest in winter time

I am pretty serious about the idea. I plan on entering politics at some point, so why not now? 2 ¢ will go towards the first letter(with a cool logo) we send to an official.

[j96g]

I'm so upset! I called to renew my fixed 12¢ kwh plan and First Choice offered me a 21¢ kwh rate! They said that was the lowest, i checked powertochoose and found about 14-15¢ with another company i don't know well, should i make the move or is there a way to convince my current company to go down to at least 14¢?

[wbmnstr]

Originally Posted by j96g

I'm so upset! I called to renew my fixed 12¢ kwh plan and First Choice offered me a 21¢ kwh rate! They said that was the lowest, i checked powertochoose and found about 14-15¢ with another company i don't know well, should i make the move or is there a way to convince my current company to go down to at least 14¢?

Switch. This is the game they are making us play, and if more people would switch to the low-cost provider deregulation might actually work. I have switched 4 times since powertochoose.org started, most recently today (went from SimplePower to StarTex after SP's 'teaser' rate of 11c went to 19.7, nearly doubling my bill--lesson learned to avoid variable rates).

[bluescreen73]

Thankfully I live in an area that doesn't compete because my cost is $0.07854/kWh.

Texas State Legislators REALLY screwed up by allowing TXU to maintain their vertical monopoly in the generation, distribution, and sales of electricity. That's a HUGE reason why electric prices are so high in TX. As a result, TXU's "price-to-beat" is the standard bearer for all the other small utlities to follow.

TXU is a slimy company. After natural gas prices spiked because of Hurricane Katrina they lobbied the PUC for, and received, an emergency rate increase. The natural gas price spike was short-lived and within weeks of Katrina, natural gas had returned to pre-Katrina levels. Did TXU correspondingly lower their rates? Nope. When public uproar followed the company's billion dollar plus profit because of inflated rates, TXU had the audacity to blame their customers for overpaying.

The coal-fired power plants TXU wanted to build were just a ruse designed to increase the company's market value before KK&R took them private.

In addition, to seem less like a monopoly, TXU changed the names of TXU Electric Delivery to Oncor, and their generation arm became Luminant.

[Macbeth2003]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

T
Texas State Legislators REALLY screwed up by allowing TXU to maintain their vertical monopoly in the generation, distribution, and sales of electricity.

This is why despite being a small government guy, I feel deregulated electricity doesn't work. There is only one set of wires into your house. There should be One municipal provider, and the provider should do the shopping around to companies generating the power, getting the best rates they can, and delivering the electricity to you. We don't have "competitive" sewer service, where you pick which company will handle cleaning the sewage, contract with them shop for the best sewage rates, etc. That wold make no less sense than "competitive" electric.

[Synopsis]

Our electric bill runs about $140/month for a 2000 square foot house. I don't know what we are doing right, but for some reason our bills are never very high. And we're still with TXU.

[j96g]

How much do you pay per kwh? Do you use the air con frequently what is it set at? Do you have dishwasher, washer, dryer, TV, computer?