|
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
12-27-2010, 04:39 PM | #1 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 47982
Join Date: Nov 2003
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
|
Who's gone to an "alternate provider" for electricity/nat gas? (spec: PECO/Exelon)
Seeing how well deregulation worked in the telecomm industry (sarcasm) who's done it and was it easy ? worthwhile ? Pitfalls to avoid ?
What I fail to understand is how if Company B is using all of Company A's product, infrastructure and overhead, how they they legitimately claim to offer the service for less. Something something sounds too good to be something something. There is no free lunch, and I'm curious to hear peoples experiences.
* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.
Last edited by Wagon Of Fury; 01-27-2011 at 09:01 AM. |
12-27-2010, 06:27 PM | #2 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 47982
Join Date: Nov 2003
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
|
Two hour pity bump, now with moar clarity in thread title
|
01-27-2011, 09:02 AM | #3 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 47982
Join Date: Nov 2003
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
|
one month pity bump, I can't believe nobody has tried this. Seems like the savings aren't HUGE but maybe $10-$15/month
|
01-27-2011, 09:10 AM | #4 |
*** Banned ***
Member#: 15571
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Not where you think
Vehicle:2006 06 Forester XT Silver |
I keep getting letters about an alternative energy company. PECO still handles pretty much every aspect of my service and bill, but I pay less? Seems like there's a catch that I don't know about.
|
01-27-2011, 09:10 AM | #5 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 155207
Join Date: Jul 2007
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
Location: Bad things happen in Philly
Vehicle:2020 MDX 2022 Odyssey |
i switched to con edison. it won't go into effect until my 2/21/11 bill. you are still billed through peco, you still call peco if you have a power outage, etc. basically, the only thing that is changing is the source of the electricity. it was pretty simple. i signed up online, got a confirmation letter from con edison and one from peco as well.
i am also going to start looking into a new gas supplier/provider as well. same concept as the electricity. |
01-27-2011, 09:19 AM | #6 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 94028
Join Date: Aug 2005
Chapter/Region:
MAIC
Location: Hagerstown, MD
Vehicle:2002 Porsche 911 Silver |
They have cheaper prices because they can buy the gas cheaper from another supplier. They have to pay the orginal provider a fee for delivery, but it's not that much.
I tried it a few years ago. The process is simple, just sign up for another provider and they bill you like normal. Nothing changes on your end except the price. I got a bit screwed though. I signed up for a fixed price for like a year. It was cheaper at the time and it was summer so it was expected that prices would increase significantly come winter. But the ecomony collapsed and prices went down a lot. I was still stuck at the same price which was now higher than what the original provider now charged. I called the new provider and they were willing to change my price to the current one, so it wasn't a big deal in the end. You can definitely save money if you compare what's available. Only other advise is check the prices again in a few months, especially if you got a fixed price. Depending what you agree to you can switch again or negotiate with the one you have. Overall, there is no good reason not to shop around and save a few bucks. |
01-27-2011, 09:36 AM | #7 | |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 128109
Join Date: Oct 2006
Chapter/Region:
MAIC
Location: Pittsburgh
Vehicle:2011 E82 135i Alpine White |
Quote:
The price at which power is sold is heavily dependant on the price of natural gas. Right now there is a large available supply and recent drops in demand (people are using less energy) has resulted in power prices that are very low by historical standards. Low prices = competitive markets = happy consumers. <- Works in the deregulated energy industry and has spent plenty of time at PECO and Exelon. Last edited by Thaddy; 01-27-2011 at 09:43 AM. |
|
01-27-2011, 10:05 AM | #8 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 46320
Join Date: Oct 2003
Chapter/Region:
TXIC
Location: Outoftheblue&intotheblack
Vehicle:06 WRX Sportwagon Aspen White |
We have several electricity providers available to many of us in Texas.
it hasn't worked as well as promoted but, I have used 3 different providers. www.powertochoose.org |
01-27-2011, 10:28 AM | #9 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 133439
Join Date: Nov 2006
Chapter/Region:
MAIC
Location: An actual house! With rooms!
Vehicle:2003 WRX Sonic Yellow - Stage Taxi |
PECO is the effective monopoly on the area, I have no idea how switching to an other provider will do anything for me when it's the ludicrous amounts of fees PECO charges me which drive the bill up. They probably even have a fee for avoiding fees.
|
02-02-2011, 01:09 PM | #10 | |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 47982
Join Date: Nov 2003
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
|
Quote:
So I've dug into this a little moar, for our residential usage of ~700kWH, savings with the one alternate provider will allegedly be maybe $7/month. Some providers offer a fixed lower rate , but hit you with a cancellation fee, others have no cancellation fee, but the rate could theoretically float up and beyond the PECO rate. So yet another thing to monitor...grrr. Also learned this interesting tidbit: PECO has higher rates June-August (peak AC time) .... |
|
02-02-2011, 01:20 PM | #11 |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 109742
Join Date: Mar 2006
Chapter/Region:
MAIC
Location: PHL
Vehicle:2002 WRX MBP |
I have yet to pull the trigger on this either. I keep hearing the media say I am an idiot if I don't switch to a cheaper supplier, but as mentioned, a lot of these other suppliers have their own fees and charges and variable rates that I imagine will quickly remove the "savings" from my pocket.
My thinking for now is, eat the supposed ~$10 I could be saving each month, and wait until things shake out a bit more as to who is the good alternative supplier and who sucks. |
02-02-2011, 02:25 PM | #12 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 86825
Join Date: May 2005
Chapter/Region:
Tri-State
Location: NJ
Vehicle:2015 CRV 2011 Sierra, 1991 MR2 |
Im with ^.
I get bombarded by "friends" on fb or where ever asking me to switch to so and so company and ill save all this money. Just seems to good to be true. My house is all electric and perhaps I could save a good chunk of money but ill wait and see how things shake out. |
02-02-2011, 04:27 PM | #13 | |
Scooby Newbie
Member#: 176730
Join Date: Apr 2008
Chapter/Region:
TXIC
Location: The Land of Sugar
|
I know from personal experience in the industry that the alternative providers are significantly cheaper. Most of the people I talked to in Houston (in 2009 when I still worked at an energy brokerage) that were still with Reliant were paying $0.14-$0.16 per kWh, and it was a variable rate that Reliant set every month however they felt. Reliant was the monopoly in Houston prior to deregulation. Meanwhile, most of the other REPs offered fixed rate 6mo or 12mo contracts for $0.07-$0.08 per kWh.
While we are on the subject though, today SUCKS. Because winters here are generally mild, demand usually falls significantly below production capacity so we sell a **** ton of power to all of you people in other states. Well, this bitch of a cold front that blew through spiked demand, but we already sold off the output in the futures market a long time ago. As a result, Gov. Perry and ERCOT have imposed rolling blackouts all across Texas. Texas imposes rolling blackouts as mercury drops Quote:
yyaaaayyyy. |
|
02-02-2011, 04:39 PM | #14 | |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 128109
Join Date: Oct 2006
Chapter/Region:
MAIC
Location: Pittsburgh
Vehicle:2011 E82 135i Alpine White |
Quote:
By the way, I'm not sure how Texas can sell power to other states when the ERCOT border is a DC-tie, essentially an electric island. Plus, no matter what longer term contracts say, in the real time market the ERCOT operators can always call up any unit to run for reliability purposes. It'll cost a lot, but they have that option in areas of high congestion. It's only possible for dual-grid generation plants that sit on that physical border of ERCOT and SPP/Entergy/SERC and have the ability to flip a switch to choose where to direct their output. |
|
02-02-2011, 11:43 PM | #15 |
Scooby Specialist
Member#: 46320
Join Date: Oct 2003
Chapter/Region:
TXIC
Location: Outoftheblue&intotheblack
Vehicle:06 WRX Sportwagon Aspen White |
evidently we had some coal and gas fired units experience problems with the extreme cold. pipelines or regulators messed up by ice w'ever.
That and extremely high demand had them buying power at 40X the average rate. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
who's gone from no avcs to avcs? | domestic_abuser | Subaru Conversions | 16 | 07-18-2007 12:36 AM |
My Army battles, who's gone Airborne? | Habu | Off-Topic | 46 | 04-15-2007 04:07 AM |
Who's Gone/Going Out w/a Girl w/a BAD ATTITUDE?? | clsmooth71 | Off-Topic | 32 | 07-26-2005 03:28 PM |
who's gone form unichip to utec with same mods | kwrx | Factory 2.0L Turbo Powertrain (EJ Series Factory 2.0L Turbo) | 2 | 06-01-2003 11:21 PM |
Who's gone from unichip to utec and kept same mods? | ezatnova | Engine Management & Tuning | 0 | 02-05-2003 06:14 PM |