by Texas Electric on August 10, 2010
Whether you are rent, own your own home, or even have a business, you need to check your Texas electricity bill and make sure that you are getting the lowest rates. If you are presently locked into some kind of contract, not to worry, your contract may be soon expiring. No longer are you going to be locked into variable rates, ones that fluctuate whenever the service provider feels like it, or a company that is still using out dated ways of creating electricity.
While you are waiting for your contract to expire, you really need to take control of the situation. There are many different alternatives to your current Texas electricity service provider. Whether you want to change over to prepaid electricity services, where you pay a flat rate, depending on how large your needs are. This means that you pay one price for your monthly utilities, with rates of around 10-15 cents per kilo watt hour. This is a locked in rate, no matter what time of year it is, these rates remain the same and you pay for the power up front.
Maybe you want to find a company that offers an alternative to fossil fuels to a cleaner source like wind power. There are Texas electricity service providers that use greener sources of energy, solar arrays, or wind turbine generators. These companies are just as good, but are not harming the environment, steering away from problems like those that are being experienced in the Gulf right now.
Keep you eye on when your current contract expires, and be ready to make these changes to the better. While you are waiting there are some websites that you should go to and check out closely. One of them is the Public Utilities Commission of Texas. This site can explain to you about what the new deregulation means to you, and what the new rules and regulations are. For example, in order to make sure you don’t get into some company that may not be in business too long, any company has to provide at least eight years of financial records, and show that they are making a profit of some kind.
The next thing you need to do is check out chooseenergy.com. This is an unbiased website that has a listing of the top utility services providers. Each one has already been approved, and you can easily look over what kinds of services, special rates and discounts, as well as how their power is produced. You can review these companies without making any commitments, and when you find a company that you are satisfied with, choose energy will even help you with the paperwork by providing online applications.
If you aren’t sure what kinds of services best suit your needs, choose energy can help you with that as well. In addition to this, the website offers an abundance of useful tips and information, like how you can conserve energy, cut down on your bills, as well as many others. You have a right to choose you own electric service provider, and now is the time to take a stand. You don’t have to put up with fluctuating rates, poor customer service, or any other problems you may have with your current provider.
by Texas Electric on July 30, 2010
If you live in Texas, perhaps you already know that you’re lucky to be living in an area where the electricity markets have been deregulated. Why? This gives you much more choice and much more power over the quality of service and the prices you pay for that service than folks who don’t live in deregulated markets have. You also have a choice in most cases as to whether or not you want that energy to be “green” or traditional. And now, the experts agree that indeed, Texas’ electricity deregulation is a success.
Experts have said that both “qualitatively and quantitatively,” Texas has had “an overall successful competitive power market experience,” according to Susan Tierney, who authored a study commissioned by Reliant Energy, Inc.
According to the study, retail and wholesale market alignment has been a major factor for deregulation’s success. Consumer education, and the regulatory environment in Texas in general have also affected how successful this “experiment” has been. Texas has unique structural attributes that make it right for this type of structure to flourish, because of options market rules, transparent pricing, low barriers to market access and to entry, and the number of buyers and sellers, among other attributes.
Other things that have made Texas electricity deregulation a success include the cost and diversity of suppliers and products, options and choices, market choices, and renewable energy resource options, as well.
The history: Before deregulation
It does make sense that deregulation would be a success for Texas, not least because deregulation removed the ability for what were then energy monopolies to sit on their hands and refuse to make improvements in the power infrastructure, or improvements as to efficiency or “green” energy resources. Simply, they didn’t have to, because they had no competition; consumers were helpless to do anything, and simply had to take what they were given. Because of this setup, customer service, too, was a relative nonentity in that these monopolies didn’t have to make their customers happy; they were more focused on making a profit that pleased stakeholders, and they certainly did so.
Bureaucracy ruled what utilities could do in so far as building new power plants, too. Because they had to negotiate with state regulators as to how they built those plants and how they could pass the cost on to consumers, the process was slow and often stagnated. Deregulation, has also sped this process up. In addition, green energy developments have seen new growth, in that now, they are viable options that can actually be pursued.
Some caveats
With this glowing report as presented by the study, there are nonetheless still improvements to be made. Most especially, the study found that the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) needs to improve its management during peak demand, and improve technology related to “smart meters” whereby demand and usage could be lowered without having to build new power plants.
Conclusion
Texas electricity deregulation has worked for Texans and it can work for you as well. Exercise your Power To Choose and select a Texas power company that is right for you and your electric bill.
