So power in Pennsylvania has been deregulated, huzzah! There appears to be more than a few duped souls who switched to “variable” rates. How, I don’t know, since it’s fairly clearly spelled out on this website, http://www.papowerswitch.com that only a moron would get a variable rate.
Have you switched power providers, are you in love with the change? What questions does one need to ask before switching and what companies should you stay the hell away from?
For the lazy, the 4 companies that offer the best savings/rates are TriEagle Energy, Reliant Energy, Palmco Power PA and First Energy. They all offer substantial savings but they all make you sign a contract as well as make you pay a cancellation fee if you don’t like them.
The only one that offers a fixed rate AND no cancellation fee is Dominion Energy, which is one of the big gas provider here. I know they won’t screw up because they’re well established here but if my bill is guesstimated at $70/month now (with Duquesne Light, the malignant assholes) with TriEagle I’d pay $54 and with Dominion I’d pay $60, so clearly there’s a difference there.
I recently switched from Duquesne Light to First Energy’s friends and family rate. It was cheaper than any other option I saw and I’ve already saved more than the cancellation fee. (Replacing the 30 year old fridge the same month the change kicked in didn’t hurt. My bill was half what it was before.) And unless we all get personal perpetual motion devices in the next two years, I don’t see myself wanting to get out of the contract anyway.
Not really much more to say about it. Find a cheap supplier, fill out a form, wait a month or two, pay less for electricity.
Well, there kinda is a lot to say about it considering that many of the suppliers have poor reviews in their home state. For example, TriEagle doesn’t have great ratings but I have no idea if that’s just as a provider or a supplier; Duquesne Light is still the transmitter regardless, so problems w/ lines and outtages go thru them.
Should there be few responses I’ll go with First Energy since they’re established in the region.
Why would you not go with a variable rate for power? If you can withstand the short term volatility, over the long period you will pay less for power under variable contract than a fixed one. The power company has experts for setting the fixed rates…they will not lose money on them. With the abundance of natural gas in the U.S. for the foreseeable future, power prices should continue to remain low. I would choose the variable rate, if I had the option in my jurisdiction.
The propaganda put out by the power companies attempt to scare you into the fixed rate contract…it apparently worked on the OP.
Actually the variable rates aren’t that great; I read a few irate newspaper columnists across PA who were upset their rates got jacked up so up. Rather not mess with it since…whatever I switch to, I come out winning seeing as I"ll be saving at least 15% a month but as much as 28%.
I just mean from a customer’s perspective, that’s all there is to it. As far as I know, you never interact with the supplier except for rate issues (generally at the end of your contract). Duquesne Light still services the lines, deals with power outages, and reads the meter. The only difference customers notice is a bill that looks a little different and asks you to pay less money. It won’t affect your service at all. There just isn’t a large universe of complaints one could have against a supplier (didn’t realize variable rates would rise as high as they did, provider went bankrupt, provider’s CEO kills puppies, etc.).
I wouldn’t sign up for a variable rate because I don’t believe electricity rates are going anywhere but up in the medium term. And given that who supplies your electricity doesn’t impact your life beyond your bill, I don’t see any reason not to sign up with the cheapest fixed rate provider (unless you care about the providers that promise your electricity will come from renewable sources).
Our experience is with switching natural gas providers, but the basics are the same.
We went with our electric company. So right away we get one bill instead of two. It’s also a member co-op so their rates are low for both. The state publishes monthly rate summaries and ours is always the lowest or very nearly so. (And the other cheap ones are here-today-gone-tomorrow type companies.)
If one of your options is a co-op, there’s a good chance they are going to be the best bet in the long term.
We have the option for one year rate lock in or a variable price. We lock in each year in the summer when the rates are lowest for natural gas. The fixed vs. variable rates at that time of year favor variable a bit, but then when winter hits, it’s always a big win for our existing locked in rate. There might be a best time of year for electricity as well. Figure out when it is and lock in. (Doing variable until then.)
Here in New York, the only change I noticed is getting tons of calls from moron telemarketers trying to sell you on their services. It never seems to me that my ultimate bill gets lower, because Con Ed always tacks on some sort of “adjustment” which, when I ask them about it, seems to be the amount that they need to pay to get the electricity above what I had expressed a willingness to pay my provider. Which I thought was the whole supposed point of deregulation.
I’ve grown extremely cynical about the whole thing (or haven’t you noticed). None of these guys is really running a power plant. They’re just buying blocks of it wholesale and re-selling it to us for supposedly less than Con Ed was making us pay before deregulation, but then Con Ed ultimately is the buyer and our bills get “adjusted.”
We moved to a place completely off grid. How’s THAT for a power switch! We’ve got solar, with a propane generator back up, and a small, supplemental wind turbine. There’s about $35-$40,000 investment so far. We’re in NE AZ, so the sun and wind are plentiful. I give a rousing cheer for the protons on days when I need to do laundry, LOL.
When I think of the HUMONGOUS electric bills I’ve paid to Edison over the years, I love my solar get-up even more and would never want to be a slave to the grid again. Should I even have to move back to the Land of Many Stores, I’d certainly invest in solar and run my meter backwards!
~VOW