What time frame should I be looking to renew? 1, 2, 3? I did 3 year terms the last 2 times because I hate doing this every year and I figured, how much lower can I get..?
Part of the bump is increased ancillary costs to make sure we don't get another blackout. That should subside in a couple of years when the resource adequacy market is stood up, but that will come with an expense of its own. The days of the energy-only market are over and we will have to pay to make sure generation reserves are around. Short answer, I don't think prices will go back down.
Personally I would choose to sign as long of a contract as possible. Natural gas prices are fairly low right now. I think it's more likely to go up in the future than go down. Plus, as you said, it's less work to sign a long contract. https://www.macrotrends.net/2478/natural-gas-prices-historical-chart
good idea. let me compare natural gas prices to when i signed the contract to see if that correlates. if so i am signing for 3 years.
I went with a 12 month contract back in August for 11.7/kwh (I use over 2k per month) I found that longer contracts actually cost more, right now on powertochoose.org, the cheapest I see for long term contracts is 13.7/kwh (over 2k). As for it being a pain, just set a reminder in your google calendar and make sure you set the alerts. OR just 'snooze' the conformation email until you're about a month out from the end of your term.
I just go by the cheapest base rate with no other fees (like 10$ if you use less than 1000) other than centerpoint's fees that everyone has to pay..which I think now is like $5 a month + 5.337 per kw I am seeing base rates around 8.8 currently, which is a jump from my currrent 5.3c I don't go by the 500, 1000, 2000 estimates.
It makes sense that a longer contract could cost more, doesn't it? They'll buy a 12 month strip to hedge your Year 1, but they face risk of increasing supply costs later in your term. So, they need an adder to cover your supply risk for the entirety of your contract. When a customer decides to offload their long-term supply risk by signing a long-term deal, the retailer is picking up that risk and should get paid for it. The good news is that the retailer is in a better position to manage supply risks and can do it more cheaply than the customer. So, maybe the rate is a little higher, but it's probably more than worth it because you don't have to face uncertainty.
i am seeing lower rates for longer terms... Plan Name Term Rate/kWh Rhythm Simply Bright 36 14.6 ¢ Rhythm Simply Bright 6 14.8 ¢ Rhythm Simply Bright 24 14.9 ¢ Rhythm Simply Bright 36 Average price per kWh includes: Energy Charge + 8.804¢ × kWh used CenterPoint Delivery Charges + $4.39 per month + 5.377¢ × kWh used
That's good. I'm not checking gas futures. There is also the dynamic that there is a customer acquisition cost that will take most of year 1 to recoup. So retailers like longer contracts for that reason.
You should pay close attention to the 500,1000 and 2000 rates because that's another way they get you.
Why? If I know the only thing I am getting charged is base + centerpoint charges...how exactly are they going to get me?
You know...that's a really good question. I can't figure out why the price they display differs based on kwh bracket usage. Hmm...maybe I got got.
Because the $4.39 is charged regardless of kwh......so obviously you get more "value" for your that 4.39 if you used 2000....vs 500. 2000 x base rate 2000 x energy delivery rate $4.39 now divide 2000 / whatever that total cost is... repeat for 500.
It's different because the Centerpoint/TDU charge has a "per kWh" component (5.377 cents/kWh) that is lower than the energy charge you pay on all 3 tiers from the looks of it (5.624 cents/kWh). So the more energy you use the lower your average rate, but the higher your total bill since you used more electricity. This is what happens when everybody gets trained to look at the average rate. I've seen situations in the past where companies discount your entire bill if you use, say, more than 2000 kWh to where it would be way more advantageous to use 2000 kWh instead of 1950 kWh because your bill would be lower since the discount kicks in at 2000 kWh. But from what you posted, I don't see a discount like that.
Just helped my mom switched providers. They had been on some cheap plan for about 3 years. The rates out there now are getting back to "looney". I did it over the phone and can't believe it took over an hour to do the switch. The last step was transferring me to somebody who wanted to sell me an undersink water filter. I was like wth? lol.
The 500/1000/2000 bracketing can be tricky. My previous plan offered a $100 "discount" if you stayed in the 1000/kwh bracket. Upon looking at my history, 2-3 times my bill was higher for 900kwh than I was for 1100 khw bill. So if you have this kind of plan, you need to watch your daily usage to ensure you get the best price. Ain't nobody got time for that. In fine print below the bracketing price, they'll list the actual cost. Just read the whole thing and make sure you understand how they apply any incentives/promotions. The plan I picked was BS after reviewing my real-world usage.
