Texas Business Electricity Rates Are Expected to Rise

by chooseen on 01/24/2012

With the supply and reserve running close to being short in Texas in the next couple of years, business electricity rates are expected to be on the rise for the next couple of years.  The cost of natural gas is also increasing, so that will also affect the electric rates in Texas. One electric retailer recently estimated that prices would rise 10 percent in both of the years 2012 and 2013. Even though business electric suppliers offer fixed contract rates, most only offer lock-in rates for multiple years. This past year, especially the summer, was already tight on the power reserve as demand was higher than they had anticipated.

With that information known, it is easier to see why rates are going to increase. The demand is becoming higher than the supply and it is decreasing the reserve that Texas has established. In August, the reserve margin went from 17.5 percent to just below 4 percent. That is a huge decrease. In addition, power generation plants are closing but not as many new ones are currently scheduled to open anytime soon – That decreases supply even more.

Texans have been spoiled with their lower business electricity rates for the past few years, so it will be a shock to them when the rates rise over the next few years. Even though having the power to choose lower rates will certainly help significantly, it is going to take less demand and more supply to start lowering those prices once again.   Market participants are working and looking for ways to help with the power supply. One way they are exploring is to ask big companies who consume a lot of electricity to switch to back-up power on critical days as well as periods that they aren’t using much power. Also, they are exploring another way by seeing if big companies would consider taking lower rates if they could cut back on their power during times of shortage.  It has also been mentioned that there should be a modification to the Texan Senate Bill 7, or the deregulation law, to allow for certain capacity payments. A capacity payment would be made to generators who keep their power at a specified spare capacity in case of emergencies.

There are two pieces of good news in all of this; first, the fact that supply may run out is known far enough in advance where solutions can be put in place to prevent it from happening and second, the prices have not increased yet. Demand may be increasing but with an ever changing industry, demand can still fluctuate and is never certain. More people are turning to renewable energy which may continue to grow and lessen the demand for generated traditional electricity. There are options that ERCOT is exploring to help solve the supply and capacity issue for the future by adding large transmission lines from wind power farms in west Texas. For now, Texans still have the power to choose their business energy supplier and they can get lower prices by using the business electricity services of ChooseEnergy.com. Suppliers offer the option to lock-in the business energy price for multiple years, which is certainly what we would recommend with this uncertain price future.

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Choose Energy Introduces Electricity Price Index Tool So Consumers Can Compare Contract Terms To Save Money.

by chooseen on 01/09/2012

By using a tool developed by ChooseEnergy.com, Texas residential electricity customers can better compare and decide what contract term is the best deal for them.

It’s always a great idea for residential electricity customers to do some careful comparison shopping when choosing a residential electric provider for their home. Additionally, in today’s deregulated market, consumers need to educate themselves about the length of the contract term they’re signing up for when changing providers, or re-upping with their current one. It’s definitely advantageous to keep an eye on which contract terms are trending downward; by doing so, one can make sure they’re maximizing their electricity bill savings by locking into a contract at precisely the right time.

ChooseEnergy.com has come up with the Texas Residential Electricity Price Index Tool – an excellent tool which allows anyone to easily observe the varying trends in electricity contract terms based upon a range from one month all the way up to 24 months. Calculations are based upon 1,000 kWh per month. The rate data in the graph is collected from providers in the Choose Energy system on a daily basis and updated and published weekly here:

http://www.ChooseEnergy.com/PriceIndexCharts/price-index-chart.aspx

Texas Electricity Price Index Tool

This innovative tool provides a clearly defined, easy-to-follow means of watching trends, enabling the consumer to sign up in a timely manner for the best contract term, in order to keep energy bills as manageable as possible. Choose Energy helps and encourages consumers to put in the necessary due diligence and research to evaluate all information available in the Texas electricity market before making an energy buying choice on a provider, plan or term. This tool helps to greatly simplify the process.

“One of our goals at Choose Energy is to continually innovate through technology to help consumers make informed and confident choices when they sign up with a retail electric provider. We designed this graphing tool to help provide our customers a means to stay currently updated about trends in the electricity market.” - Jerry Dyess, President and CEO of http://www.ChooseEnergy.com

The user-friendly pricing tool allows the user to specify their own particular region in order to obtain more pertinent, topical data simply by clicking on the geographic area/city on the buttons just below the graph. The Texas Residential Electricity Price Index developed by Choose Energy is an average rate based on prices in the Choose Energy system for select terms.

Choose Energy welcomes newspapers, website, magazines and other news & Texas consumer-oriented sources to place this informative, regularly updated tool on their own website for their readers’ convenience and reference. Simply contact Choose Energy via email at support@ChooseEnergy.com to learn more.

About Choose Energy

Choose Energy empowers consumers and small business owners with the tools and information they need to research and compare leading national and local energy companies. Powered by proprietary technology, ChooseEnergy.com gives consumers the ability to do a side-by-side comparison of plans, pricing and terms so they can make an informed decision for their electric service. Choose Energy’s portfolio of brands includes: ChooseEnergy.com, TexasPowerCompany.com, PowerToChooseGreen.com, ElectricityTX.com and others. For general information on Choose Energy, please go to http://www.ChooseEnergy.com.

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Get Energy Fit in 2012 With These Efficiency Tips for Businesses

by chooseen on 12/30/2011

Even if there are different business electric suppliers to provide your business with lower energy prices, there are ways to save additional money by using energy efficiently. This post will provide tips and tricks for using energy efficiency in your business in lighting, heating and cooling, temperature, office equipment, etc. to help you further lower your energy costs in 2012.

Prices for energy are all over the place depending on which state you are in and which energy supplier you use. But there are ways that you can save money on your energy by using energy efficiently. Here are some tips and tricks for using energy efficiently in your business.

Lighting:

  • Turn off the lights when you leave the room or at night when there is no one working.
  • Replace old fluorescent lighting with energy efficient light bulbs.
  • Use the daylight as much as possible, as this will save the energy from being used.
  • Use motion-sensor lights in big rooms, such as conference rooms to turn lights off when there is no occupancy.

Heating and Cooling:

  • Determine a heating and cooling system for when you and others are in the building and when they are not. For example, have it set to 78 degrees during the day when people are in the building and then 83 to 85 degrees at night when there is no one in the building.
  • Set up a maintenance chart to ensure that things are being checked on a regular basis. For example, replace the air filters on a monthly basis or replace old or defective equipment.

Temperature Controls:

  • Have certain temperatures for both the summer and winter. Adjust the temperature depending on the season and depending on whether people are in the building or not.
  • During the summer, if you set your temperature up at least 1 degree, it will save 2-3% on the bill.

Office Equipment

  • In order to save energy, turn off office equipment when it’s not being used. This includes monitors, computers, printers, etc.
  • Use screen savers on computers and laptops as this will save energy on the office equipment.

With the rising cost of energy projected in 2012-2013, there are ways to save money. There are plenty of tips and tricks to practice energy efficiency. These include saving on lighting, heating and cooling, temperature controls and office equipment.

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Texas Electric Generation – Capacity Could Get Tight by 2014

by chooseen on 12/29/2011

There is growing concern that the electricity generating capacity in the state of Texas could be tight by the year 2014. This concern is from a study done by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) which was performed in 2009. This annual report, which details electrical generation demand and capacity, shows that the capacity cushion that Texas has now could fall below the projected resources target for 2014 and 2015.

ERCOT predicted that usage of Texas electricity during the peak time, or summer, was going to be 70,837 megawatts in 2014 and by 2015 it was going to grow to 72,172 megawatts. The issue is that there is only 64,940 megawatts of installed capacity currently and even if the additional 5,343 megawatts from private use networks and the 776 megawatts from wind generation are added to the capacity, that’s a total of 71,058 megawatts. That is very tight for the year 2014 and not enough capacity to meet needs in 2015.

ERCOT does try to keep a 12.5 percent reserve margin for reliability, in case a few plants are not working all at the same time. Unfortunately that reserve will fall to 12.3 in 2014, and then it will get even smaller in 2015 and be about 10.2 percent.

Texas is one of the states that are deregulated when it comes to energy and power. Because of that, there can be no rule from the regulators to construct more Texas power plants. Then any developer, who decides to build a power plant, must build it himself and hope that that there is enough growth and demand for the power in order to keep their plant profitable.

There are some power plants that are in the process of being built but they could not be included in the report because there are no proper agreements or they are not interconnected properly to the grid yet. These power plans could provide up to 30,000 megawatts of capacity over the next several years. There is another potential of 3,000 megawatts of capacity that is not included in the reports because the power plants are down but could possibly come back into service.

The reserve numbers are moving targets because of these power plants being built but not completed or missing approvals. Therefore it’s hard to estimate how much reserve will be there in the next several years.

ERCOT estimates that the power consumption of Texans will rise by 2 percent over the next several years. But there is not enough reserve or capacity to meet the demand by 2015 unless something changes now. In 2014, it is going to be tight depending on whether any of the current power plant projects finish being built. With the deregulation of the power and energy industry, there cannot be regulators demanding that power plants need to be built, so now it is up to individual companies to try and fill in the gaps.

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Fall is a Great Time for Texans to Shop for a Lower Electric Rate

by chooseen on 11/14/2011

Having had one of the hottest summers of record, many Texans are still feeling the effects from their high electric bills.  Well, there are many things you can do to lower your electric bill, and one of them has to do with timing.  Did you realize there was a good season for shopping for a lower electric rate? Fall is a great time for Texans to shop around for electricity. In the hot state of Texas in the summer, air conditioning is used quite often and that means higher electric costs.

The biggest factor in Texas electricity market prices – is the price of natural gas.  When power generating plants are going at full steam in the summer  - many are powered by natural gas.  This makes the price of natural gas much higher thus causing higher electric rates.  But going into the fall season (called shoulder months), the air conditioning isn’t being used as much reducing the demand for power generation, thus lowering the price of natural gas.  This is turn makes it a good time to re-evaluate your current plan and see if there is something cheaper out there.

Another reason would be that many experts believe Texas electric rates will rise in near future.  Just take a look at this column by Jim Fuquay of the Fort Worth Star Telegram -

Texas electric rates expected to climb over next two years
“Just tell them to lock in prices” for one or two years, consultant Brandon Schwertner of Sumer Capital told his audience of electricity retailers and brokers at the Texas Electricity Professionals Association’s annual conference in Dallas. …
www.star-telegram.com

When you do negotiate a new contract for your business or order service for your home, you should try and lock it in for 12, 24, or even 36 months (but no longer than 36 months) so you can renegotiate it during the fall season again. As mentioned, electricity prices have been known to follow gas costs and natural gas costs tend to be lower during the fall season (which is also called a shoulder month while the higher cost months are called head months). Therefore, fall is the best time to shop for a lower electric rate.   The best place to comparison shop, no matter what season, is Choose Energy for your Texas energy needs.

Other than lowering your electric rate, there are certainly many other ways to lower your electric bill in the winter months.  Some cities are taking control and helping out their local consumers – one of them being San Angelo, Texas.

Power providers discussed
SAN ANGELO, Texas — When it comes to choosing an electricity provider, San Angelo residents stick with what they know. At a town hall meeting Wednesday, Rep. Drew Darby said that several years ago when the state looked at which counties were most …
www.gosanangelo.com

Start lowering your next summer’s electric bill today by switching to a lower cost electric plan and making some energy efficient changes to your home or business.  As many Texans can account from the high summer heat and resulting electric bills – it’s never too early to plan and make the right choice for your home or business electricity needs.

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Illinois Electricity Deregulation Leads to Job Creation

November 9, 2011

There has been a lot of talk about Illinois electricity and business electricity rates. Some business owneres are simply unaware that deregulation should work for them. While some consider having a monopoly market for electricity is good, others are of the opinion that this would be devastating and that Illinois electric choice is the right direction for the economy. [...]

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Illinois Residents Starting to See Lower Electric Bills Due to Competition

November 4, 2011

Have you noticed that your electric bill has decreased in the last few months? Not because you’ve started savingelectricity but because your rate was lowered. Illinois energy users are starting to see lower electric bills due to competition in the energy market. There has been increased competition within the energy market due to the government deregulating this market and [...]

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Fall is a Great Time to Shop for a Lower Electric Rate

November 1, 2011

Summer brings in heat and the increase demand for electricity. So it’s never a surprise when your electricity bills go up. This is definitely not a best time to shop or lock in on electric rates. When is the best time for this? During fall, the temperatures usually have adjusted from the 100s to the [...]

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Start to Save Money by Getting a Home Energy Audit

October 27, 2011

One of the best ways to reduce home energy consumption is to get a home energy audit. Although most people don’t know it, up to 50% of the energy cost of their home comes from their heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system. This means that an upgrade to your system can be a real [...]

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Recent News About Texas Electricity

October 22, 2011

Recent News About Texas Electricity – There are many different news reports about Texas electricity out there including some that are not that great, like some of the problems stemming from recent weather that is affecting many people. There have been some outages in the wake of severe weather conditions, as workers scrambled to repair transmission lines, but there has also been much good news.

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