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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 29, 2023 19:53:50 GMT -6
UPDATE on EFL of POWERNEXT!!
I re-read its Electricity Facts Label (EFL) carefully again.
“The average price above only includes the costs for electricity generation, regulated charges from the applicable TDU for transmission and delivery charges for service to Customer’s ESI ID at an Energy Charge of 11.0¢ per kWh, and a base charge of $4.95 per billing cycle.”
It has the word “includes” of “delivery charges”. So, 11.0¢/kWh must be the flat rate. (Delivery and Energy charges)
I emailed POWERNEXT to verify it.
If it’s correct, we could sign up online with POWERNEXT.
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Post by Mary Hamm on Jan 30, 2023 10:03:29 GMT -6
Why does Power to Choose not have all plans available in my zipcode on their website? Is it better to use Power to Choose to find a new provider or sign up on my own through the individual company website? My current contract expires May 2023 but I think I would like to pay small penalty and choose another provider during the "lower price" cycle. What companies allow you to sign up but start your service months later?
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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 30, 2023 10:53:39 GMT -6
Hi Mary,
This is posting on the home page of “Power to Choose” website, “Welcome to Power to Choose, the official and unbiased electric choice website of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. This website is available to all electric providers to list their offers for free. Compare offers and choose the electric plan that’s right for you.”
It is “providers” who choose NOT to list on PTC. Not the other way.
Take a look at those not-listed plans. Their rates are higher. They are for people who don’t know about PTC.
We are having a big energy price change due to the war. The OLD “cycle” disappeared or changed dramatically.
My last check. (It could change later.) Signup now and Start later: 3 months - Frontier and Gexa Other providers are 2 months or less.
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Post by Mary Hamm on Jan 30, 2023 11:06:24 GMT -6
Thank you, Bob. Just curious what you would do: our contract expires May 2023. What length of contract would you choose? Typically I have been choosing 24 or 36 months in past.
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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 30, 2023 11:35:05 GMT -6
I chase the best rate plans. I don’t do longer-term plans (12+ months), since short-term plans have better rates. I understand it’s not for everybody.
Things change. Now I’m taking a look at 12-month plans.
At this moment of time, I am just showing what I’m doing and guessing with myself. Honestly, I cannot give any good suggestions to others.
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Post by Mary Hamm on Jan 30, 2023 11:45:08 GMT -6
Understand. I am signing up now for 12 months with PowerNext, which is 11.5 cents kw with the $4.95 oncor chg included. They will give me 60 days to start the plan. I am glad I found your site yesterday, full of good info.
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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 30, 2023 11:53:58 GMT -6
Feel free to ask questions. I'll do my best. : )
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Post by barnold7 on Jan 30, 2023 14:24:13 GMT -6
Hi Bob, So I went with Gexa Eco Choice12. Was able to sign up online to a point, but then had to call and jump through hoops to waive $350 deposit! Emailed them drivers license (to prove 65 and over), and present electric bill showing $0 balance. So it's done - and they charge a $0.15 "connection fee".
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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 30, 2023 14:38:49 GMT -6
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Post by postalpest on Jan 31, 2023 21:12:12 GMT -6
Hi, Bob. always enjoy your posts.
i have a suggestion. Would it be best to post the Total charge instead of just the delivery charge, and then we can compare much quickly from your posts.
Giving just the Provider's rate (6.9) looks really good, but then the Oncor charge of (4.2) gives us a total of 11.1..
Any reason you don't just give the final rate on all rate suggestions to make it easier to compare?
in other news, i'm looking at the 3 month switch, and then 6 month, as well..
Ranchero offers a 1 month with no cancellation fees.
Anything i'm missing in the fine print that doesn't make this logical for a month or two?
thanks...
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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 31, 2023 22:14:13 GMT -6
Hi postalpest,
Let me answer your 2nd question first here.
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The 3+6 strategy needs a 6-month plan AND 3 months to start it later.
Right now only Gexa/Frontier allows 3 months to start it later. But they do NOT have 6-month plans.
There are providers with 6-month plans. But they do NOT allow 3 months to start it later.
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Entering February, we can shrink from 3+6 to 2+6. There are providers that allow 2 months to start it later. We should be fine, if we can have plans to expire at the end of September.
BUT, currently those plans are NOT good enough for the risk and effort, my opinion. : )
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Post by Bob Liu on Jan 31, 2023 23:23:19 GMT -6
I’m quite sure what you meant by “Total charge”. I think it’s “Average Price per kWh” at “500 kWh, 1000 kWh, 2000 kWh”. For example,
Many years ago, lots of providers tried to trick consumers. They played games in the calculation and showed misleading “Average Price per kWh”. (Now, it’s much better. Yet we still can see them.)
That’s why I don’t show them here. Just basic and simple “Energy Charges”, plus exceptions if there is any. And everyone’s “Delivery Charges” are the same, shown first and once at top.
I can show “Average Price per kWh” at “500 kWh, 1000 kWh, 2000 kWh”. And I’ll give it a try.
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 1, 2023 14:17:44 GMT -6
PowerNext’s first email asked for my phone # to call me. I insisted on an email reply. Here’s its 2nd email,
“With this plan you are going to get fixed bundled rate per kWh which includes TDU Delivery Charges and does not change based on the kWh amount you used in a month and It has 4.95 monthly fee applied to each bill.”
It’s clear now that its rate includes Deliver and Energy charges.
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 5, 2023 12:15:27 GMT -6
This is why I’m choosing a 12-month plan this year. We call 3+6 a “strategy”. Providers would call it a “loophole”. : ) This year major providers like Frontier group and Just group have NOT provided 6-month plans. I guess that they might have found out about it. : )
Previous years, we used 3+6 when 6-month plans were as low as 3-month plans. This year, 6-month plans are as high as 12-month plans. So, they are NOT a good deal for the next 6 warmer (summer) months anymore.
For the other 6 cooler (winter) months, we still could get some good deals. With the uncertainty of the energy situation, it is just not worth it for my low usage family to save that couple of dollars.
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 13, 2023 15:18:41 GMT -6
Today is 2/13/2023 Monday. Frontier and Gexa now allow us to sign up ONLINE. And I checked again, they all allow 3 months starting date from now.
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 14, 2023 13:17:10 GMT -6
Today is 2/14/2023 Tuesday. Frontier and Gexa now are back to CALL to sign up again.
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Post by jonathan on Feb 14, 2023 13:58:29 GMT -6
Hi Bob, I noticed a new entrant on PTC today. BKV Energy has a 12-month plan for 10.5c (2KW), which is the best I've seen in the 6-12 month category. EFL signup.bkvenergy.com/Home/EFL?productCode=RN12000071 I'm thinking about pulling the trigger because I don't want to gamble that a super low 6-month will suddenly appear before rates climb in April. And for sure we don't want any 3-month plans that expire in mid summer. The other advantage of this plan is the cancellation fee is $20/remaining month, meaning I'm only out $20 if I see a super low offer in January 2024. FYI I'm in the exact same holding pattern as you are, as I'm on the same Varsity plan as you (signed up on the same day as you too).
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 14, 2023 15:12:35 GMT -6
Hi jonathan,
BKV has a monthly charge of $10. It's good for a family that uses more than 2,000 kWh most months of the year.
If you can wait one week, I might have something coming up. Now I’m working on it. I want to be sure before posting it. We might have a chance to go back to short-term plans again.
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Post by jonathan on Feb 14, 2023 15:40:30 GMT -6
Good point, it's best for my situation as our neighborhood is non-gas (100% electric) and we have a family of 4 always consuming.
OK thanks for the heads-up! I'll wait another week and see what you are cooking.
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 14, 2023 17:10:31 GMT -6
Hi jonathan,
Yes, all-electric will make a difference. Sorry that I did not pay much attention to that factor.
BTW, I should find out if we'd have “something" or “nothing” in a couple of days. : )
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 15, 2023 11:43:53 GMT -6
This is what it's all about.
A new provider and its plan popped up on PTC. Its sign-up online plan does not have a limit on when to start. Apparently it’s a bug in its system. This happened before at other providers with a new system.
IronHorse - Oncor 3 Month PTC
Too bad that Its online sign-up is not working. I called it and confirmed that. It allows 2 months later to start the switching, by calling. That wouldn’t work. : )
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 15, 2023 11:46:16 GMT -6
Jonathan, you know what’s best for you. Go ahead with what you plan to do.
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 16, 2023 16:25:23 GMT -6
Now 12-month plans have more competitors. Their rates lowered just a little.
3-month plans are about 1¢/kWh lower than the same time last year. Last year, they kept low until April.
I’ll keep watching and not make my move yet.
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Post by reaton on Feb 19, 2023 11:23:12 GMT -6
Hi Bob,
I got a Varsity Homerun 5 Plan with an energy charge of 5.8 ¢/kWh, average charge of 10.4 ¢/kWh and $0 cancellation fee back in January that will get me through to the first part of June. I have been tempted to jump on one of these 12 month plans, but with the warm winter the Northeast is having and the price of natural gas at a 2 year low I think prices might be going lower. Do you see it this way or am I am missing something ?
-Ronnie
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 19, 2023 13:33:07 GMT -6
Sorry, Ronnie. I don’t know.
If there’s a normal past pattern we could follow, it’s easy to predict. I call that a calculated risk taking. Right now, there’s not. I don’t want to gamble. : )
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Post by Bob Liu on Feb 25, 2023 0:47:23 GMT -6
Thanks for the report, jonathan. The thread created by a Guest has been removed. It has nothing to do with Texas electricity.
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Post by Bob Liu on Mar 2, 2023 13:04:12 GMT -6
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Post by jonathan on Mar 2, 2023 13:10:58 GMT -6
I was also considering taking the BKV plan today, but decided to wait one more day to see if anyone else is going to beat it. What is sad & frustrating is that the REPs are taking advantage of Oncor's lower delivery price by raising their Energy Charge.
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Post by NeedCheapEnergy on Mar 2, 2023 23:37:24 GMT -6
Looks like the bluebonnet 12 is by phone only? Not seeing that plan on the website. Southern Federal has a pretty good 12-mo fixed (11.3/10.5/10.1) and it looks like you can set a start date 2 months later (which is right around when my current contract ends.. very tempted to go with this. High early termination fee but doubt we'd see rates dramatically lower than that.
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Post by Bob Liu on Mar 3, 2023 1:52:42 GMT -6
NeedCheapEnergy,
Not from its website, from PTC. (It's for PTC only.) Click on the “SIGN UP” button from PTC. It will take you to its online site. I signed up online w/o problem.
(Click on it to enlarge.)
If most months use more than 2000 kWh, Southern Federal is better.
“PowerNext”, “Southern Federal”, “Value” allow 2 months.
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