Energy Companies

It’s not that Texas business owners don’t want to shop around for the best electric rate so they can cut costs and improve their bottom line; of course they do. But it’s a complicated, opaque world out there in the electric market. There are dozens and dozens of competing electric companies all trying to spin their plan as the best.

As thousands of Texans flee the path of Hurricane Ike, the National Weather Service issued a dire warning to people living in small houses on Galveston Island that they faced "certain death" from flooding if they remained in their homes. Storm surges are expected to reach 16 feet, with winds topping out at 130 mph. Oil production has been suspended until Ike is no longer a threat.

More and more Texans are shopping around for the cheapest electric rate and are leaving their old legacy energy provider, but a majority of Texas residents still buy electricity from the company that served them before they had a choice, passing up the savings available from competing energy suppliers. For customers still not shopping, SaveOnEnergy.com provides the simplest and easiest way to find the best electric rates out there.

Texans are seeing it across the state -- falling energy prices, which means it's a good time to shop for a new electricity rate for your home. The statewide average for regular self-serve has fallen to $3.64/gallon, with prices in Houston falling 11¢ over the week to $3.60. It's all because oil has dropped about $30 per barrel in the last month, and recently closed at under $114/barrel.

For the second straight week, falling natural gas prices are prompting Texas electric companies to lower their retail electric rates, as competition is forcing energy suppliers to match their competitors' price cuts. It continues to be a good time to buy. It's getting more difficult as energy providers have built up a backlog of customer requests.

Texans are paying the highest electricity bills they have ever paid, and the worst may be yet to come with hotter August temperatures right around the corner. Although energy prices have eased slightly, oil is still above $128 per barrel. Natural gas hit a three-month low last week, but is still hovering around $10.50 per million British thermal unit, nearly double the price last year. In other words, any relief from energy prices isn't going to come quickly.

Amid high fuel prices, the British Prime Minister wants energy companies to pay an additional £500 million through purchase of carbon permits. The permits, which would probably come in £100 million per year for 5 consecutive years, will be to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of the power firms. Gordon Brown plans to use this money to support poor families that are under fire because of escalating fuel prices.

Texas businesses with fixed-price electricity deals expiring soon should not procrastinate renewing or finding a new energy supplier before their term price expires. To do so could expose businesses to wildly volatile electricity prices, the most expensive in the market. The reason is that many electric companies have fixed-priced contracts which automatically renew.

Electric companies say that most Texans switch their energy supplier in the third quarter of the year, after they receive their first summer bill for usage during June -- when air conditioning load and higher summer power prices give homeowners a heftier bill. With consumers being hit on all sides from record gasoline prices to rising food prices, homeowners can’t afford to wait until receiving that first high summer bill to seek out savings in the electric market.