Reduce Your Electric Costs

Paul Schnitman

This article should be important to you if you want to reduce your electric bill. In Texas, we have the right to choose which electric provider we use, unless you are in an area serviced by an electric Co-op. Electricity is provided by certain companies in the area you live in. However, you purchase your electricity through an “electric provider”. The rates these providers offer vary greatly. In Texas, you can go to www.powertochoose.org, enter your zipcode, click “View Results” and find all the electric providers for you area.

The list is overwhelming, so I will offer these tips:

  1. Narrow the search by entering how much your Estimated Use is on the left panel. You can obtain that information from your monthly bills. You can usually login in to your current provider’s website and seem graphs by month of your usage.
  2. Also, enter in the Contract Length to 12 to 24 months
  3. Make sure “Fixed Rate” and “Show All Plans” are checked
  4. Under Company Scores, click the top one only. Then click REFRESH RESULTS
  5. Then change the VIEW to SEE ALL at the top left of the results
  6. The results are generally sorted by PRICE/KWH.
  7. You will notice that there are 3 different prices based on your KWH (kilowatt per hour) usage. Some will have the highest rate with the lowest usage, and others will have a lower rate for the lower usage. This is why it is important to know what is the range of your usage. It will be higher in the summer and winter months obviously, but you still need to know what your usage is in the fall and winter.
  8. Pay attention to the Cancellation fees and if they have a minimum usage. I also am not crazy about plans whose prices range dramatically based on usage.
  9. READ THE FACT SHEET.

This process takes time but can save you a lot of money per month. I recently switched from TXU to Source Power, and we will reduce our electric costs about 20%. Follow this process every time your contract renews. Pay attention to your contract expiration date. I think most providers will put that on your monthly bill. I put mine in my calendar to remind me a month before the contract expires.

It is extremely easy to switch companies online without ever talking to anyone.