Okay, it looks like it might be time for 'Shopping for Electricity in Texas 101' Others please fill in the gaps, I'm tying fast and more listening to my 5 year old chatter in my ear
First, the Cliff Notes. Electricity in TX is deregulated, meaning you can do anything from buy wholesale and pay market rate to going simple retail and pay whatever your power company charges. We know that part, so lets move on.
I'm going to skip wholesale plans (aka Griddy) entirely, and only focus on retail plans (aka Reliant, Constellation, DiscountPowerTX, Gexa, etc.). Everyone needs to first understand the basic components of your electric bill:
1. How much it costs to get the power to you. AKA the "delivery charge." This is a variable amount, but it is mostly constant and regulated so it won't change much. In most cases it's going to be between 3 and 4 cents per kWh. plus an additional flat monthly fee of like 5 to 10 bucks or so.
2. How much the government wants. Taxes. Pretty self explanatory.
3. Profit (and risk). AKA the "energy charge." This is how much your retail provider adds to the bill to cover their expenses, cover the spikes in wholesale energy costs, the wife's cosmetic work and trips to the Caribbean. This can be a simple amount per kWh, or be a tricky as hell set of pricing rules.
The piece you want to look at is the provider's EFL - Energy Facts Label. They will spell out exactly how your bill will be calculated. Sometimes the tricky plans can pay off. For example, I used to be on a plan that had "tiered pricing" where if I used at least 1000kWh, I got an $85 bill credit. While the price per kWh was a little higher than some other plans, for part of the year my usage fell between ~1100 and ~1800 kWh and I saved a bunch of money. In the higher use summers (~2600kWh) I paid about the same as the other plans, maybe 20 bucks or so higher. That plan went away, and now I'm on a "flat" plan, with no tiers or discounts. I pay the "TDU pass-through" from #1 in the above list, and 4.7 cents for #3. Adding the Centerpoint delivery charge of $0.034168/kWh + $0.047 makes my bill $0.08168/kWh + $5.47/mo. (plus taxes).
https://powertochoose.org is a good start to find plans, but there's more out there than what is on their site. The plans change all the time too, in fact I just went there and found a plan better than the one I'm on - 3.9 cents/kWh + TDU. I probably should do the math and see how much I'd save, and whether it'd be worth paying the $50 early termination fee. Probably is. Generally plans will be cheapest going into fall and into early spring.
WTF
