PECO energy announced earlier this month that residential electric rates for their customers will increase on April 1, 2011 to 10.16 cents per KWh.  Customers in PECO energy territory recently experience rate hikes to 9.92 cents on January 1 when capped electric rates were lifted and the area became a fully competitive electric market.

With capped rates now lifted, PECO energy will adjust their electric rates for their residential customers every three months.  The rates will be based on the market prices.  It is important for people living in Pennsylvania to understand just how quick electric prices can increase.  There are roughly 1.4 million electricity customers in the PECO area who are now facing electric choice for the first time.

Customers should consider locking in rates so that they do not face the surprise of their electric bill doubling or even tripling in the summer months.  That is precisely what happened to many Texas electricity customers in July and August of 2008 when electricity prices tripled in just a few months, right in time for the summer peak electricity demand season.

There are over a dozen electric rate options for PECO customers looking to compare electric offers.  It is recommended that customers choose a fixed rate to protect themselves from potential increases.

Residential electricity customers of the New Jersey utility company Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) are receiving competitive offers for the first time.

Though JCP&L has had a deregulated retail energy market for several years, electricity companies were slow to enter the market due to low JCP&L electric default rates.  JCPL sets their default rates for their roughly 972,000 electric residential customers by holding an auction the previous year.  Between 2004 and 2008 energy prices were in a consistent upswing.  This made it difficult for competitive electric companies to offer discounted rates as they were always buying in a market where the price was higher than the default rates established in previous months.

With a general downturn in electricity prices in 2010, competitive electric companies are finally able to offer residential customers attractive electricity offers.

As competition has increased in the JCPL market some electricity companies have focused their marketing efforts on promotions and sign-up bonuses.

Fixed rate offers for terms as little as 4 months and as high as 24 months with a $75 gift card can be found here.

Variable month to month rates with a $50 cashback bonus can be found here.

Fixed electric rates will protect customers from JCPL electric rate increases that are expected to occur on June 1, 2011.

As electricity deregulation markets have matured around the country over the last several years, electric suppliers have gotten tricky on how they present their offers on contracts.  In short, the energy supply charge should include several components including the energy commodity, capacity, line losses, ancillary charges, and sometimes transmission charges depending on your specific market.   Many suppliers will show a rate that just includes the energy commodity charge, and then pass on the extra charges through another category on the bill.

Why do they do this?

Simply put, they do this to make their rate look lower than their competitors.  For example, one supplier might give a rate that includes everything for 7.5 cents.  Another supplier might give a rate that just includes energy commodity for 6 cents.  At first the 6 cent offer appears to be great.  However, when you get the bill you will see a line for the 6 cent charge followed by an additional section that has another 3 cents for all of the addition charges.  So in the end, that 6 cents is really 9 cents.

How do they get away with this?

It is all in the electricity contract!

It is extremely important to take the time to review all electricity contract offers to ensure that you are getting a true apples to apples comparison.

One of the reasons ElectricityWatch.org was set up was because I went through such a deceitful practice.  I signed an electricity contract for a fixed rate of 7 cents when in reality I ended up paying 8-9 cents per month.  During this time I could have paid a fixed rate of 6.65 cents.

Though everything is in the contract, many electricity companies have gotten very smart as to how they word their electric contracts so that the consumer overlooks important factors relating to the rate.  If you would like us to review your business electric contract, feel free to post a comment with the request and we will contact you to do so.

Keep in mind this is for business electricity customers.  Residential customers are protected by their state utility commissions from such practices.  Businesses, however, are expected to do their own due diligence.

PECO electric customers are now able to shop  for better rates from alternative electricity companies, but are the prices better?

Some offers in the PECO territory are coming below the PECO default rate, known as the price to compare.  The PECO price to compare is the rate that PECO charges their customers who do not shop the competitive market for alternative electric options.  The price to compare rates are determined by a series of auctions that PECO facilitated in 2010.

The price to compare rates will change every quarter as PECO scheduled additional auctions in 2011 for a percentage of the default service users.  Due to this fact, it is important for PECO energy customers to think not just about what their current default electric rate is, but what it will be, especially in the summer when electricity use is at its peak.

Some customers in the PECO area are locking in long term fixed rates to protect themselves from potential future increases.

In addition to savings, customers can find promotion offers like the $50 gift card above from some electric suppliers, here are some popular choices with great rates.

Other companies are offering variable electric rates that are showing initial savings off of the PECO price to compare rate.  Though it is important for consumers to watch those variable rates closely as they can go up at any time.