In 2006, Carrollton, Texas was named one of America’s Top 100 Places to live by Relocate America and the 19th best place to live in the United States by Money magazine. In 2008, it achieved the honor again by Money as the 15th best place among small cities. Forbes rated Carrollton 12th among the 25 top places to move. The city is technically found in Dallas, Denton and Collin counties. The entire city is found within the Oncor electric utility territory, which is part of the Texas Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

ERCOT is recognized as many industry experts as the most successful electricity choice market in the World. Oncor is the largest utility within ERCOT, and is in charge of delivering power to all customers in the Dallas and Forth Worth area, reaching as far west as Odessa, and going all the way south to Round Rock located 15 miles North of Austin. While Carrollton electricity customers can choose between over 40 electricity companies to supply their electrity, Oncor is still solely responsible for power delivery in the city.

Carrollton, Texas owes much of its early success as a community to mills and railroads. The Dallas-Wichita Railroad came first, then was purchased by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. Then the St. Louis Southwestern Railway crossed the Missouri-Kansas-Texas making Carrollton a shipping center for agricultural products. After World War II the city began to boom. Then the city grew more rapidly in the 1970s when the suburban growth from North Dallas spilled into the town.

Carrollton, Texas has a humid subtropical climate. The warmest month on average is July where Carrolton residences often see their electric bills double from the mild spring months. The highest recorded temperature was 112F in 1980, the lowest was 1F in 1989. The most precipitation happens in May.

People ranging in age from 25 to 44 make up the highest demographic in the city, with ages 45 to 64 following close behind. Over 5,000 businesses call Carrollton home. In general, people working in Carrollton are working in industrial, medical/pharmaceutical and energy jobs. Halliburton employs over 1,300 people with the North American operations for Easywell. McKesson pharmaceutical company has over 800 employees. Thomson Reuters also has an office in Carrollton. The city also has the home offices of Motel 6, FASTSIGNS International, and Sandy Lake Amusement Park. The city plays host to over 1,000 acres of developed park land for all to enjoy.

Though Pennsylvania has had an active energy choice market for several years, only recently have customers living in the Meted utility service area seen the benefits. As a result of rising Meted generation and transmission rates, competitive electricity suppliers have started offering low electric prices to customers with properties in the Meted service area.

As the fourth largest power utility in Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Edison serves over a half million residential electricity customers, all of which are now able to shop and compare Met-Ed electricity rates in order to save money. Many competitive energy suppliers were slow to enter the Met-Ed market because the default rates in the area had been low over the past couple of years. This price environment did not allow for competitive rates to offer savings to Met-Ed consumers which is often needed in a newly deregulated market in order to stimulate shopping. With the default rate recently increasing and competitive power rates dropping, the opportunity for competitive electricity suppliers has finally arrived and the result has been lower Met-Ed electric bills for consumers who take the time to power shop.

Current competitive electricity rates are providing significant savings to Met-Ed residential electricity customers. The switching process in Met-Ed simply requires a consumer to choose a competitive electric rate and enroll either online or by phone. Once the switch request is in you can expect the new electric rate to kick in at the next available scheduled meter read date. After that you simply get your Met-Ed electric bill as usual with the competitive electric rate replacing the Met-Ed default price to compare rate.

On June 1, 2013 Pennsylvania Power & Light customers who have remained on the electric default rate got a significant rate increase that will show up when these consumers receive their electric bills in July. The PP&L price to compare rate jumped from 7.4 cents to 8.227 cents as calendar pages turned from May to June. PP&L electric rates have been very volatile since the start of Pennsylvania electricity choice. At times competitive rates have showed savings as high as 25% versus the PPL price to compare, while in recent months few competitive suppliers were able to offer savings versus the default price.

The PP&L price to compare is the default rate consumers pay for generation and transmission charges who do not shop for competitive power. The price changes every three months and is often very difficult to predict. Even when PP&L does post an estimated price to compare for the next three month period it has proved to not be an accurate forecast. The majority of PPL customers who have done an electricity switch and who are buying their power from an alternative supplier do so because of the savings they get at that specific time period. However, for more customers the benefits of electricity choice is becoming just as much about price security and certainty as the instant savings. Consumers who locked in fixed electric rates last fall to save money during that time may have been slightly disappointed when PPL announced a default rate reduction from March through May of this year. However now they are saving money once again when electric bills will be at a premium in the hot summer months. These customers do not have to be concerned with this PPL rate hike or the potential of another one in three months since they locked in a low fixed electricity rate.

As of May 29, 2013 over 527,000 residential PP&L electricity customers are purchasing their power from competitive energy companies. This number actually decreased slightly from the all time high achieved in March of 2013 due to the low PPL default rates over the last several months. With the recent rate hike in effect that number is expected to grow. With 42.8% of the residential class active in electricity shopping the idea of electric choice in Pennsylvania is no longer a foreign idea. The market has become once of the most competitive energy choice markets in the country with new suppliers entering almost every month offering low electricity prices and sometimes additional incentives.

Current competitive PP&L electricity prices can be found below.