Texas Electric Bill On The Rise

If you are living in Texas and have noticed in recent months that your monthly electric bill has become higher, it may be time to start looking for a new electricity contract.  The reason for the recent upswing in your electricity bill may very well be due to the fact that your old electricity rate contract has expired.

The Texas electricity market is the most active deregulated electric market in the country.  However, what many Texas electric rate payers do not understand is what happens in many cases to their rates when their electric contract expires.

Usually a person will sign a fixed rate electric contract for a set term, for example twelve months.  When the contract expires, the electricity company chosen by the customer will continue to service the customer usually on a marked up rate.  The longer you go without signing a new contract, the greater the chance your rate will continue to rise.

Electricity customers have thousands of “rolling customers” on their books.   Rolling customers are customers who have expired contracts.  The electricity company continues to serve the customer but instead of charging a fixed rate, they are able to charge almost anything they want, as stipulated in the original contract.  At the point it become a game of economics for the electricity company.  They try to determine what the maximum rate is that they can get away charging you before you will look for a new competitive rate.

Right now electricity rates are very low.  If you are paying over 10 cents per kilowatt hour you should look into securing a lower fixed rate.  Champion Energy is offering low fixed electric rates below 9 cents for customers in Texas.

Recently, we helped customers who were previously with TXU get off of rates as high as 15 cents transferred onto fixed rates of 8.6 cents, a 43 percent savings; all because the customers had gotten “comfortable” with TXU who raised their rates over time to well above the current competitive electric rates.