That didn’t take long.
Electricity contracts for residential customers in Texas are getting more expensive as spikes in wholesale power prices during the extended stretch of triple-digit temperatures this summer filter down to the retail level.
Residential consumers who have renewed their fixed-rate electricity plans over the past three months are paying at least 20 percent more than than they did a year ago for the energy portion of their bill, according to comparison shopping websites and retail electric providers tracking prices.
The higher prices, in part, reflect an effort by retail electric providers to recover the costs of buying power on the wholesale power market when prices there surged as high as $9,000 per megawatt hour, the maximum allowed by state rules. The higher prices also reflect regulatory changes that paid power generators surcharges during peak demand periods when supplies are tight.
Those surcharges, approved by the state Public Utility Commission at the urging of the industry, helped drive wholesale prices more than 40 percent higher in the first eight months of the year, according to the wholesale power market’s independent monitor. Another surcharge is scheduled to go into effect early next year.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Businesses get big break on electricity transmission fees while consumers pay more
Texas Power Guide, a comparison shopping tool in Houston, reported that consumers who have renewed their fixed-rate electricity plans over the past few months are paying nearly 24 percent more for the energy portion of their bill. The website examined the five cheapest plans for 1,000 kilowatt hours per month on the state-sponsored shopping site Power to Choose and found the average energy rate, about 4 cents per kilowatt hour, increased 1.1 cents to more than 5 cents per kilowatt hour over a three-month span.
Consequently, the average cheapest rate for a one-year fixed-rate plan has increased to 10.3 cents per kilowatt hour in November, up from 8.6 cents per kilowatt hour in August, according the Texas Power Guide. The all-in price includes transmission and distribution fees, which for customers in the Houston area increased on Sept. 1.
Consumers in the middle of a contract, of course, won’t see higher prices until the they renew or switch providers, analysts said.
More coming
The higher prices also reflect an effort by retail power sellers to prepare for what looks to be another round of high prices next summer, said Fred Anders, founder of the Texas Power Guide. With an additional surcharge paid to generators taking effect next year, futures contracts that retail electric companies are buying to secure power for June, July and August of next year cost more — costs that some already are passing onto customers.
“I keep looking for these forward 2020 summer prices to come down a little but they just haven’t,” said Joshua Pesikoff, chief executive officer of the retail electric provider Infuse Energy in Houston.
The Public Utility Commission said it is keeping an eye on 12-month fixed prices as part of the agency’s oversight over the wholesale and retail electric market.
“In any market prices will fluctuate down and up,” said commission spokesman Mike Hoke. “We expect that.”
Real Simple Energy, a Houston-based website that allows consumers to search for the cheapest electricity plans, agreed that the higher costs of futures contracts are contributing to higher retail prices.
At the moment, the single best rate for a fixed, 12-month plan is about 9.7 cents per kilowatt hour compared to about 8.6 cents per kilowatt hour during the heat wave in August, an increase of nearly 13 percent, said Trent Crow, a former JP Morgan energy trader and founder of Real Simple Energy. The price includes transmission and distribution utility charges.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Analysis: The murky and confusing Texas electricity market
Month-to-month
Month-to-month rates appear to be rising even faster than fixed rate contracts, he said. Households that don’t sign up for fixed-rate contracts or let them lapse are charged rates that fluctuate each month and are typically higher than those in long-term contracts.
Texas residential consumers who are on month-to-month rates represent as much as 30 percent of the residential electricity market and typically pay about twice as much as what their neighbors pay for fixed-rate contracts, according to Real Simple Energy.
lynn.sixel@chron.com
twitter.com/lmsixel
"price" - Google News
November 21, 2019 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/336f57P
Summer price spikes reaching residential bills - Houston Chronicle
"price" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WuCIFv
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
Am short of words for the amazing profit you helped me earn in just a week with binary options strategy am so sorry I doubted at the beginning, I invested $200 and earn $2,500 in just one week, and kept on investing more, today I am financially successful, you can contact him via Email: (tdameritrade077@gmail.com) whatsapp(+447883246472) I advice you shouldn't hesitate. He's great.
ReplyDelete