“Everything is bigger in Texas”, but that doesn’t mean your electric bill has to be! Deregulated energy in Texas means that you get to choose as a consumer who you wish to provide your service. This means competitive rates are just a click or contract away. Locating the right electricity plan for your home or business can be a daunting task. Fortunately, with Energy Outlet, we make it much simpler. Of course, many may just choose the lowest rate, but as you’ve likely learned, there are often requirements that wind up making these seemingly beneficial choices, counter-intuitive later down the road.
Rather than just taking others’ words for it, we want to break down some of the common terms that will make energy terms easier for you to understand, allowing you to make an educated decision that works with your unique energy usage and estimated expenses. If you are looking for great Reliant Energy Plans, shop here at Energy Outlet for exclusive deals to save on energy./p>
Let’s Talk Rates
There are several different rate plans that one must choose from. These rates will not just include your usage at a minimum, but also a variety of utility fees and deregulated energy supply rates. Typically, these rates are based off of changes or assumptions of the often-changing price of energy. Having a strong idea of what your monthly budget will look like is important as it will help you identify which rates will be easiest for you to either maintain consistently or manage with fluctuations.
Fixed-Rate Plans or Stable-Rate Plans
As the name suggests, fixed rates are set rates that stay consistent during the duration of a term or contract of service. If you choose a pre-determined rate per kWh used, you can easily determine what you’ll use and pay for monthly. Whether the market deals with increases or decreases, your rates will stay the same. While this can be beneficial during months of higher energy rates, it also means you’ll be paying the same amount, even when wholesale prices drop overall. This may be ideal for those who want to secure a consistent rate to budget monthly. Even if it costs a bit more for the peace of mind.
Flat-Rate Plans
Here, the plans are the most consistent for the consumer to budget each month. The same price is due come billing date for whatever the amount of energy used is. Oftentimes, a provider may want to have access to previous usage to determine if this plan is a good fit for both you and them. Do be mindful of this and read any fine print as it is still possible that you could be charged for going over an allotted usage that was agreed upon via contract.
Time-of-Use Rates
These plans allow customers to choose different plans based on the time of the day or even week that they intend to have the most usage. Oftentimes referred to as on-peak and off-peak hours or similar, deregulated energy users can sometimes manage their costs by doing certain energy-heavy tasks like washing clothes and dishes, during hours or days when rates are cheaper for a duration of time.
Variable-Rate Plans
These irregular rates can allow deregulated energy consumers to benefit from possible market lows of energy costs. However, with ever-evolving rates also comes irregular payments due at time of billing. For instance, if energy has a spike in cost, you can expect to pay a rate that supports such change.
Indexed Rates
These can be a bit more difficult to understand and plan for. Not only can these rates adjust like the above-listed variable rates, but they also are subject to a method tied to a commodity index. Before venturing down this path, consider discussing thoroughly to ensure your budget can accommodate both the formula and its varying rates.
Beyond rates and plans, there is also the length of service to consider. Here, we briefly describe these and what you can expect.
Fixed-rate:
This allows for security and consistency, offering a rate that is permanent and unchanging.
Multi-year:
For those who are a fan of consistent pricing and looking to stay in their residential area for years on end, this is a good option to ensure your rate stays the same throughout the years you are in the community and with the provider, no matter the fluctuation in rates annually.
12-month plans:
As the name implies, these are great for those 1-year leases and for those who prefer the same price during that calendar or fiscal year in the home or office.
Monthly plans:
Whether it is quarterly or bi-annual, some people prefer to try a rate for the first 3 to 6 months. This gives you time to adjust, shop around and compare rates others have signed up for while still offering you time to reconsider yours should you decide to stay longer in your residence or place of business.
Shopping for electric plans can be confusing and difficult. Our goal is to make it easier to find the lowest deregulated energy rates so you are saving time and money.
