Switch Power feed - Can this legally be done?

There is only one set of wires, and only one company provides delivery.

The bill has separate supply/energy and delivery charges. You can pick different companies for the supply portion of the bill.

You only have choice for the supply/energy charges.

There used to be a company called Griddy. You would pay a small monthly fee, and then just the wholesale price for electricity, with zero hedging. Sometimes the wholesale price would go negative and you would actually get a supply credit for using electricity. You would still pay the delivery charge, so the cost per kWH was positive.

The company folded after the ice storm a few years back when wholesale rates pegged at $9/kWH and their customers didn't know how to handle this. IMHO it was a great deal and a great idea if you were able to turn off your electricity in response to the high prices
 
There is only one set of wires, and only one company provides delivery.

Doesn’t work like that. It’s like choosing a cell provider. They all use the same carrier and towers.

Power providers buy power on the open market then bill you and use the local power company’s facilities and distribution to get it to you.

Sometimes they can actually do it for less than your local power company too. :ROFLMAO:

-Hal
 
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Ok, I am in Western MA, and here my electricity bill has two portions, the 'supply' portion and the 'delivery' portion. For me, the 'delivery' portion is _always_ Eversource. I can pick the company that sets the 'supply' rates.

Eversource provides the wires, Eversource owns the meters, Eversource handles the billing, and I _aways_ have to pay Eversource delivery rates. If I pick a different company for 'supply', then Eversource handles passing the money on to them.

I think much of Texas uses a similar setup. One company handles carrying the electricity to the customer and handles the billing, but you can pick different energy suppliers.

I am certain this is different in different locations, and there might be places where the customer contracts with the 'independent' power company and that 'independent' company handles the billing and pays the local company that handles the final wires to the home. @hbiss, can you point to the company that works this way?

-Jonathan
 
LarryFine said:
Doesn't the cheapest 'supply' company get the most customers?
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No, for many reasons.

Inertia will leave many people with the legacy supply company.

Some supply companies are honestly different, and are thus cheaper for different users. One supply company may have time of day pricing (this sounds like the OP's case). Or the supply company might provide some 'social value' such as charging extra for 'renewable' electricity (if they actually change the generation mix vs just green washing would be a whole separate thread that would quickly get locked, so let's not go down that path. The relevance to this discussion is that such companies exist.) There was Griddy, which IMHO was a great idea but required sophisticated consumption and was marketed to people who didn't understand the downside risk.

Then you have companies who play games to simply hide costs, using teaser rates to get people to switch and hoping they won't switch back.
 
winnie said:
I am certain this is different in different locations, and there might be places where the customer contracts with the 'independent' power company and that 'independent' company handles the billing and pays the local company that handles the final wires to the home. @hbiss, can you point to the company that works this way?
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I have never examined any customer's billing looking for that. I'm sure you are right. All I know is I personally stay with my local provider. All those independent suppliers are just because the government allows them to operate. I don't trust them.

-Hal
 
For most of Texas delivery is by Encor. The state provides a web site, powertochoose.org, that lists all of the energy vendors. I have 141 different plans available from 39 vendors. The vendors do the billing here. Picking the best plan pretty much is like throwing darts because of all the different gimmicks.
 
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