I was reading about being able to choose your enery suppliers for electric and Natural gas.

Just wanted to know if anyone has any experience with any of the alternative suppliers?

 

Wondering if like most things they lure you in wtih low rates then stick it to you once your sighned up.

The site below offers lots of info, but didn't want to jump into it.

 

http://www.njelectri...lectric-choice/

 

thanks,

tonyj

I do know that the last time my parents switched gas and electric away from PSE&G, they ended up paying about 5% more than they would have had they stayed with PSE&G... Aside from that though, I don't know much.

My impression is that the third party energy providers are generally not a good deal.

plus it becomes next to impossible to do an apples to apples comparison.

I do find the NJ Clean Energy retail store online is a good source for subsidized CFL/LED bulbs and fixtures.

There also seems to be energy assistance for middle income folks available.

Not that I'm in favor of socialism but they're robbing us anyway, so you might as well take it before they do something dumb with the money.

I used Intelligent Energy as my provider for a number of years in my last house and saved on average about 7%on JCP&L over a 2 year period. I just signed up with Constellation Energy and now locked in at 9.5 cents/Kh as opposed to 11.5 cents/Kh with JCP&L so about a 15% savings right now. However you take the chance of paying the higher Kh charge if by some chance the price of energy decreases at JCP&L but quite frankly I don't see that happening.

You deal with the same people and incur no out of pocket expenses so it's a win win for me.

I forget who I signed up with, but they beat the snot out of JCP&L.

 

My rate for the electricity is lower by about 20% on the electric supply charge (not the delivery charge). They guaranteed my price for a year, and the way the law in NJ works means you can change whenever you want without penalty. I suspect I'll have to switch when my year is up to continue maximal savings, but I can say that one thing I was consistently seeing form JCP&L when I got the electricyt form them was that magically in summer, the last estimated bill before the summer rate increase would be and absurdly low estimate of my KWh used. Like lower than every other month in the year. Then when they upped the rate they'd do an actual meter reading and... amazingly coincidence... I suddenly have a bill almost double my actual usage at a higher rate. Worst year for that was what should have been two bills, one for about $240 and one for about $305 was high $600.

 

For me, it has been a painless experience, and in the first year should save me about $350 without factoring in meter reading shenanigans. Probably closer to $400 if I do. We'll see how year 2 goes.

 

BTW, the natural gas offers vs. PSE&G did not offer anything obviously beneficial.

I switched from JCP&L to Verde Energy and my electric bill went down noticeably! I also bitc*ed to JCP&L about my reading. I complained that I'd call the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for that kind of stunt (taking a high reading during peak rates). I got a new bill cause I gave them the reading they were too lazy to come and get themselves. One more thing that irks me is that you pay a monthly fee for them to just bill you, after they allegedly read your meter. So I told them if they don't read the meter evey month, they don't get paid to do it. I told them I can guess how much to send-in and just do it, and they can deduct the meter reading & billing fee! Now they come every month, even in the snow or when it's a 100 degrees out! Go figure?

Switched from PSE&G to North American Power.

Anybody heard anything negative about Viridian? I want to switch because they claim to be cheaper than pse&g and 20% will come from renewable energy... Thoughts? Opinions ?

Thanks for the interesting perspective.

I tried this over 10 years ago, I suspect electricity prices were being manipulated up by Enron.

Utility prices probably adjust slower to market conditions esp if their fuel mix is kind of fixed.

Nowadays, JCP&L probably uses coal and nuclear as their main fuels.

If you can get a deal from a supplier who generates from natural gas it could be a better deal.

Now if only we didn't have to subsidize the all the green energy nonsense.

What green energy nonsense?

Curious about veridian too. They keep showing up at my house trying to get me to switch. If they suck I will make thm go away forever

The money for solar panels comes out of a surcharge on your bills.

Estimated to cost NJ $6-7 billion over the next few years.

That's why it's nonsense...poor economics..buying panels from China when nat gas is at record low prices.

But that's Obama centrally planned economy for ya.

As long as his cronies get a taste it's all good.

And wind power is an even worse boondoggle than solar.