(no subject)

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

One more point -- several things I wrote in the prior post assume that you have the "fixed for 6 months" option selected in your NSTAR preferences. I'm guessing that's the default because I don't recall making a choice. The other option is to allow your rate to vary each month.

In either case, NSTAR does rate-shopping for its customers and tries to deliver the best rate available on the market whenever it buys electricity. If you have the 6-month option sometimes you'll pay less for a while after the market goes up, other times you'll pay more for a while after the market goes down, so it should be a wash in the long run compared to the 1-month option. (Though if you're going to change to the 1-month, right after you feel a big rate-hike would be the best time to do it.)

The benefit I see of having the 1-month option would be that you're helping make the market more fluid and competitive, which is good for customers. Utilities able to offer a lower rate would get rewarded more quickly, and when the cost of doing business goes up (like recently), higher rates will more quickly create an incentive to create more supply. (Such as existing utilities starting to offer residential service.)

Just remember to focus on the kwh consumed part of your bill to understand your own usage patterns, rather than the dollar bottom line.

Comments

[twe.livejournal.com]

Do note that the fine print says that if you switch from the 6 month fixed to the variable rate in the middle of a 6 month period, they recalculate what you would have paid for the previous months, and adjust your bill accordingly. (Presumably to prevent people from doing the obvious gaming of the system: using fixed when it's cheaper than variable, and then switching to variable when it's cheaper than fixed. They do have the variable rates posted per month for Jan-June too.)

Thanks for the info on the indepentdent providers.