my electric bill tripled

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so you are happy with the benefit of cheap elecrticity when energy costs are low but complain when raw costs skyrocket due to exceptionally cold weather and your bill goes up with those costs ...............

Perhaps you would be better to go with a fixed price deal ?
 
Mine is about the same. Last month I paid $132.00 and December was even less at $108.00, but mostly because we were able to just leave the windows open.
 
ancona said:
Mine is about the same. Last month I paid $132.00 and December was even less at $108.00, but mostly because we were able to just leave the windows open.
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Mine is about one third of what it is in the summer (thanks wood-stove) but there are six of us living here. Summers are brutal though.
 
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Apparently you were expecting a free lunch when you signed up for the variable rate payment plan. Now you don't like paying for the free lunch that you expected.

mmerlinn said:
When you try to get something for nothing, you often get nothing for something.
Click to expand...
 
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I used 352 kilo watts- that should be the most for the year- as it is mostly the furnace blowing.

I called everywhere.

I am mad that they can not switch me TODAY. I even called about getting help in that- the furnace - wont heat with out the electric- the thing is- I would have to actually be late with the bill.

I see the newer rate is .149 a kilo watt- so that is not too terribly bad.
 
AG’s Office Investigating Electric Bill Hikes
Posted on: 6:02 pm, February 26, 2014, by Dave Bohman, updated on: 12:59pm, February 27, 2014
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Thousands who thought they could save money on electricity got a jolt last month, when rates from secondary electricity suppliers doubled or even tripled.
Since we first told you about the prices last week, hundreds of you called and claimed the rate hikes were unfair.
Now Pennsylvania’s Attorney General agrees.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is looking to see if any laws were broken when these secondary energy suppliers sent out record high bills to their customers this month.
These customers have variable rates and thought they were saving a few bucks when they signed up with companies as alternatives to PPL.
One Hazleton man’s January electric bill doubled.
An Abington Township man’s January bill tripled.
And when Lon Singer of Williamsport opened his monthly electric bill from American Power and Gas, “the rate was atrocious.”
A rate that almost quadrupled.
“Normally, it’s around $300 dollars, somewhere in that range. It was $1,200,” Singer said.
Singer is a customer of one of more than 40 secondary electric suppliers in our state.
Many promised monthly savings to those who switched from PPL. But sustained cold weather increased electric use in the region forcing many suppliers to pay higher costs. Costs companies passed directly on to customers with variable electric rates.
In Pennsylvania, variable rates mean no cap on how much suppliers can charge.
“The company said they couldn’t do anything for me, it’s just what it was, it’s a variable rate. I said I didn’t realize you could charge something like that,” said Singer.
In a statement released on Wednesday, attorney general Kathleen Kane called the rate hikes, “alarming,” adding, “we are looking at these price increases and will be prepared to take action to protect affected consumers.”
Kane notes that Governor Corbett declared a state of emergency February 5, and that the practice of price gouging is illegal.
Lon Singer isn’t sure if homeowners like him are crime victims but he feels like he was robbed.
“It hurts. I wasn’t expecting something like that. I was expecting something a little bit higher, but not three and a half times.”
The Attorney General’s office is asking consumers to file complaints with its consumer affairs office and to send the office marketing materials, bills, contracts, terms and conditions, and sign up and welcome letters.
For more on how to get your material into the hands of investigators from the Attorney General’s office, click here.
You can also call the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection hotline at 800-441-2555 for questions, help, and complaints.
 
Were you locked in on a contract rate (usually for a year)? I had that problem once when my yearly contract expired and I was floating on the monthly rate. The monthly rate can get jacked around. I called them and they reduced the bill with my agreement to another yearly contract. YMMV.
 
So- I complained to my state reps office- I may be getting a rebate of sorts. They are making a list.
 
Penn,
The problem can be that your supplier charges you "X" for power, but when it needs to send out more than it can produce, it must buy it from another supplier, often in another state. At that point, they pay the wholesale price plus a vig, then mark that up with profit and sell it to you. It's a dirty secret in their industry and they don't like to talk too much about it. In addition, there are aggregator companies that will buy up surplus power and re-sell it at a mark-up, when that happens your rates can jump significantly. the whole industry is incredibly ripe for shenanigans and rip-offs.

I live right up the road from the St. Lucie reactor, so our power is constant and steady, and the prices we pay rarely fluctuate, but up around Jacksonville they can and do bounce around depending upon total draw. It's worse in the peak summer months because of A/C use. Without A/C, Florida would only have about 100,000 permanent residents, and that would suit me just fine.
 
Its not that simple. We choose a power company like you choose a long distance phone co -now.

Even after Enron- PA bought into this scheme.

Long story short- the new supplier has a 2 year rate lock of .0849 - then you are changed about .04 to deliver it- a bunch of taxes and service fees.

The rate of IDT went from .10 + .265- yes we have choice now- but one when gotcha is in the game for 2 months- locked. There in lies the rub. Also they dont post what the rate is on any giving day.

They will have a hearing on this.... it has enough people upset.
 
I received a rebate check of $26

$66.29 is the current bill.
 
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