Worried about the 50 percent price increase for BGE electricity that took effect June 1? Here's where to buy juice for less - and save maybe $200 a year or more.
It's not from alternative vendors such as Commerce Energy or Washington Gas Energy Services. Their offerings are even more expensive than BGE's standard household product these days.
Instead, the best deal comes from Baltimore Gas and Electric itself.
But there's a catch. You have to use electricity late at night or on weekends and holidays.
Starting this month, BGE has increased the discounts available on weekend electricity and on weekday nighttime use, partly correcting a problem that began a year ago.
Although the electricity market is riddled with problems, transferring consumption to such "off-peak" periods offers households at least one tactic besides cutting total use to reduce the pain of the price increase.
And it might help avoid brownouts, blackouts and higher future costs associated with building generators to meet peak weekday demand.
It's hardly a midnight madness sale. But until October, the 90,000 households on BGE's "time of use" plan will save 22 percent on kilowatts burnt from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., compared with the round-the-clock rate that most people pay. From October through May such clients will get discounts of 11 percent, with the cheapest juice starting to flow at 9 p.m. instead of 11 p.m.
As mentioned, such reductions apply 24 hours a day on weekends and holidays, too.
(I'm measuring savings as a portion of the combined BGE electricity supply and delivery charges. I'm not including an extra service charge of $4.50 a month for time-of-use customers because it's largely offset by a lower delivery charge. For a breakdown of all costs by season and time of day, see my blog at: baltimoresun.com/hancockblog.)
BGE's time-of-use plan also offers summertime discounts for "intermediate" periods between peak and off-peak. From June through September, intermediate savings (weekdays 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) are 13 percent off the price that non-time-of-use customers pay.
It's far from being a silver bullet, however. Households have to sign up for time of use (410-685-0123), commit for a year and operate appliances during discount hours to make it pay off.
One downside is that people who take advantage of cheaper after-hours juice pay more for some weekday electricity than regular customers - 35 percent more in summertime. For non-summer months, even intermediate hours (weekdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) are slightly more expensive.
