Many contracts from alternative vendors expire in the next month or two. Some, like the Brewingtons' WGES deal, automatically renew unless you cancel. Make sure you tell the outside supplier if you want to revert to BGE's standard fare.
Last year, people worried that BGE was buying high when it procured juice for June and beyond. But what was painfully expensive a few months ago is better than what is really, really expensive now.
Rising costs for natural gas, coal and other generation fuel have helped push wholesale electricity prices up 20 percent in recent months. But BGE's standard price for generation and transmission (the "price to compare" for shopping around) is going up only about 4 percent starting in June.
This summer, BGE's generation and transmission price will be about 11.8 cents per kilowatt hour, says Wayne Harbaugh, the company's manager of pricing and regulatory services, up from last summer's 11.39 cents. (You pay another 3.4 cents for delivery on top of that. Summer prices are typically higher than non-summer's.)
Meanwhile, WGES offered to renew the Brewington's contract for six months at 13.8 cents per kilowatt hour. (Five percent of the energy comes from wind and other "clean" sources.)
Commerce Energy will sell BGE households electricity for a year for 14.8 cents a kilowatt hour. Pepco Energy Services and WGES sell 100 percent wind-generated electricity for a little less than 16 cents per kilowatt hour. (To see a list of suppliers and prices, go to baltimoresun.com/hancockblog on the Web.)
BGE's prices won't last forever, of course. But the utility has bought all its electricity through September, 75 percent for the balance of the year and a substantial amount for next year. That'll hurt households if for some reason wholesale prices plunge (unlikely). But it'll help if prices stay high or go higher.
"Help" is a relative term, unfortunately. BGE households are paying something like 85 percent more for electricity than they were three years ago. BGE will be buying electricity for future years at probably even higher prices.
The wholesale electricity market, which has held Maryland hostage since deregulation allowed BGE to transfer its power plants to parent Constellation Energy, is rife with problems. It is conducted in secrecy. It gives Constellation a near monopoly in metro Baltimore. It inflates prices to pay for plants that never get built.
While policymakers figure out what to do, your only viable electricity choice seems to be to stick with the same old product. And use less of it.
jay.hancock@baltsun.com
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